detroit case study geography

The Geography of Detroit’s Decline

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During the mid-20th century , Detroit was the fourth largest city in the United States with a population of over 1.85 million people. It was a thriving metropolis that embodied the American Dream - a land of opportunity and growth. Today, Detroit has become a symbol of urban decay. Detroit's infrastructure is crumbling and the city is operating at $300 million dollars short of municipal sustainability. It is now the crime capital of America, with 7 out of 10 crimes unsolved. More than a million people have left the city since its prominent fifties. There is a multitude of reasons as to why Detroit fell apart, but all the fundamental causes are rooted in geography.

Demographic Shift

The rapid shift in Detroit's demographics led to racial hostility. Social tensions were further perpetuated when many desegregation policies were signed into law in the 1950s, forcing residents to integrate.

For years, violent racial riots engulfed the city, but the most destructive one occurred on Sunday, July 23, 1967. A police confrontation with patrons at a local unlicensed bar sparked a five-day riot that left 43 dead, 467 injured, 7,200 arrests and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed. The violence and destruction only ended when the National Guard and Army were ordered to intervene.

Shortly after this "12th street riot", many residents started to flee the city, particularly the whites. They moved out by the thousands into neighboring suburbs such as Royal Oak, Ferndale, and Auburn Hills. By 2010, whites only made up 10.6% of Detroit's population.

Detroit is particularly difficult to maintain because its residents are so spread out. There is too much infrastructure relative to the level of demand. This means large sections of the city are left unused and unrepaired. A scattered population also means law, fire, and emergency medical personnel have to travel greater distances on average to provide care. Moreover, since Detroit has experienced consistent capital exodus for the past forty years, the city is unable to afford an adequate public service workforce. This has caused crime to skyrocket, which further encouraged rapid out-migration.

Many of America's older cities faced a de-industrialization crisis starting in the 1970s, but most of them were able to establish an urban resurgence. The success of cities like Minneapolis and Boston is reflected on their high number of college graduates (over 43%) and their entrepreneurial spirit. In many ways, the success of the Big Three inadvertently restricted entrepreneurship in Detroit. With the high wages earned on the assembly lines, workers had little reason to pursue higher education. This, in conjunction with the city having to reduce the number of teachers and after-school programs due to declining tax revenues, has caused Detroit to fall behind in academics. Today, only 18% of Detroit adults have a college degree (versus a national average of 27%), and the city is also struggling to control the brain drain .

Ford Motor Company no longer has a factory in Detroit, but General Motors and Chrysler still do, and the city remains dependent on them. However, for a large portion of the 1990s and early 2000s, the Big Three did not react well to changing market demands. Consumers started to shift from power-driven automotive muscle to more stylish and fuel-efficient vehicles. The American automakers struggled against their foreign counterparts both domestically and internationally. All three companies were on the verge of bankruptcy and their financial distress was reflected on Detroit.

Public Transportation Infrastructure

Unlike their neighbors Chicago and Toronto, Detroit never developed a subway, trolley, or intricate bus system. The only light rail the city has is its "People Mover," which only encircles 2.9-miles of the downtown area. It has a single set of track and only runs in one direction. Although designed to move up to 15 million riders a year, it only serves 2 million. The People Mover is considered an ineffective rail, costing taxpayers $12 million annually to operate.

The biggest problem with not having a sophisticated public infrastructure is that it promotes sprawl. Since so many people in the Motor City owned a car, they all moved away, opting to live in the suburbs and just commuting to downtown for work. Additionally, as people moved out, businesses eventually followed, leading to even fewer opportunities in this once great city.

• Okrent, Daniel (2009). Detroit: The Death- and Possible Life- of a Great City. Retrieved from: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1926017-1,00.html
• Glaeser, Edward (2011). Detroit's Decline and the Folly of Light Rail. Retrieved from: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704050204576218884253373312.html
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The Rise and Fall of Detroit

The decline of Detroit was alos the decline of Fordism and Modernity.

Table of Contents

Last Updated on June 23, 2023 by Karl Thompson

The history of Detroit, USA from 1900 to the present day present offers an interesting case study in the benefits of industrial modernity in the early 20th century, and the problems caused by modernity’s decline from the 1960s.

