Final Exam Study Guide

Final Exam Study Guide, last updated March 16, 2007.
NOTE: This is the final version of the study guide. This study guide has the same content as the one posted on March 9, 2007, except for one change change to Essay Question #3 re city-regions (i.e., per discussion during our in-class reveiw session on March 15th, we decided to remove the parenthetically listed author names and dates from the body of the essay).

The exam will be composed of multiple choice, definitions, short answers, and an essay question. Below are the values to be assigned to each section with the instructions exactly as they will appear on the final exam.

I. MULTIPLE CHOICE (10 @ 1 points = 10%)
Select the letter of the correct answer. Place your answers in your blue book.

II. DEFINITIONS (3 @ 10 points = 30%)
Pick three out of the six key terms listed below. For each of your three choices, (a) define the term, (b) provide one specific illustration or example of the term, and (c) list one related reference, other than the State of the World's Cities book, of an article or book we examined in USP2. Each reference should include an author name, year and title of the publication. The reference you cite should clearly relate to the type of illustration or example you give for the selected term. In other words, in providing your specific illustration or example, incorporate into your paragraph a USP2 reference where one could learn more about that type of illustration or example. Use complete sentences. [NOTE: the terms in italics are there to help jar your memory, you can use one or more of the terms in italics in your definition, or you can use some other illustration or example of your own choosing].

III. SHORT ANSWERS (2 @ 15 points = 30%)
Pick two out of the FOUR questions listed below. For each question be sure to include reference to at least TWO readings in USP2 (the reference cited in the question itself doesn’t count; each reference should include an author name, year and title of the publication). Don't use any one particular reference more than once. In other words, the tally for both short answer questions combined should be four unique references. Use complete sentences (don't simply list the references at the end of your short anwser, incorporate them into the body of your answer).

IV. ESSAY QUESTIONS (1 @ 30 points = 30%)
Answer one out of the three questions listed below. For each essay be sure to include reference to at least TWO readings in USP2. The reference cited in the question itself doesn’t count; each reference should include an author name, year and title of the publication (don't simply list the references at the end of your essay, incorporate them into the body of your essay).

Note: Although the exam period is three hours long, we have designed the final exam to be completed in two hours or less.

I. MULTIPLE CHOICE (10 @ 1 point = 10%)

The multiple choice questions will be taken from the details and concepts listed in this section of the study guide.

The Health and Hunger in Slums

There is a large and growing gap between the health status of high-income urban residents and those living in poverty at the margins of society.
Poor living conditions contribute to a host of diseases and infections, such as diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, malaria and HIV/AIDS.
As of 2002, there were 815 million hungry people in the developing world.
In urban areas, the most significant factors contributing to hunger in developing countries are low incomes, inadequate access to basic services and poor living conditions.
In urban areas poor families may be forced to pay up to 70 to 80 percent of their disposable income to purchase food, leaving little money left to pay for non-food items, such as rent, school fees and transport.
In Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Nepal, and Niger, 4 out of 10 children in slums are malnourished-a proportion 20 times higher than that of developed countries.
Child mortality rates in developing countries are 10 times higher than those in the developed world.
Five diseases account for more than 50 percent of child deaths-pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, measles, and HIV/AIDS.
Only when governments develop health policies that address the needs of the most vulnerable populations do child mortality rates decline.
The living environment of slum children, in which they are exposed to contaminated water, soil, and air, is a more important determinant of whether or not a child will have diarrhea than the ability of his or her parents to afford health care.
Acute respiratory infections account for about 18 percent of deaths among children under 5.
Every year, 1.6 million people die from exposure to indoor air pollution, 1 million of which are children.
Diseases such as meningitis, childhood tuberculosis, and adult respiratory infections appear to be closely associated with overcrowding in deprived areas.
Poor ventilation and crowded living conditions predispose household members to respiratory and skin infections.

HIV/AIDS

HIV tends to be concentrated in larger cities.
The urban poor are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS in both developed and developing regions.
Economic hardship not only compounds women’s sexual vulnerability, but also is also associated with early sexual debut and pregnancy, extramarital sexual activity, and multiple sexual partners, all of which have serious implications for the spread of HIV.
Many poor urban women are resigned to using sex to meet their basic needs for food, shelter, and clothing.
High unemployment, low and unstable wages, small and congested living spaces, and fractured family and social relationships all contribute to the urban poor’s vulnerability, which forces them to resort to sexual behavior they might otherwise avoid.
The worst orphan crisis is in Africa, where 12 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS; many of these children end up on city streets, where their chances of escaping poverty are even lower.
AIDS threatens economic security and development because the disease primarily affects people in the prime of life, between the ages of 15 and 49.

