Urban Sociology - Experiencing Cities - Chapters 1-5
Elijah Anderson
"code of the street"
Robert E. Parks
"the city as a state of mind"
W.I. Thomas (August 13, 1863-December 5, 1947)
"the definition of the situation" If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.
Lyn H. Lofland
"the world of strangers and the public realm"
Who was Robert Moses? Name some of the projects that left his mark on NY City and Portland Oregon.
(1888-1981) was a political scientist not a trained planner, he wielded tremendous power through the many offices he held in NY City and State. Some of his projects were the Long Island Expressway, the Triborough and Verrazano Bridges. Most notably the Cross Bronx Expressway was called Heartbreak Highway because of all of the people that were displaced during its construction. His ideas have been compared to those of Le Corbusier as the two loving to attract public interest while disdaining the people that live in the cities. Whyte refers to their ideas as being "anti-city".
Ferdinand Tonies
-German sociologist -in the late 19th century, he studied how life in the new industrial metropolis differed from life in rural villages -From this contrast, he developed 2 concepts that have become a lasting part of sociology's terminology: (1) Gemeinschaft (2) Gesellschaft -The Gemeinschaft of the rural village joins people in what amounts to a single primary group -Argued that Gemeinschaft is absent in the modern city -Urbanization creates Gesellschaft -In the Gesellschaft way of life, individuals are motivated by their own needs rather than by a desire to help improve the well-being of everyone -Saw in urbanization a wakening of close, long-lasting social relations in favor of the brief & impersonal ties or secondary relationships typical of business
How much of the population lived in Urban areas in 1800, 1975, and 2000?
3% of the population, 29% of the population, 50% of the population
By 2030 Urban areas are expected to be home to more than?
6 out of 10 people living on the planet
Alexis de Tocqueville
A French writer who said "From this filthy sewer pure gold flows" when he described Manchester.
What is CDC? What is community development focused on?
A community development corporation is a not-for-profit organization incorporated to provide programs, offer services and engage in other activities that promote and support community development. CDCs usually serve a geographic location such as a neighborhood or a town.
Urban transition
the redistribution of population from predominantly rural, agricultural world to a predominantly urban, non agricultural world
What is eminent domain?
the right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation.
1. As urbanization emerged, how did roles within the family change?
Family structures began to change now during this time: - Age of marriage- older. Middle class women married later in life than in any other period in history. Some shunned marriage entirely - Overall, 10% of women never married - Single women most prominent reformers for the period were Jane Adams, Lilian Wold, Frances Willard (temperance)- all reformers who were leaders of movements. - In legal realm, women finally being seen as independent adults. More states seeing prop rights, liberal divorce laws. Therefore, divorce rate rose rapidly. - Most divorces initiated by women, and the number increased. - At the same time, family size was declining- women having few children- while life expectancy was rising - This meant for the first time for women that they would spend more of their time outside of child rearing instead of spending their whole life with that. Now they start to look at what their role will be - Women (middle class) gained leisure time because of innovations making their job as a women and how they spent their time easier. - By late 19th and 20th century, focus of a women's household responsibility shifts from production oriented tasks to consumption oriented tasks. - Therefore, in late 19th century, dept. stores start - All of these demographic changes combine to form the "new women", sometimes called the Gibson girl. - New women worked outside of home before married, looked beautiful, slender, self-confident independent women. Earns and spends her own $. - Now there's finally a tension- on the one hand, still dominant concept of cult of domesticity, but on the other hand, sense that women can venture outside of the home. An attempt more than ever to shape role of women in these 2 ideals now. - Gender suggested professions- extension of a woman's profession in the home
Le Corbusier(1887-1965)
Le Corbusier was a Swiss-born French architect who belonged to the first generation of the so-called International school of architecture. Believed in the "death of the streets".