Detroit underwent a rapid process of industrialisation in the early part of the 20th century, which led to enormous prosperity and wealth being generated which was, by and large, shared by the majority of the city’s population. Detroit is synonymous with Henry Ford, and the particular model of industrial-capitalism which he basically invented – mechanised production and decent wages and benefits for his workers.

However, the second half the century saw Detroit spiral into a decline of de-industrialisation, state-bankruptcy, inequality, and social unrest.

The Rise of Detroit: Industrialisation from the 1900s to the 1950s

In its hey day, Detroit represents one of the most successful case studies in Industrialization in world history. The case of Detroit helps us to understand why Modernization Theorists in the 1940s and 50s were so keen on exporting Capitalist-Industrialization as a model of development for other countries: basically industrialization brought about many positive developments and so it seemed logical to export it. 

By the late 19th century Detroit’s industry included leading shipbuilding, pharmaceutical and railway businesses. Detroit was successful because it was strategically located near to natural resources and markets via railroads and steamboats, and from the mid 19th century there was no place that better represented American progress and power.

Detroit was the Motor city that helped drive the United States forward,  and the most well-known company which was based there was the Ford Motor Company – in 1932, its Rouge River industrial complex was the largest integrated factory in the world, with its own docks, railway lines, power station and plant, and over 100 000 workers, and 120 miles of conveyor belt.

Raw materials including iron ore and coal arrived by barge and rail and completed for Model Bs rolled off the end of the vertically integrated production lines.

In 1932 Henry Ford’s son commissioned the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera to paint scenes of the nearby Ford factories, which can today be viewed in the Detroit Institute of Art. Rivera’s murals captured the heat, energy and dynamism of the factories, but also the political and social tensions of time. Rivera was a communist, while Ford was a staunch opponent of labour organisations, and Rivera’s murals show workers working in harmony with machines, but also hint at the struggles between management and employees, which would become much more marked in the following decades.

Through industrialisation, both the human bodies of the workers and the landscape came to serve the needs of industrial capital, and women and men experienced this in very different ways, with men working in the factories, and women, by and large, staying at home, restricted to the private sphere.

The Ford family grew incredibly wealthy through their mastery of technology and production lines and their extraction of surplus value from the labour of workers. Mass production was perfected by Ford – his famous Model T was launched in 1900, and by 1918, half of all cars in America were Model Ts.

Ford not only transformed the economic organisation of society, he also helped transformed its social organisation – he invested much of his profit into social welfare – by establishing an art institute and the Henry Ford Hospital, for example, while the relatively high wages he paid to his workers helped them to increase their consumption and enjoy new leisure opportunities, helping to forge a new consumer culture. This compromise between capital and labour is known as Fordism.

In the 20th century, Detroit became a booming metropolis. The Ford Factory was only the largest of 125 motor factories in the city in the early 20th century, and there were many other industries to. The population of Detroit soared from under 80 000 in 1870 to over 1.5 million in 1930, making it the fourth largest city in America at that time.

The assembly lines and the rhythms of work gave new arrivals a purpose and set in motion a relentless movement towards modernity and progress. Mass production would lead mass employment and in turn enable mass consumption. Detroit was the world’s greatest working-class city in the most prosperous nation on earth. The automotive industry and the giants such as Ford and General Motors and Chrysler that dominated Detroit were what California’s Silicon Valley and the tech monopolies of Apple, Google and Twitter are to today’s era of smartphones, software and social media.

The Great depression of the 1930s struck a devastating blow as automobile sales fell rapidly, but the city was revitalized by the Second World War as car factories were rebooted to produce tanks and planes for the US military and its allies. Detroit became the ‘arsenal of democracy’.

Following victory the whole American economy was booming and a second great period of Fordism surged forwards as mass automobile ownership spread across the United States. Great chrome Cadillacs and luxury Lincolns sailed off the production lines in the 1950s like polished ocean cruisers….

However, from the late 1960s onward, a combination of the growth of industrial competition from abroad and underlying social and ethnic tensions in Detroit would lead the city into a spiral of de-industrial decline…..

The Decline of Detroit  

Beneath the gloss of mass consumption Detroit always hid inequalities.

On July 23 1967 police busted an illegal after-hours salon in a black neighbourhood. 85 people were arrested and tempers rose between the detainees and the officers. A five day riot ensued which was quashed by 17000 police, national guard and troops resulting in over 7000 arrests.