Education and Employment

More than 500 million youth live on less than $2 a day.
113 million children are not enrolled in school and 130 million remain illiterate.
Families in slum communities often cannot afford to send their children to school because the combined costs of school fees, textbooks, and uniforms are prohibitive.
The majority of parents settling in slums postpone sending their children, especially girls, to school, until they are able to manage other expenses, such as food, rent and transport.
The common set of constraints to receiving basic education are: poverty, the embedded costs of education, shortage of school facilities, unsafe school environments (especially in poor urban neighborhoods), and cultural and social practices that discriminate against girls, including the requirement that they provide domestic labor, marry and have families at a young age, and limit their movement to proscribed areas.
More barriers to education exist for girls than for boys around the world.
In 2005, the United Nations Children’s Fund found that girls in 54 countries still did not have equal access to basic education.
Fewer than 10 percent of girls indicated that they had stopped attending school because they had graduated-the most common reasons were: lack of finances, early marriage and pregnancy, domestic work responsibilities, and poor performance.
Sexual harassment and abuse in schools further impact the dropout rate; parents are inclined to withdraw girls from school to prevent them from getting pregnant or contracting HIV.
Failure to provide adequate sanitary facilities, such as toilets and running water, causes inconvenience for boys, but can make the situation disastrous for girls; in many places, schools fail to provide separate facilities for boys and girls, putting girls at risk of sexual harassment.
Youth residing in slum areas are more likely to have a child, be married or head a household than their counterparts living in non-slum areas.
Job applicants from slum communities are less likely to be interviewed than their non-slum ounterparts
The majority of young people working in the urban informal sector live in slum areas.
When youth seeking full time work fail to find productive, decent livelihoods, they can become socially excluded and enter a cycle of poverty, experiencing high rates of unemployment across their lifespan.

Sustainable Cities

Cities that are unable to integrate economic growth with good planning and environmental care pollute the environment, contribute to the reduction of biodiversity, undermine the natural resource base, and increase the scale and depth of poverty.
Cities that do not recognize the impact of environmental problems on their poorest citizens, or the environmental costs of unplanned development, remain unsustainable.
The largest producer of greenhouse gas is the United States.
Urban outdoor air pollution, mainly from vehicle exhaust and industrial emissions, is responsible for the deaths of 3 million people around the world each year.
The burning of biomass releases toxic gases and compounds into the air, including carbon monoxide and methane, leading to a host of chronic respiratory diseases, lung cancer, and pneumonia in those exposed to the smoke and particulate matter.
Almost half of the world’s population depends on biomass fuels for their daily energy needs-wood, charcoal, crop residues and animal dung.
Every year 1.6 million people die from exposure to indoor air pollution, 1 million of which are children.
Adopting cleaner-burning charcoal briquettes made of recycled ash and agricultural waste, along with more modern cooking equipment, could prevent up to 2.8 million premature deaths each year.
Better urban infrastructure, pedestrian-friendly streets, and well planned transport systems that provide safe options for getting around the city are needed to curb the rise in traffic deaths.
Global traffic deaths rose from 990,000 per year in 1990 to 1.2 million per year in 2002, with 85 to 90 percent of the fatalities occurring in low and middle-income countries.
Many of the traffic related deaths are pedestrians.
Renewable technologies now provide 160 gigawatts of electricity generating capacity-approximately 4 percent of the world total!
Per capita, the urban poor in developing areas make vastly smaller resource demands, make much better use of those resources, and produce a much smaller pollution load than do their wealthier neighbors. Yet, they endure the greatest environmental risk as a consequence of the consumption patterns of higher income groups.

Natural Disasters

Substandard housing and construction practices, lack of infrastructure, absence of secure tenure, inappropriate land use and increasingly degraded environments leave large sections of the poorest communities chronically vulnerable.
75 percent of the world’s population lives in areas that were affected at least once by an earthquake, a tropical cyclone, floods or drought between 1980 and 2000.
Poor people in developing countries are particularly vulnerable to disasters because of where they live; they are more likely to occupy dangerous floodplains, river banks, steep slopes and reclaimed land, and their housing is less likely to survive a major disaster.
In the 1990s, natural disasters killed almost seven times more people in developing countries per event than in industrialized countries; an average of 44 people per event died in industrialized countries compared with 300 people per event in developing countries.
Economic losses worldwide from natural disasters in the 1990s could have been reduced by $280 billion if $40 billion had been invested in preventive measures.
The Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood in New Orleans-where more than 98 percent of the residents were African American and more than a third lived in poverty-was built on reclaimed cypress swamp, gradually drained and developed over the first half of the 20 th century.