1. Who authored the Gilded Age and what was significant about the time period?
Mark Twain (and Charles Dudley Warner) authored the Gilded Age and the time period was significant because it was a time where serious social problems were masked by a thin gold lining (1870s to 1890s) Half of the Gilded Age coincided with part of the Victoria era in Britain and the Belle Époque in France. Its beginning in the years after the American Civil War overlaps the Reconstruction Era, which ended in 1877. This was followed by the Progressive Era in the 1890's. The Gilded age was an era of rapid economic growth. Twain was struck by what he saw as the rampant greed and speculative frenzy of the marketplace, the corruption of national politics. He wrote about a society whose serious problems were veiled by a thin coating of gold. He called it the gilded age and the name stuck to the period of time in America between the 1870's to the 1890's.
John D. Rockefeller
This person founded Standard Oil.
What three major faults does Lewis Mumford find with LeCobusier's plans for rebuilding of cities - The Radiant City?
Three major misconceptions were the overvaluation of bureaucratic ideals of standardization, regimentation, and centralized control. Second was LeCobusier's contempt for historic and traditional forms that ignored the historical past in all its cultural richness and variety. The third was the extravagant use of open space for parks. City in a park, fails because its aesthetic monotony reflects social regimentation, uniformity and conformity.
Which sociological perspective would suggest that sports participants may work together harmoniously, and abandon previously held stereotypes and prejudices despite class, racial, and religious differences? a. functionalist perspective b. conflict perspective c. interactionist perspective
b. conflict perspective
In forming a sense of ourselves, we imagine how we appear to others and how others perceive us, and finally we develop a feeling about ourselves as a result of these impressions, this is an example of? a. functionalist perspective b. conflict perspective c. interactionist perspective
c. interactionist perspective
Conflict theory
competition for scarce resources; how the elite control the poor and the weak
Functionalism
macro level, relationship between the parts of society; how aspects of society are functional (adaptive)
Urban Growth
refers to the rate that an urban population or area increases over a period of time
Urban-
relating to, or constituting a city or town
Micro level of our world/city life
relationships between individuals, especially with an impact on how that interaction patterns behavior and individuals
What were the strengths and weaknesses of Daniel Burnham's City Beautiful movement?
strengths of his movement was that it contributed to the landscape city park movement, his plan also helped to generate interest in the city of Chicago because of its scope and innovation. The weakness was that city governments had neither the inclination nor the funds to carry out pretty master plans especially while there were pressing needs for social reform and improvements in basic living conditions for paving road and for the installation of sewage systems. His movement did not address the needs of all of citizens of the cities.
Robert E. Park (1864-1944)
studied in Germany and was influence by the work of Georg Simmel. He is famous for his belief that "The City is a State of Mind" (Hutter, 2016). In this he meant that it is a body of customs and traditions, not just a physical mechanism.
Urbanism
the character of urban life
Briefly describe the ideas of Jane Jacobs regarding the nature of cities and her assessment of what she called the Radiant Garden City Beautiful beliefs of urban planners.
(1916-2006) was a leading advocate of a city with viable neighborhoods and high levels of social interaction, a precursor to the new urbanism movement. She had no formal architectural or sociological training. But she became the leading voice in the fight against Le Corbusier's views of the city and fought under the leadership of Moses. She argued against the urban renewal ideas of her day. She denies the fact that individuals don't simply react to their environment rather they act on their environment and redefine it as appropriate for their personal benefits. Canadian that wrote The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Her efforts to stop downtown expressways and protect local neighborhoods invigorated community-based urban activism and helped end Parks Commissioner Robert Moses's reign of power in New York City.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of Edmund Bacon's designs for Philadelphia?
(1919-2005) one of the most prominent urban planners of the 20th century. He was committed to bringing order, hygiene, open space and 20th century automotive technology to industrial era cities. He tried to combine the ideas of Le Corbusier and Moses. Some of his projects were Penn Center, the Gallery, rehabilitation of Society Hill. The difference with him was that rather than completely demolish the slums he saw historical areas as salvageable. He believed that no structure should be higher than William Penn's hat. Inga Saffron said that many of His projects are flawed. Amazingly it is hard to imagine Philly without some of these imperfections like Penn Center and the Gallery.