Black people were expressing their resentment over limited housing and economic opportunities and a history of racial discrimination and violence. Detroit increasingly became a black majority city as the white working classes moved to the suburbs (80 000 left in 1968 alone), leaving Detroit city in a decline of mass unemployment and rising crime.

A downward spiral continued into the 1970s as American manufacturers faced increasing competition from abroad and moved production to cheaper locations to cut cost, leaving further unemployment in their wake.

Detroit city further suffered because remaining managers and workers moved out to the suburbs or smaller towns just outside of the city – because tax revenue was heavily reliant on property taxes, Detroit city lost a considerable amount of its tax revenue, while the administrative centres around Detroit were well funded by the relatively well off workers who had moved to them. Detroit became a divided city – with wealthy, well funded suburbs and a declining, underfunded central city authority with massive social problems.

The 2007/08 financial crisis shook the auto industry to its core – but companies such as Chrysler and General Motors were bailed out by the Federal government, and have since recovered – Across metro Detroit half a million people still work in manufacturing, 130 000 in the auto industry, and they earn 75% above the state average salary.

Detroit city, on the other hand, did not fare so well during the financial crisis and in 2013 underwent the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history.

To emphasize the inequality in Detroit:

• In Livingstone county, which is 96% white,  the median household income is $73000
• In Detroit City, which is 82.7% black, the median household income is $26, 000 and nearly 40% of people live in poverty.

Detroit south of the 8 Mile boundary – made famous by Eminem’s 8 Mile movie, is considered to have one of the highest murder rates in the country, and there are over 100 000 empty properties.

There are some positive development projects going on in Detroit, but the stark difference between rich and poor in the wider region is plain for any observer to see.

Lessons from Detroit 

Detroit is important because it is a signal case for what is happening in many industrialized countries around the world – across the rust belt in America and mirrored in Southern European countries and northern England as well.

It reminds us that impoverishment is not just limited to the global south.

Signposting and Relevant to A-level Sociology

The decline of Detroit is a useful case study which indicates the decline of Modernity (for example with Fordism dyeing out) and the move to Postmodernity.

Detroit is very much a casualty in shift to postmodernisation.

To return to the homepage – revisesociology.com

Modified from Andrew Brooks (2017) The End of Development (I’d classify this as a left wing take on development!)

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2 thoughts on “The Rise and Fall of Detroit”

End of capitalism and start of NWO

Detroit was once a bustling motor city and now it has crumbled to ashes

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Mathematics, health & fitness, business & finance, technology & engineering, food & beverage, random knowledge, see full index, places case study- detroit flashcards preview, ocr a level geography > places case study- detroit > flashcards.

Where is Detroit located?

In the state of Michigan, North America

When did Henry Ford set up his first factory?

What was different about Henry Ford’s factory?

It used an assembly line

How many dollars were workers paid and how many days did they work a week?

$5 and 5 days

What was the impact of the factory jobs being well paid?

There was Mass immigration of predominately black people from the Southern states who came to seek work at the Ford Factories

As well as Ford which other two car companies set up around 1910?

General motors and Chrysler

What occurred in the 1930’s?

The great depression

Why was the state of Michigan/Detroit affected more than other areas by the great depression?

The industrial economic base

Give an example of a freeway built

8th mile bridge

What were the impacts of the freeway networks being built?

• increased demand for cars

- increased popularity of suburban homes

What were the impacts of out of town shopping malls?

• fewer people spent money in the city centre of Detroit

- especially wealthier people

What occurred to the white population from the 1950s onwards?

-they began to move out of the city centre to the suburbs

What were the key processes in the 1950s and 60s?

• selective outmigration
• suburbanisation

How did so-called ‘white-flight’ affect the city in the first instance?

• lower income black population left behind
• tax base moved out of the city
• neighbourhoods were left abandoned
• urban doughnut effect

How many people were killed in the 1967 riot?

How many buildings were damaged in the 1967 riot?

What contributed to white flight occurring?

• racial tension

- unrest and rioting

What was the 1967 riot called?

The 12th Street riot

About how much damage was caused by the 12th street riot?

Around $40 million

Why were was the inner left to be predominately black?

