Ryan Cooley
November 18, 2014
Seminar in Composition
cAdam Johns
Final Project
Proposal
In my final project I will
be touching upon one of the great questions of the human race – was
urbanization good for our species or should we have stayed ruralized? Ever
since the creation of the city-state (approximately 3500 BCE, Sumerian
civilization), as a species, humanity has moved towards increased urbanization.
In 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of the world’s
population resides in towns and cities (cite this for validity). Is it better
that we have moved into this form of living or should we have stayed in a more
ruralized society? Personally, I find that increased urbanization is the best
direction we have taken as a species.
So,
how exactly is this important? In our class studies of humanity interacting
with their environments, I find one of this to be one of the more important
questions. In comparing rural life versus urban life, have we overall chosen
the right path? True, rural living is in no means under extinction but you
cannot doubt that cities are constantly growing. Urbanization has brought some
of the best qualities of our race; trade, technology…
The
obvious counter argument is that urbanization is possibly the worst thing that
we have done as a species because of; spread and creation of disease, greater
interaction causes war and destruction of the environment. We have undeniably
hurt the Earth in more than one way and I find greater communication to be the
best symptom of urbanization because of trade, it too has brought some of the
worst tragedies in human history; slavery and war. Nonetheless, I would like to
argue that some of these negatives overshadow the greatness of our
technological advancements and movement forward as a whole race. We have made
great strides in the past two hundred years alone, the future seemingly is
getting brighter.
In my quest for recourses to perform research
from for this project I have found luck in a couple books; Frontiers in Resource and Rural Economics by JunJie Wu, Paul W. Barkley, Bruce A. Weber
and Urban Centers and Rural Contexts in Late
Antiquity by Thomas
S. Burns and John W. Eadie. To start off, I chose “Frontiers” because it runs
down all the different aspects that I was planning on writing about which range
from the environment to politics. The book seems to focus on human drive and
logic behind the actions taken in different fields of society. As for choosing “Urban
Centers,” it brings the historical aspect to my argument and at the same time
bring form to a counterargument. As I interpret from the books summary, it is
the collection of many volumes of books by in a series that analyze just
regions and time periods, all in one centralized paperback. I also, plan on
using Wilder and Abbey as sources, specifically in what context I am unsure but
it does not seem difficult for they are opinionated in their beliefs of
urbanized world.
Burns, Thomas S., and John William. Eadie. Urban Centers and Rural Contexts in Late Antiquity. East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 2001. Print.
Wu, JunJie, Paul W. Barkley, and Bruce A.
Weber. Frontiers in Resource and
Rural Economics: Human-nature, Rural-urban Interdependencies. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 2008.
Print.
Abbey, Edward. Desert Solitaire; a Season in
the Wilderness. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968. Print
Wilder, Laura Ingalls, and Garth Williams. By the Shores of Silver Lake. New York: Harper & Bros., 1953. Print.
Project Outline:
Introduction –
·
Give
background history on the topic and why it matters
·
Explain
personal ties and interests to the topic
·
Explain
the problem or argument
·
Give
thesis
Body Topics –
·
Possibly
a tad more historical background for clearance
·
Organize
by social, economic, and political changes
·
Explain
the positives of my side of the argument
·
Counter
– lay out the negatives, explain the negatives
·
Counter
the counter
·
Refer
to in class books
Conclusion –
·
Give
a full circle without literally repeating myself
·
Explain
where we are today as a society and where we may be headed in the future
·
Give
the best ending that I can possibly come up with because the audience always
remembers a great ending and it is the best way to get a great grade!
This seems like it's in the early stages, so it's hard to comment on it too much yet. I like the topic a lot (for two classics on the history and meaning of the urbanization, you could check out Lewis Mumford's *The City* or Jane Jacobs' *The Death and Life of Great American Cities*; I'm a great fan of Mumford's book). However, I can't add much more than that at this point - for a topic like this presumably you'll want to do a good deal of research and then somehow find a focus within this very large topic (are you interested in the early impact of urbanization? In the impact of Pittsburgh on the tri-state region? In what urbanization did to the American west both hundreds of years ago during the Hohokam (sp?) era and during contemporary times? While doing some general research isn't a bad idea, you will probably do better if you rapidly focus on a region and/or time period. Even if your real interest is in the big, general question, you'll do better if you can pick something to focus upon within that gigantic topic.
ReplyDeleteI am having trouble narrowing the topic and the only one that comes to mind is; an urbanized and industrialized society like the U.S. versus a more agricultural based nation or region. But even then I cannot think of any nations that still rely heavily on agriculture. I wouldn't suppose that you know of any?
DeleteThanks