Urban Insecurity

Globally more than 1.6 million people die as a result of violence every year.
Violence makes up at least 25 to 30 percent of urban crime and women, especially in developing countries, are twice as likely to be victims of violent aggression as men.
Crime and violence occur more frequently in settings where there is an unequal distribution of scarce resources or power coupled with weak institutional controls.
Large cities tend to display wider inequalities than smaller cities or towns.
The majority of criminal offences worldwide are committed by youth between the ages of 12 and 25, and is becoming increasingly violent.

Commitment to Slum Prevention and Improvement

Signs of commitment to slum prevention and improvement:

Political pronouncements (explicit signals for policy reform)
Long-term strategies with realistic national targets for slum improvement
Adequate budgetary allocations
A program of policy, legal and regulatory reforms
Consistency in political commitment
Inclusion of upgrading and urban poverty reduction policies in the national development agenda

The more established the local governance practices in a country, the more stable a country is in managing its slum growth rates.
Bottom-up approaches to governance should connect with top-down systems of decision-making.
Without meaningful decentralization and participation, it becomes harder to motivate municipal governments, civil society, and citizens to take more control over the processes that affect their material well-being and contribute to development.
Success is driven by following a two-pronged strategy

Scaling up improvements in existing slums
Planning well ahead to provide better, alternative solutions to avoid the spread of future slums.

The average global costs to upgrade settlements for 100 million slum dwellers and create modest homes for 700 million future slum dwellers is on average about $1800 per person, with governments paying $1090 and the beneficiaries meeting the remaining costs.
The key to achieving the millennium development goals are:

Benchmark the targets against the goals.
Ensure that the targets are bold enough to deal with the current shortfalls and are established in consultation with national governments and local stakeholders.

The international donor community has an important role in helping to develop sustainable financing mechanisms for slum upgrading and prevention that should be built on:

Harnessing and enhancing individual and community resources
Strengthening and reallocating finances of city and national governments to meet the needs of the urban poor, and the introduction of appropriate financial and non-financial public policy instruments
Promotion of access to domestic capital markets

OTHER DETAILS

There are now more than 300 city-regions around the world with populations greater than one million. At least twenty city-regions have populations in excess of ten million. By the year 2025, the number of cityregions in each of these size classes will probably have doubled. (Scott et al. 2001).

China had a population of 1.3 billion people in 2003; which is 22% of the global population. The World Bank estimates the China will add 18 million in urban population per year between 1990-2020; this would constitutes 39% of the worlds total urban population growth over the same period (source: Yin and Wang 2000).

On June 14, 1992, three landmark documents were adopted at the Earth Summit by consensus: the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, and the Statement of Principles on Forests. The Rio Declaration, makes "eradicating poverty a global goal, and adopts the notion that those who pollute--rich nations, mostly--should pay for the cleanup, then help poor countries improve their standards of living in environmentally sound ways" (Smith, Carey, Hong, 1992: 71). Agenda 21 is an 800 page document that specifically outlines over 120 initiatives to be put into motion between now and the year 2000. It includes measures to cut energy use, protect ocean resources, promote sustainable agriculture, and control toxic wastes.

In the book City-Region 2020, Ravetz (2000) outlines four elements of "sustainable governance"
(Principles of sustainability--an extension of the time-honoured principles of human rights and social justice):

*equity, or responsibility to present generations;
*futurity, or responsibility to future generations;
*ecology, or responsibility to other species;
* 'empowennent', or responsibility to communities and society. (Ravetz 2000: 254)

Cities and regions are being profoundly modified in their structure and growth by the interplay of several major historical processes including a technological revolution, the formation of a global economy, and the emergence of a new informational form of economic production and management.

One of the main arguments that Michael Moore makes in his video documentary, Roger and Me, is that the shift to a more open, unregulated economy in the U.S. is highly problematic. As he sees it, there is a serious contradiction between (hyper) capital mobility and prospects for healthy community development.

The new centrality of information processing results from a series of developments in the spheres of production, consumption, and state intervention.

According to the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), objectives for environment and development policies that follow from the concept of sustainable development include: speeding up growth, changing the quality of growth, and conserving and enhancing the resource base.

The concept of “global control capability” (as discussed during lecture) refers to the ability of a multinational corporation to manage its business on an international playing field.

According to Soja (1989), three paired relationships depict the underlying and often contradictory dynamic of contemporary urban and regional restructuring in the US. They include: (1) deindustrialization and reindustrialization, (2) geographic decentralization and recentralization, and (3) the peripheralization of labor and the internationalization of capital.