Emergence of Cities
*Around 40,000 BC humans attained the modern physical and mental characteristics that we have today. *9,000 BC brought about climate change that allowed people to begin to live in settled communities, where crops could be grown and domesticate animals. *3,000 BC - 2 civilizations mark the emergence of cities-Mesopotamia and Egypt
Features of Early Cities -
*Large population and large settlements *Full-time specialization and advanced division of labor *Production of an agricultural surplus to fund government and a differentiated society *Monumental public architecture *A ruling classWriting *Exact and predictive sciences *Sophisticated art styles *Long-distance trade *A social organization based on residence not kinship
Otis Dudley Duncan - P.O.E.T.
*Population- totality of people functioning collectively *Organization - ruling strata w/ governing officials and division of labor *Environment - ecology and geography of area *Technology - all materials, tools and techniques that helped increase food production, storage and distribution
V. Gordon Childe Theoretical Framework
*Stone Age *Neolithic Age *Urban Revolution *Industrial Revolution *Information Technology
Why did the Industrial Revolution take place in England first?
*The Agricultural Revolution resulted in increased food production and increased population in England first. *Financial Innovations—such as central banks, stock markets, and joint stock companies—encouraged people to take risks with investments, trade, and new technologies. *The Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution encouraged scholars and craftspeople to apply new scientific thinking to mechanical and technological challenges. *Navigable Rivers and Canals quickened the pace and cheapened the cost of transportation of raw materials and finished products. *Coal and Iron deposits were plentiful and proved essential to the development of all new machines made of iron or steel and powered by coal *Government Policies in England toward property and commerce encouraged innovation and the spread of global trade. The government created patent laws that allowed inventors to benefit financially from the "intellectual property" of their inventions. *World Trade gradually increased in the centuries before the Industrial Revolution and provided European countries access to raw materials and a market for goods. *The Cottage Industry, served as a transition from a rural to an industrial economy.
Technological advances that took place in the early cities of Mesopotamia and Egypt?
*Transportation - ox drawn cart *Architecture - building palaces and monuments *Pottery - for cooking and storing food *Textiles - for artistry, invention and improvement of stone tools *Governing Structures - economic, social, religious and political
C. Wright Mills
20th Century sociologist Believed that you should cultivate your *Sociological Imagination The ability to "think yourself away form the familiar routines of every day life", and to look at them from an entirely new perspective
What is the population of most urban areas?
100,000 + residents or reside within a metropolis or metropolitan area that contains 1,000,000 people
How fast is Urban population growth occurring?
2 1/2 times faster than rural areas
1. Describe the ecological, social and cultural factors that influenced the emergence and development of early cities?
A good environment and a strong social organization are the two necessities for the formation of a successful city. Early cities performed the essential function of providing protection for people and the valuable things they were beginning to accumulate. It is believed that Agriculture is one of the main reasons that cities grew. Cities were more convenient as everyone lived closer together. However, the speed at which cities grew during this time make them a dangerous place to be. Often full of contaminated water and air, with diseases. Living conditions were cramped with open sewers an epidemics of illness.
Define the term shock city and explain why Manchester was the shock city of the Industrial Revolution.
A shock city is one that grows quickly. Manchester was the shock city of the Industrial Revolution because it grew in 1775 with a population of 24,000 to a shocking number of 250,000 people in 1801.
What is functionalist perspective (dysfunctional and functional aspects of society)
According to this perspective, society is a system of interconnected parts that work together in harmony to maintain a state of balance and social equilibrium for the whole. ... Some aspects of society can be both functional and dysfunctional.
Urbanization -
An increase in a population in cities and towns versus rural areas
Define the agricultural revolution that occurred around 9,000 BC.
Around 9,000 BC agriculture begins east of the Mediterranean in the place known as the Fertile Crescent. This was close to the Nile Valley and the primary crop was wheat.
1. From your textbook, what was meant by Tocqueville's comment, "from this filthy sewer pure gold flows"?
As per our book on page 65 this comment is explained as on one side was fear, fear of a change in the pattern of relationships associated with the change in the scale of the city, fear of the emergence of the mounting pressure of new social forces were difficult to understand or control. Urgent social problems that threatened to tear apart the fabric of what everyone believed. On the other side was pride of achievement through self-help and economic growth. Pride of success though troubling times. The power to prevail through uncertain times.
Where has most of the population growth occurred in the world?
Asia and Africa
Identify the characteristics of Chicago that made it the "shock city" of the American Industrial revolution?
