Urban Historical Geography, Essay Example

Identify and discuss connections forged between the residential environments of ordinary people and the wider “consumer culture” over the course of the twentieth century, with particular reference to North America.

In the course of the twentieth century, the consumer culture has enormously affected the residential environments of ordinary people in the North America. Consumer culture has to do with the purchasing power of consumers in the business market as influenced by various advertisements. In the larger North America, with the modern technology in the twentieth century, people have been influenced into purchasing of consumer goods. This mostly happened once a consumer was convinced that a given product was gracious and worth purchasing.

The consumer culture, which hit the North Americans, forced them to make purchases although they had not planned in their budgets. Impulse purchases were the daily trends amongst the North Americans. This is to say that the consumer culture of North America during the twentieth century affected most budgets negatively. Consequently, most people were rendered bankrupt before receiving their salaries at the end of the month. For individuals who had families, this culture directly affected their families. The bankruptcy on the breadwinner of the family strained the entire family. The members of the family suffered just because a parent was influenced by the consumer culture, to purchase whatever was not urgently needed in the family at a given family.

The consumer culture also affected the social culture amongst different individuals. This was still extended to the relations in the family. The consumer culture made people go out shopping, just for fun and for the love of shopping. People took going for shopping as a hobby, and as something that they could do during their leisure time. Ultimately, a lot of time was spent making purchases of various goods. This reduced the time that such people spent with their families, friends, and relatives. Relationships are maintained through communication and the amount of time spent together. Therefore, when time is spent shopping and doing window-shopping for what to shop later, then relationships must be affected in some way.

Unfortunately, the consumer culture was incepted in individuals during their formative years. Young children were influenced into this culture during their tender years. As a result, they grew up with the culture, learning how to do it best. Most children, therefore, would disturb their parents to buy them the latest models of toys that they can see in the market. The role of media in advertising is what mainly contributed to the propagation of this culture amongst children. Children saw various adverts of toys on television and other media, and nagged their parents into purchasing for them a given latest model of toys.

The consumer culture has also affected most adults to the extent that they seek to purchase the latest model of something, as soon as it unravels. Still, the media have a direct role in this, since people are updated on a daily basis on the latest models in the market. People are out to get the latest models of phones, cars, clothes, name them all. This is due to the influence of the consumer culture. The truth is that these latest models may not be the most import and urgent goods needed, but people end up just buying, to fit in the passing fashion. This is to say that advertisements form the main propagators of the consumer culture, which has negatively affected a better part of the North American society.

How can meaningful connections be drawn between cities and empires? If you wish, you may adopt an expanded notion of what “empire” constitutes (that is, not simply political empires, but also cultural and commercial/business empires, etc.).

A city is a large area that is densely populated and has some of the main administrative centers. Most often, cities do form centers that control business in several districts or even an entire country. A city, however, is not necessarily governed by one figure of authority. It may be divided into several areas or business districts that are under different authorities. For instance, a portion of a city may be under the authority of a local council, which mainly controls the business operations in the city.

On the other hand, an empire is a region, which is usually a large area over which imperial dominion is exercised. An emperor usually governs an empire. Therefore, without an emperor, an area cannot be categorically classified as an empire. This is what an empire is according to the political view. However, an empire can also refer to a large commercial or business center, where business is booming. It is called an empire because business seems to be the main commercial activity in that region. All the operations in a commercial empire seem to revolve around the various commercial activities.

However, some meaningful connections can be drawn between a city and an empire. A city and empire are different politically speaking, given that an emperor governs an empire while a city may not have such a political figure. The emperor seems to have control over everything that happens in an empire. Therefore, an empire can be compared to a country, where the president is the ultimate political figure. On the other hand, a city is not necessarily governed by a powerful figure as an empire. In addition, it is usually smaller than an empire.

A city and an empire can also have a direct connection and comparison when it comes to business or commercial activities. As already seen, a city has many commercial activities running. These activities seem to control the economy of the rest of the region, usually a country. That is why we some cities are chosen as the capital cities of different countries. This is because those cities have commercially grown to levels of power commercially, to the extent that they have become dependable by various other cities, towns or even the other regions of the country. Dense population characterizes them, given that people migrate towards the cities in such of economic stability.

This view of a city is connected directly to an empire as a business unit. An empire is a large business center that has grown, to the extent of controlling a large area in the world of business. A business empire is dependable by various other regions, many more or less than those depending on a city. Therefore, an empire is a broad-spectrum term used to refer to all business centers. It can refer to both a large and a small business center. Therefore, a city can be categorized as an empire since it is dependable by many other areas. In other words, a city can be referred as a large business empire.

Empires and cities are connected by their business orientation, and their dependence by various other regions. However, one point of agreement is the fact that a city can be categorized as a large empire. Contrary to this, an empire cannot necessarily be categorized as a city, unless it expands its operations and receives recognition and dependability from a large scope. A business empire can be converted to the standards of a city and get recognition as a city, once it has met all the characteristics of a city. This shows the meaningful relationship that can be drawn between a city and an empire.