The Millennium Development Goals commit the international community to an expanded vision of development, one that vigorously promotes human development as the key to sustaining social and economic progress in all countries, and recognizes the importance of creating a global partnership for development. The goals have been commonly accepted as a framework for measuring development progress. There are eight of them:

1	Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger	5	Improve maternal health
2	Achieve universal primary education	6	Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
3	Promote gender equality and empower women	7	Ensure environmental sustainability
4	Reduce child mortality	8	Develop a global partnership for development

II. DEFINITIONS (3 @ 10 points = 30%)
Pick three out of the six key terms listed below. For each of your three choices, (a) define the term, (b) provide one specific illustration or example of the term, and (c) list one related reference, other than the State of the World's Cities book, of an article or book we examined in USP2. Each reference should include an author name, year and title of the publication. The reference you cite should clearly relate to the type of illustration or example you give for the selected term. In other words, in providing your specific illustration or example, incorporate into your paragraph a USP2 reference where one could learn more about that type of illustration or example. Use complete sentences. [NOTE: the terms in italics are there to help jar your memory, you can use one or more of the terms in italics in your definition, or you can use some other illustration or example of your own choosing].

Note: On the exam, only 6 of the 20 terms below will be listed. The stuff in italics is there to give ideas for your definition's example or illustration. NOTE: the terms in italics will be on the exam to help jar your memory.

Governance (globalization influences, civil society's role, transparency issues, urban planning relationship)
Untraded interdependencies (role in competiveness, as a dimension of clusters )
Metropolitanization (globalization relationship, governance issues, drivers of the metropolitan regionalism, urban planning relationship)
Civil society (growth of, governance role, in urban planning)
Urban planning (innovative, for sustainability)
New Regionalism (emphasis on city-region scale planning in San Diego)
Sustainability science (role of universities such as UCSD, role of collaboration)
New Urbanism (emphasis on urban design, city-neighborhood scale of analsis)
Global Planning Educators Interest Group (example of project)
City-Region (San Diego-Tijuana, distribution worldwide)
Fortress cities and the architecture of fear (gated communities, border fences)
Agenda 21 (strategies, agencies advocating it)
Millennium Development Goal (list one of the goals, agencies involved)
Peak Oil (research involved, level of awareness, role of technology)
Global mindedness (use yourself as an illustration --do you have it, how so?)
Knowledge action collaboratives (the Regional Workbench Consortium/ RWBC)
Industrial ecology (Bio Dry Fish Waste Processing Facility, Kodiak, Alaska)
Regional Planning (in San Diego, powers of, institutional forms)
Subsidiarity (contrast to residuarity)
Residuarity (contrast to subsidiarity)

III. SHORT ANSWERS (2 @ 15 points = 30%)
Pick two out of the FOUR questions listed below. For each question be sure to include reference to at least TWO readings in USP2 (the reference cited in the question itself doesn’t count; each reference should include an author name, year and title of the publication). Don't use any one particular reference more than once. In other words, the tally for both short answer questions combined should be four unique references. Use complete sentences (don't simply list the references at the end of your short anwser, incorporate them into the body of your answer).

Note: On the exam, only FOUR of the following 7 short answer questions below will be listed.

1. O'Connor argues that capitalism embodies two serious contradictions: (1) "internal" or first contradiction (related to demand) and (2) a second contradiction (stemming from a cost-side profit squeeze). Define each and give an example. http://regionalworkbench.org/USP2/week6.htm#gl

2. According to Hawken, Lovins and Lovins (1999) how does CAPITALISM AS IF LIVING SYSTEMS MATTERED compare to CONVENTIONAL CAPITALISM? Be specific (list at least three bullet points, as outlined by Hawken, Lovins and Lovins, for each of these two headings). http://regionalworkbench.org/USP2/week6.htm#h

3. In Our Common Journey (NRC 1999), the National Research Council identifies a number of priorities for advancing the research agenda of "sustainability science" (provide a quick synopsis of their main point for each):

(i). Integrating global, national, and local institutions into effective research systems
(ii.). Linking academia, government, and the private sector in collaborative partnerships
(iii). Integrating disciplinary knowledge in place-based, problem-driven research efforts

4. The National Research Council (NRC 1999: 281) identifies four interlinked, research-based components of sustainability science. According to the NRC, what is “sustainability science”? And what are its four interlinked, research-based components? http://regionalworkbench.org/USP2/week9.htm#nrc

5. The Hawken, Lovins and Lovins (1999) book introduces four central strategies of natural capitalism that are a means to enable countries, companies, and communities to operate by behaving as if all forms of capital were valued. List them and give a brief definition of each. http://regionalworkbench.org/USP2/week6.htm#h