Because it grew technologically and in spectacular size. In 1860 its population was 112,000 and by 1900 the population was 1.5 million. After the fire of 1871, most diversified population from everywhere.
What does it mean to cultivate your sociological imagination?
C. Wright Mills defined it as "the awareness of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society". It is the understanding that social outcomes are based on what we do. To expand on that definition, it is understanding that some things in society may lead to a certain outcome. In essence it is the ability or capacity to shift from one perspective to another. It is the ability to drop learned and presumed feelings and thoughts and be open to something different.
Conflict theory
Cities are run by political and economic elites that use their resources to enrich their positions and to take resources from the poor and people of color. The diversity of social backgrounds found in cities contributes to conflict over norms and values.
Functionalism
Cities serve many important functions for society but also have their dysfunctions. Functionalist theorists differ on the relative merits and disadvantages of urban life, and in particular on the degree to which a sense of community and social bonding exists within cities.
Symbolic interactionism
City residents differ in their types of interaction and perceptions of urban life. Cities are not chaotic places but rather locations in which strong norms and values exist.
Explain Fischer's use of the term critical mass.
Critical mass = makes it likely that enough people who share similar values and interest can get together. Small towns do not have enough people for this to happen.
1. What led to the disenfranchisement of African Americans in politics during the Gilded Age?
During the Gilded age a series of laws, new constitutions and practices in the South were deliberately used to prevent black citizens from registering to vote and voting. These actions defied the intent of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1870, which was intended to protect the suffrage for freedmen after the American Civil War.
Who designed the white City of the Worlds Columbian Exposition of 1893? What was its significance for urban planners in the early decades of the 20th century?
Daniel Burnham built the White City as part of the "City Beautiful Movement". It ultimately had limited importance. Its most significant contribution was the incorporation of the landscape city park movement into twentieth century planning.
Explain how our class text author proposes to use symbolic interactionism to study cities.
Dr. Hutter uses the approach of symbolic interactionism as his intellectual orientation for the study of city life. He seeks to demonstrate how the experience of cities is affected on both micro and macro level factors. He will also focus on the political and economic factors that started industrialization and urbanization that lead us to today's city. Dr. Hutter anchors his book in the theoretical perspective of symbolic interaction, in other word that people are active interpreters of their environments.
1. List key factors for recent urban population growth? Identify areas where population growth is accelerating most rapidly?
Fertility rates, mortality rates (life expectancy), the initial age profile of the population (whether it is relatively old or relatively young to begin with) and migration. Areas in Sub Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa are growing the most rapidly.
Emile Durkheim
French sociologist (functionalist) -Agreed with much of Tonnies thinking about cities -However, he countered that urbanites don't lack social bonds, they simply organize social life differently than rural people -he described traditional, rural life as mechanical solidarity, social bonds based on common sentiments & shared moral values -Urbanization erodes mechanical solidarity, he explained, but it also generates a new type of bonding, which he called organic solidarity, social bonds based on specialization & interdependence -He optimistically pointed to a new kind of solidarity -Where societies had been built on likeness (mechanical solidarity), He now saw social life based on difference (organic solidarity) -Urban society offered more individual choice, moral tolerance, & personal privacy than people find in rural villages -Thought that something is lost in the process of urbanization, but much is gained
What is symbolic interactionism perspective and its view of urban cities?
Functionalism Conflict theory Symbolic interactionism
The Three Sociological Perspectives
Functionalism (Macro) Relationship between the parts of society and how it is functional Symbolic Interactionism (Micro) Use of symbols; face to face interactions Conflict Theory (Macro) Competition for scarce resources; how the elite control the poor and week.
Emile Durkeheim (1858-1917)Functionalist)
He is considered the creator of the functionalist perspective within sociology. He was most interested in the glue that holds society together, which means he focused on the shared experiences, perspectives, values, beliefs, and behaviors that allow people to feel that they are a part of a group and that working together to maintain the group is in their common interest. In essence, his work was all about culture, and as such, it remains deeply relevant and important to how sociologists study culture today. We draw on his contributions to help make sense of what holds us together, and also, and quite importantly, to help us understand the things that divide us, and how we deal (or don't deal) with those divisions.