• the black population was poorer due to discrimination faced
• therefore could not afford to move out

What occurred in 1973?

The oil crisis, fuel prices increased

What impacts did the oil crisis have?

• American cars used more fuel so having an American car became more expensive
• foreign cars (e.g German or Japanese) used less fuel so people began to buy them

What happened to the sales of the big 3 following the oil crisis?

They decreased as they lost sales to European competition

What were the impacts of the decrease in sales of the big 3?

• industrial decline in manufacturing
• dereliction a problem
• unemployment rises, cheap cocaine gives people a route to make ‘easy’ money
• further white flight
• abandonment of housing

What were the impacts of easily accessible cocaine?

• increased anti-social behaviour

What were the impacts in the loss of the tax base?

• services were cut e.g public transport network closed

- so jobs lost

When did easily-accessible cocaine begin to flood into the city?

How has the decline in manufacturing affected migration?

-has meant very little net migration into the city

How many schools were closed in 2009?

Between which years were GM and Chrysler declared bankrupt?

What effect did the global credit crunch have on abandonment?

It increased it

In which year did the city of Detroit file for bankruptcy?

How in debt was the city of Detroit when it filed for bankruptcy?

$18 billion

What were the effects of school closures?

• demotivation of pupils
• fewer young people getting qualifications
• increased crime

Why did the population begin to rapidly increase in 2010?

-the opening of the Ford factory

What was the decrease in population of Detroit due to?

• the failure of the big 3 motor companies to keep up with foreign competition
• consequential closure of their factories

Why was Detroit so in debt?

• pension funds not paid
• reduced taxes whilst still paying out
• borrowed too much money
• future obligations couldn’t be met

Name 3 neighbourhoods in Detroit

Sherwood forest Burbank Brightmoor

Describe the neighbourhood of Sherwood forest and how it has been affected by the economic and social changes within Detroit

• remained stable
• middle-class black community
• 8 homes unoccupied
• 33 lots vacant
• has survived changes better than other neighbourhoods

How many homes are unoccupied in Sherwood forest?

How many lots are vacant in Sherwood forest?

Describe the neighbourhood of Burbank and how it has been affected by the economic and social changes within Detroit

• population loss in this area neighbourhood has been straggering
• hit very hard by mortgage crisis
• 7300 properties occupied
• lower quality housing to be demolished
• high instances of fire damage from arson

Describe the neighbourhood of Brightmoor and how it has been affected by the economic and social changes within Detroit

• high homicide and crime rates
• good community groups
• urban agriculture
• 5000 structures unoccupied
• lots of fire damage
• lots of illegal dumping

How did state and local governments make the situation worse?

• bailed out companies not Detroit
• enabled companies to afford to move out and undermine the economy further
• private companies saved but not the jobs

How were the motor companies responsible for social decline and inequality as a result of economic change?

• moved production out of Detroit in order to oay cheaper costs leading to the undermining of jobs, families, and communities
• wages decreased and did not increase again despite profit rises
• unions undermined by company shareholders
• failed to recognise competition and technology

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AQA A Level Geography: Changing Places Case Study (Detroit and Stratford) PLC Advanced Information

Subject: Geography

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

9 June 2022

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Attached are two personal learning checklists for part B of the human paper, for AQA A Level Geography. The checklists make reference to the specification in relation to the place studies students must complete. The place studies included are Detroit and Stratford.

The checklists are in-depth and thorough, including specific examples for each element of the specification.

Other PLCs for the human sections of the course are available as a bundle. Please include a review if this is helpful.

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A bundle is a package of resources grouped together to teach a particular topic, or a series of lessons, in one place.

AQA A Level Geography 2022 Advanced Information: Student PLCs

A complete, comprehensive and indepth set of personal learning checklists for the AQA Human A Level exam. The checklists include the following: Part A: Global systems and global governance Part B: Changing places (including PLCs for the place study for Detroit and Stratford) Part C: Contemporary Urban Environments Each section of the pre-release specification is broken down into manageable student chunks in order to make understanding and interpreting the specification easier. This is useful to help inform revision and exam preparation in the lead up to the 2022 exams.