6. In his book City-Region 2020, Ravetz (2000) outlines six layers to the theme of 'sustainable governance.' List three of them and give a brief explanation of each (You can find the list on page 252 in Ravetz's chap. 14 (p. 160 in your reader). The list of six includes: *process of collective negotiation which translates 'needs' into 'outcomes'; * new modes of communication and decision- making; * new patterns of institutions, networks and representation; * engagement of groups and communities on the periphery; * alliances and integration of public, private and civic sectors; * the wider political debate --if sustainable development means what it says about 'equity', does this mean social redistribution, and if so on what terms?

7. The Millennium Development Goals commit the international community to an expanded vision of development, one that vigorously promotes human development as the key to sustaining social and economic progress in all countries, and recognizes the importance of creating a global partnership for development. The goals have been commonly accepted as a framework for measuring development progress. There are eight of them. Pick any one of the eight, list it and briefly describe what the goal aims to accomplish.

IV. ESSAY QUESTIONS (1 @ 30 points = 30%)
Answer one out of the three questions listed below. For each essay be sure to include reference to at least TWO readings in USP2. The reference cited in the question itself doesn’t count; each reference should include an author name, year and title of the publication (don't simply list the references at the end of your essay, incorporate them into the body of your essay).

(Note: on the exam, only three of five essays below will be listed).

1. At the Global City-Regions Conference hosted by UCLA in 1999, a range of important policy questions were addressed. One of these questions is listed below. In response to this question, (i) give us an informed response --state a position or positions and support them with evidence from readings --based on concepts covered in USP2 (cite your sources).

In what ways are global city-regions' capabilities to generate wealth enhanced or threatened by international flows of capital, people, goods and information? http://www.sppsr.ucla.edu/globalcityregions/Overview/topics.html

2. Explain how the formation of the global economy and the emergence of new forms of economic production and management are currently influencing patterns of urban growth and decline in the United States today. To answer this question, use the framework Soja (1987) developed in his analysis of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In other words, tackle this question by outlining, with examples, the three paired relationships Soja used to depict the underlying and often contradictory dynamic of contemporary urban and regional restructuring in the US.

3. City-regions have gained importance as territorial agents in the in the world economy’s new competitive landscape. City-regions are the middle ground tying together local and global forces; they are nodal points in globe-girdling networks of consumption, production, distribution and exchange. Drawing on the work of USP2 readings, what main governance tasks do global city-regions face as they try to promote sustainable development? (helpful tip: organize your essay around a theme –for instance, how city regions offer competitive advantages through clusters, or the governance philosophy behind city-regions as an administrative means/level of promoting sustainable development issues).

4. Robert Gottlieb (2005) Forcing the Spring proposes a new strategy for social and environmental change that involves reframing and linking the movements for environmental justice and pollution prevention. According to Gottlieb, the environmental movement's narrow conception of environment has isolated it from vital issues of everyday life, such as workplace safety, healthy communities, and food security, that are often viewed separately as industrial, community, or agricultural concerns. This fragmented approach prevents an awareness of how these issues are also environmental issues. What does Gottlieb argue should be done to broaden this narrow conception; be specific--include one of the challenges of the “next environmentalism” (e.g., regarding nature and the community in the city, transportation and sprawl, food systems, globalization and imperial reach, or immigration). In presenting Gottlieb's positon weigh in with your own scholarly perspective. Don't just restate Gottlieb's views, hold them up to critical scrutiny. In other words, provide a reveiw of his ideas using knowledge you picked up in USP2 (cite your sources).

5. For this essay, we want you to highlight and critically evaluate any one of the following three sections(3.6, 3.7, or 3.8) from the the book we used in USP 2: UN-Habitat (2006). The State of the World's Cities 2006/2007: The Millennium Development Goals and Urban Sustainability.
3.6 Cities: The Front Lines in the Battle for Sustainability
3.7 Double Jeopardy: The Impact of Conflict and Natural Disasters on Cities
3.8 Urban Insecurity: New Threats, Old Fears
By "highlight" we mean pull out what you find to be the most important points covered in the section you select. Start by explaining what the authors are trying to convey with the title they chose for the section. For instance, why say "Cities: The Front Lines in the Battle for Sustainability." What do they mean by that? By "critically evaluate" we want you to weigh in with your own scholarly perspective. Don't just list several highlights, be critical at the same time (i.e., weigh in with intelligent comments of your own about the highlights). Base your critical evaluation on knowledge you picked up in USP2 (cite your sources).