Karl Marx (Conflict theorist)
He perceived societal progress in human history through the idea of class struggle. The notion of dialectical materialism focuses, in some sense, on the societal struggle between the ruling economic class and the subjugated working class. He saw this system as untenable and predicted that the economic apparatus of capitalism would eventually collapse on itself, leading to socialism. He wrote extensively about the problem of alienation, in which laborers essentially give up their labor to the market, seeing little in return - small profits and no sense of accomplishment at having actually made something. He argued that this alienation from labor, as well as the alienation of being trapped in a social class with little control over economic circumstances, amounted to a fundamental disconnection between humans and their humanity.
Briefly describe Ebenezer Howard's Garden City movement and his model of the Three Magnets and how do these apply today?
His plan was to sustain a healthy, natural and economic combination of town and country life by balancing city and countryside, industry and agricultures, and work and leisure. He believed that land for the common good would control real estate speculation and would therefore increase property values. His three magnets apply to today Howard proposed a "Central Park". He saw cities as being anchored by tow cohesive forces located in the city's public realm. His Garden cities were based on the principles of cooperative ownership. Greenbelt Maryland was patterned after Garden city movement.
George H. Meade (1863-1931) Symbolic Interactionist
His theory of the self maintains that the conception a person holds of themselves in their mind emerges from social interaction with others. This is, in effect, a theory and argument against biological determinism because it holds that the self is not initially there at birth nor necessarily at the beginning of a social interaction, but is constructed and re-constructed in the process of social experience and activity. The self, according to him, is made of two components: the "I" and the "me." The "me" represents the expectations and attitudes of others (the "generalized other") organized into a social self. The individual defines his or her own behavior with reference to the generalized attitude of the social group(s) they occupy. When the individual can view himself or herself from the standpoint of the generalized other, self-consciousness in the full sense of the term is attained. From this standpoint, the generalized other (internalized in the "me") is the major instrument of social control, for it is the mechanism by which the community exercises control over the conduct of its individual members.
What is anomie?
Hopelessness
Ernest burgess and the concentric Zone Hypothesis, summarize the five zones in the concentric zone hypothesis
I. CBD = Central Business District (innermost) Highest concentration of office skyscrapers, stores, banks, highest valued land. II. Zone in Transition Susceptible to business expansion, oldest city buildings, criminals, prostitutes, down and out living in rooming houses. Often also a section of affluent housing. III. Zone of working men's homes Settlements of the children of immigrants, better housing than the zone of transition, but not middle class. IV. Residential Zone Better residences, middle class, spacious gardens and yards. Professional people, white collar, owners of small businesses. Some smaller services that replicate larger ones available in the CBD. V. Commuter's Zone Rings the entire city, it is dependent upon the city and many of its inhabitants that commute to the city to work. These communities are often referred to as the bedroom suburbs.
Lewis Mumford (Urbanologist)
In "What is a City?' by he (1895-1990), he defines cities through an analogy to the performance arts: "the city is above all else a theater of social action." He describes the need for planning to effectively account for a city's relationship to the national environment and to the spiritual values of the communities within it, more so than the physical designs and economic functions. He spoke to the ever-changing, multi-dimensional personality of urban residents and how they have transcended "traditional" displays of societal norms. Planners need to recognize the social nucleus of cities as the inter-relationship of schools, theaters, community centers and the like, because those are what lay the outlines of an integrated city. He suggested limitations on population, density and urban growth to promote efficiency; he championed Ebenezer Howard's Garden City ideal with his work on poly-nucleated cities.
the social disorganization theory
In sociology, this is one of the most important theories developed by the Chicago School, related to ecological theories. The theory directly links crime rates to neighborhood ecological characteristics; a core principle of this theory is that place matters.
Jane Addams (September 6, 1860-May 21, 1935)
In the USA, she worked to help the poor and to stop the use of children as industrial laborers. She ran Hull House in Chicago, a center which helped immigrants in particular. She was was honored by the American government for her efforts for peace.
What is the purpose of studying the works of urban planners and visionaries?
In the examination of the urban visionaries and planners one can gain a better understanding of how the city's environment impacts its residents.