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detroit case study

• Case studies
• Created by: Lakeishacorbett
• Created on: 05-04-17 14:53
• Colonial History-Detroit is situated on the Detroit river linking Lake Huron and Lake Erie. Colonialists founded Detroit in 1701
• A transport hub-Shipping and ship building brought wealth in 19th century= Gilded age mansions.
• Rust Belt Region-Detroit=capital of rust belt after Toyota overtook car sales etc. along with Ohio, Buffalo etc.

Report Mon 19th March, 2018 @ 14:05

Report Fri 23rd April, 2021 @ 14:51

Hey Vsauce Michael here,

what are you? you are human but if you look further beyond your skin and your bones what are you? 

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At the end of August 2020, the Center for Civic Media at MIT will close down. Established in 2007 as the Center for Future Civic Media, the Center has been a longstanding collaboration between the MIT Media Lab and the Comparative Media Studies / Writing program at MIT. Over the past thirteen years, hundreds of students, researchers, visiting scholars, faculty members and members of communities in the Boston area and worldwide have contributed to the work that's unfolded here. I’d like to pause and recognize the work that's been done and the many people who've made it possible.

When Henry Jenkins, Mitch Resnick and Chris Csíkszentmihályi established the Center, it responded, in part, to a call from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation "to foster blogs and other digital efforts that seek to bring together residents of a city or town in ways that local newspapers historically have done." Since then, the idea of Civic Media has broadened to include the intersection of participatory media (everything from blogs to Facebook to Tiktok) and social change. The projects launched at Center for Civic Media have expanded as well, including everything from systems for consensus decision making in small communities to tools that help residents of cities document the shortcomings of local infrastructure and demand change.

As the Center has grown and changed, so has the field of Civic Media. Catherine D'Ignazio (a Center alum and now professor at MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning) and Eric Gordon (a friend and frequent collaborator with Civic) launched a Boston Civic Media network that brought together students and faculty at dozens of Boston-area institutions, deepening ties between MIT, Harvard, Emerson, Tufts and other extraordinary institutions. Universities beyond the Boston area have begun offering degrees in Civic Media, and the MacArthur Foundation now has a portfolio of investments in Civic Media , which focuses on helping activist organizations advocate for change through making and disseminating media.

At least as important as the work building Civic Media as a field internationally has been the importance of the Center to the MIT community. Center for Civic Media has become an epicenter for activism within the broader MIT community, offering a popular class on technology and social change, and hosting discussions with activists locally and around the globe. From The Public Lab to Make the Breast Pump Not Suck hackathons to the Algorithmic Justice League , amazing long-term projects have been nurtured around the Civic table and continue to make the world a better place.

We owe a debt of gratitude to everyone who's made the Center possible, beginning with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, whose initial investment launched the Center, and whose unwavering support has seen the Center through numerous changes in direction and focus. We are grateful to the many other funders who've supported our work over the years, including The Gates Foundation, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The MacArthur Foundation, The Open Society Foundations, The Bulova-Stetson Foundation, The Mozilla Foundation as well as the corporations that make up the MIT Media Lab consortium. 

While the Center for Civic Media at MIT is closing, its work continues, changing shape as it spreads with the alumni of the program. Erhardt Graeff's lab at Olin College focuses on designing effective methods of civic engagement; Nathan Matias's CATLAB at Cornell University studies the governance of online communities and ways communities can create healthier behaviors. Catherine D'Ignazio at MIT DUSP is creating the field of Data Feminism , and Rahul Bhargava's new lab at Northeastern explores the civic impacts of data storytelling and visualization. My new project at UMass Amherst, the Institute for Digital Public Infrastructure, is working to create digital public spaces dedicated to civic ends, not just for-profit goals. We join other Civic pioneers like Henry Jenkins, who explores the Civic Imagination in his center at USC and Chris Csíkszentmihályi, whose work at Madeira Interactive Technology Institute continues to explore the civic implications of community radio.

Thanks to everyone who's followed our work over the years and lent a hand in one way or another. We have had an extraordinary run, thanks most of all to everyone who's joined us around our table for conversation, collaboration, argument or support. My heart is only a little heavy as we close this chapter because the hundreds of people who've been part of the Center for Civic Media have gone around the world to spread the ideas, strategies and tools we've developed together. We are all, in our own ways, working to change the world.

—Ethan Zuckerman