Student notes: (book1; City Worlds,ISBN: 0-415-20070-9) In reading the Introduction to Book 1 you will have picked up an emphasis on how social and spatial connectivity are key aspects of the approach taken throughout Understanding cities. This question asks you to consider why it is important to understand how cities are focal points for wider networks of connection, a theme that runs through Book 1. As with the course as a whole, the question asks you to develop a geographical imagination of cities. From the outset, you should be mindful of one key concept explored through the course: connectedness. This refers to the ways in which the size of cities, the differences to be found within cities and the range of intensities experienced within cities, for example, are all closely related to how cities connect in varying degrees to wider networks. The question asks you to review the many ways in which cities can be seen as focal places amongst such networks of connection and to asses the merits of this approach. As a starting point, you might like to jot down notes on key parts of the question as you read through Book 1. For example, what are some of the different forms of connection? Connections after all can be made through people, commodities, money and beliefs, just to take a few obvious examples. Does the idea of connections mean that all cities and every part of each city are equally connected? If not then how do these networks of connections differ in their range, effectiveness and consequences? As you will have noted reading Book 1 the openness of particular cities to wider connections has deep implications for their particular social and cultural make up and rhythms. The examples of Chicago (Chapter 1, Section 2), Mexico City (Chapter 3, Section 1), and London (Reading 3A) are particularly good resources for understanding how crucial a geography of connections is to the historical and contemporary makeup of these cities. You may find it helpful to look through the Course Guide (Chapter 8, Section 1) for an overall summary of these arguments throughout City Worlds. Listening to Audio.Programme 2 and watching in advance TV01 (New York: making connections) provides helpful supplementary materials. There are many examples to be found in the course materials to help illustrate your answer. While you may also bring examples from outside of the course material, you should demonstrate their relevance. Whichever mix of examples you choose, be mindful not to overload your answer: two or three well-chosen and well thought through examples should be ample. It is important to restate here that this question asks you to do more than offer description. Your answer should seek to offer analysis and evaluation; you are asked why it is important to understand cities as focal point of wider networks of connections. Finally, as you will have noted in reading Section 5 on learning outcomes in the previous pages of this Assignment Booklet, it might help to develop the skill of self-evaluation now and carry this practice through the remaining TMAs. For example, you may wish to reflect on the process of completing this essay in relation to one or two (at most) of the course learning outcomes, just to assess what you think you have learned along the way. This is merely a suggestion; it is not compulsory, it may help you judge what you have written and to relate this to specific learning outcomes as you move through the course.