1. What values became prevalent with urban life in the Gilded Age?
Industrial abundance prompted the commercialization of parlor culture and a nineteenth-century cult of domesticity blossomed. This ideology dictated that the father would enter the perilous public sphere to earn a living, while the mother would stay at home to provide her family with moral nurture. The parlor, at the center of the middle-class woman's sphere, was the family's moral refuge.
Elijah Anderson (William K. Lanman)
Inner-City Black America is often stereotyped as a place of random violence: in fact, violence in the inner city is regulated through an informal but well-known code of the street. How you dress, talk, and behave can have life-or-death consequences, with young people particularly at risk. This incisive book examines the code as a response to the lack of jobs that pay a living wage, to the stigma of race, to rampant drug use, to alienation and lack of hope. An individual's safety and sense of worth are determined by the respect he commands in public -- a deference frequently based on an implied threat of violence. Unfortunately, even those with higher aspirations can often become entangled in the code's self-destructive behaviors.
According to urban scholars, what conditions are necessary for the formation of a city? What does Kingsley Davis call the "sine qua non" of urban existence?
It is speculated that factors and events that occurred long ago lead people to band together in permanent settlements, large enough to be considered a city. As per our text evidence is limited and at best fragmented (Hutter, 2016). Kingsley Davis observed that the "sine qua non" (the most crucial element) differentiates and separates us from the animal kingdom. The concentration of people in one place that do not grow their own food.
The Panic 1893
It was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in that year. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures.
Explain the concept of ideal type and how it applies to community and interpersonal relationships in the industrialized cities of the nineteenth century.
Nisbet believed that a fundamental change was brought about in the nineteenth century, marked by disharmony and disorder. The ideal type is a conceptual construct used in the analysis of social phenomena. Techniques for its use were articulated by German sociologist Max weber in the early 20th century. It was used as a measuring rod.
1. What industry changed the country the most during the Gilded Age? And, why?
Railroads were the major growth industry with factories, mining and finance all increasing in importance. Railroads were a way to transport product. America's farmers suffered during these years, faced with increased competition, saturated markets and falling prices for their produce. Their share of the national wealth declined as a result of this gilded era.
What three factors are the determinants of urbanism according to Wirth?
Size, density, and heterogeneity
Describe the social and cultural factors that influenced the emergence, development, and decline of early cities.
Social and cultural factors that influenced the emergence, development, and decline of early cities were religion, cultural institutions, social structures, and forms of social organization.
1. Describe micro level sociology, macro level sociology and symbolic interactionism as they apply to the study of cities? Give examples of symbolic interactionism and micro vs. Macro level of analysis?
Sociologists analyze social phenomena at different levels and from different perspectives. From concrete interpretations to sweeping generalizations of society and social behavior, sociologists study everything from specific events (the micro level of analysis of small social patterns) to the "big picture" (the macro level of analysis of large social patterns). These perspectives or theories provide a framework for understanding observations on topics such as deviance, in face to face interactions at a micro level. The symbolic interactionist perspective of sociology views society as a product of everyday social interactions of individuals. Symbolic interactionists also study how people use symbols to create meaning. Macro-level sociology looks at large-scale social processes, such as social stability and change. Micro-level sociology looks at small-scale interactions between individuals, such as conversation or group dynamics.
Why did planners call Radburn, NJ the town for the motor age?
Stein and Henry Wright proposed a plan to make a concept city by following Howard's guidelines for a Garden City. The town for the motor age was designed to minimize the requirement for automobiles which were relegated to main arterial streets on the periphery. Pedestrians were able to wander through the local parks and pathways without worrying about traffic and underpasses were built under major streets. This scheme excited by planners and influenced their work. This city had restrictive covenants prohibiting the selling to Jews and African Americans. Only three of these were built Greenbelt, MD., Greenhills, Ohio, Greendale, Wisconsin. The depression stopped these plans...
According to Park's model, what two interconnected levels form the organizational basis of the city?
The "biotic" and the "cultural" biotic = biological and environmental factors and forces. Cultural = symbolic interactionism
When did Sumerian cities flourish? Name one of them.
The Sumerian cities flourished around 3,500 BC to about 1,800 BC. One of the most influential was Uruk.
Urban growth -
The increase in the proportion of urban population over time, calculated as the rate of growth of the urban population minus that of the total population. Positive rates of urbanization result when the urban population grows at a faster rate than the total population.
How does the biological concept of competition apply to urban ecology?
The influence of the environment on people's lives
What are the two predominant conditions that, according to Simmel, give rise to the metropolitan personality?
The intensity of the nervous stimuli in the city and the persuasiveness of the economic market on people's relationships.
1. According to the Gilded Age, what were the physical, housing and political, economic and health risks and problems associated with the time period?
The rapid expansion was devastating to millions of immigrants. It was an era of abject poverty and inequality as the high concentration of wealth became more visible. The poor became poorer and the rich became richer. Health problems were very bad for the poor over populated areas, the immigrant slums. Jane Addams worked to try to help the poor. Slums, crime, overcrowding, pollution, disease were the realities for a majority of incoming immigrants. Because of overcrowding disease was prevalent. Cholera and Yellow Fever epidemic swept through the slums. Almost 25% of babies born in the late 19th century cities died before reaching eh age of one. The cities smelled and trash collection had not been systemized.
List at least three elements of social order that were disrupted by the Industrial Revolution and at least three social problems it exacerbated.
The separation of work from the home had negative implications for family members. Families moved into industrial areas providing no opportunities for families to form lasting ties because they were suspicious of their neighbors. There was an increase of crime, poverty and disorganization.
What is the vision of the city put forth by General Motors Futrurama exhibit at the 1939-1940 NY world's fair?
The vision of this city is widely held to have first introduced the general American public to the concept of a network of expressways connecting the nation. It provided a direct connection between the streamlined style which was popular in America between 1928 and 1938, and the concept of steady-flow which appeared in street and highway design in the same period. Bel Geddes expounds upon his design in his book Magic Motorways, stating:
True or False Human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings that things have for them?
True
True or False Symbolic Interactionists focus on the ways that people continuously construct, alter, signify, and affirm themselves and others in ways that create, sustain, and change existing social structures?
True
True or False Symbolic interactionists tend to employ more qualitative, rather than quantitative methods in their research?
True
True or False The meanings of things arise out of the social interactions one has with his or her fellow?
True
Elijah Anderson (William K. Lanman)(1943-)
a sociologist strongly influenced by symbolic interactionism. He is considered to be a classic urban ethnographer. He studied race and urban street life and in his writing he expressed that our contemporary racially, ethnically, and socially diverse cities are a direct result of industrialism. Andersons work is valuable to us because he gives us the macro level context for the micro level interaction patterns of the street. He is famous for "the code of the streets"
Name and summarize the approach Gans used to argue against Wirth's assertions
Wirth's urbanites do not represent a picture of urban men and women. Rather they depict the depersonalized an automized members of mass society. They represent society and not that of the inner city. Residents of the outer city exhibit lifestyles more characteristic of suburbia that the inner city.Wirth's description of the urban way of life fits best the transient areas of the inner city. In short Gans said the way of life in the city are not simply explained as the product of the size density and heterogeneity of their settlement.
How does Frank Lloyd Wright's idea of the Broadacre City relate to the cotemporary concern of suburban sprawl?
Wright believed that the city should gain in size horizontally. This Broadacre City was outlined by one acre lots of land with horizontally laid out houses. His urban sprawl ideal city was vial able to live in close proximity to each other in urban centers. Democracy can only be achieved when everyone is a land owner. Taliesin West and Unity Temple
Explain how ideal type applies to nineteenth-century views of rural and city life. Who are four influential theorists in this area and how are their views similar to or different from, one another?
a European construct that sociologists used to account for the changes in western societies. The "ideal type" characterizes a social phenomenon by emphasizing its essential characteristics. "a measuring stick". Influential theorists in this area were: Henry Sumner Maine Ferdinand Tonnies Emile Durkheim Max Weber
Lynn H. Lofland (1938-)
a self-defined "unashamed cityphile" (Hutter, 2016). Lofland wrote about the world as a city of strangers and about the critical importance of the "public realm" as the "quintessential social territory" (Hutter, 2016). She felt that cities were unique places in that they differed from small towns where everyone knows one another. In a city people know nothing about the people they share these spaces with. She describes an almost social order in a city that is maintained by this sharing of space, referred to as the "public realm".
Anselm L. Strauss (1917-1996)
a student of Herbert Blumer, he believed in the joining of sociological, psychological and the historical perspectives. He was concerned with the meaning that the city had for its inhabitants. He believed that the images a person has of a city are based on relationships, some of them historically rooted. His theory was reflected by symbolic interactionism in his writing
Gans uses the five following classifications
a. Cosmopolites b. The unmarried or childless c. Ethnic villages d. The deprived e. The trapped and downwardly mobile
Name and briefly define the two main sociological perspectives that originated in the Chicago school?
a. The conceptional perspective seeking to develop a scientific description of urban forms and process. This perspective took ecology the scientific study of the relationships between organisms and their environment to the study of the city-urban ecology. b. Urbanism was essentially a social psychology of city life. It sought to understand the nature of human associations in the urban setting.
According to the symbolic interactionist view, what are the two main criticisms of the ecological conception of the city?
a. gross distortion of the social nature of human beings. Urban ecology has no room for social psychology. b. The second criticism stems from the first in that there is an overemphasis on spatial patterning without sufficient attention to the nature of social interaction between persons that transcends specified geographical boundaries. This leads to the notion of symbolic urban communities illustrated by the fact that persons in a desire to overcome the impersonal rationality of the contemporary urban city seek alternatives to provide them with sources of personalization, identity and community involvement.
What were the four broad categories of conditions leading to the Neolithic urban revolution?
described as the "ecological complex", are population, organization, environment, and technology
Macro level of our world/city life
examines social dynamics across a society with a focus on interrelationship of structures and organizations of a society.
What are the key factors for Urban Population growth?
fertility rates, mortality rates (life expectancy), the initial age profile of the population (whether it is relatively old or relatively young to begin with) and migration. In the case of religious groups, a fifth factor is switching - how many people choose to enter and leave each group, including how many become unaffiliated with any religion.
Urbanization
increasing number of people that live in an urban area
Georg Simmel
he was an early German sociologist known for creating social theories that fostered an approach to studying society that broke with the scientific methods used to study the natural world. He is also considered a structural theorist and was focused on urban life and the form of the metropolis. A contemporary of Max Weber, he taught alongside him, as well as Marx and Durkheim in courses on classical social theory.
Urban transition -
is defined as the shift from rural to urban and from agricultural employment to industrial, commercial, or service employment. China's large cities always dominated as important centers of politics and trade.
Define Economic development?
is the process by which a nation improves the economic, political, and social well-being of its people. ... Whereas economic development is a policy intervention endeavor with aims of economic and social well-being of people, economic growth is a phenomenon of market productivity and rise in GDP.
By the year 2050 what will happen to the worlds population?
it will increase by 2.5 billion
Symbolic interactionism
micro level, use of symbols and face to face interactions
By May 23, 2007 what happened in history as it pertains to urban dwellers?
more urban dwellers than rural
How are most occupants of urban areas employed?
nonagricultural jobs
Briefly summarize Firey's view of sentiment and symbolism.
outlined the shortcomings of urban ecology approach. He argued that people respond not solely to the physical environment. People respond to the symbolization of space and spaces have cultural value.
Name the three main modifications to the concentric zone hypothesis.
the sector model = a model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a series of sectors, or wedges radiating out from the central business district (CBD) and centered on major transportation lines. Also known as the Hoyt Model. Developed in 1939 by land economist Homer Hoyt multiple nuclei model = Harris & Ullman. Move away from the concentric zone model. To better reflect the complex nature of urban areas, especially those of larger size of urban land use and the decentralized zone. Social area analysis = Shevky & Bell, attempt to articulate the dimensions of urban life that are responsible for the special distribution in American cites. Their beliefs are actually and extension of urban ecology.
What is Sociology?
the systematic study of human social life, groups and societies.
Urbanism -
the way of life characteristic of cities and towns.
What is Urban?
this term refers to a city, town or location characterized by high human population density and vast human-built features - houses, commercial buildings, roads, bridges and railways.
