SO4029 Sociology of the City

1
SO4029 Sociology of the City

• Urbanism 1
• Classic Perspectives on City Life

2
Community

• Participants in regular social interaction
• Shared social bond
• Shared identity
• Communal territory
• Strong emotional attachment to the group and space

3
Rural to Urban

• Key themes Social Constraint v Freedom
  Communal/Personal v Impersonal Relations.
• Töennies Gemeinschaft/ Gesselschaft
• Durkheim Mechanical/Organic Solidarity
• Sorokin Zimmerman Rural Urban Worlds
• Redfield Folk Society and Urban Society

4
Simmel Metropolis Mental Life (1903)

• Urban culture as the culture of modernity
• Simmel draws general characteristics about urban
  life through studying micro-level behaviour
• Reason over emotion
• Dominance of the visual
• Calculation (Philosophy of Money)
• Reserve and the private self (individual freedom)
• The blasé demeanour/nervous stimulation
• The urban way of life spreads to the rural,
  collapsing the country/city distinction

5
Louis Wirth Urbanism as a Way of Life (1938)

• Member of Chicago School greatly influenced by
  Simmel
• 3 Key Dimensions of Urban Way of Life
• Size greater chances for diversity greater
  specialisation division of labour functional
  diversity competition and formal control
  replace kinship as a means of organisation -
  provides conditions for social fragmentation and
  foundations for impersonal relationships -
• Density intensifies effects of size blasé
  attitude (excessive nervous stimulation) -
  greater tolerance and greater social
  distance/stress escape form density increases
  fringe development density increases
  competition
• Heterogeneity more tolerance between groups
  breaks down ethnic and class barriers
  compartmentalisation, anonymity and
  depersonalisation.
• Social Relations Primary, Secondary Tertiary

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Louis Wirth Urbanism as a Way of Life

• Negative Consequences of Urban Living social
  disorganisation
• Isolation and instability may lead to social
  disorder
• Mental illness and suicide more likely
• Potential for Crime
• Loss of community/estrangement facilitates media
  and political manipulation

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Herbert Gans The Urban Villagers(1962)

• Critique of Wirths perspective
• 1) Isolation not necessarily a product of city
  life ignores the fact that city life
  encompasses a broad range of social groups from
  the isolated to the relatively homogenous
  community, dependent on a range of factors
• 2) Overplays Urban/Rural distinction (urban
  villagers)
• 3) Not single urban culture but collectivity of
  sub-cultures

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Gans Typology of City Dwellers

• Cosmopolites
• The Unmarried and the Childless
• Ethnic Villagers
• The Deprived
• The Trapped

9
Suburbanism

• Suburbanism as a counter to the Isolationist
  standpoint- quasiprimary area not anticipated
  by Wirth (Gans)
• Suburbia Levittown
• The Lifestyle Enclave

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The Suburban Way of Life

• Interpersonal and communal relationships - but of
  a limited nature
• The Mall/Shopping Centre as the locus of
  quasi-community
• The Lonely Crowd (Riesman) Tribal Conformity
• Little sub-cultural differentiation
• Suburban angst as the parallel of isolation

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Robert Putnam Bowling Alone (2000)

• Social Capital
• Information flows depend on social capital
• Norms of (generalised) reciprocity are dependent
  on social networks.
• Bonding networks - connect those who are similar.
  
• Bridging networks - that connect individuals who
  are diverse.
• Collective action depends upon social networks
• Collective action can also foster new networks.
• Broader identities and solidarity are encouraged
  by social networks that help translate an "I"
  mentality into a "we" mentality.

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Bowling Alone

• (Contemporary decline in social capital -Mirrors
  similar process during Gilded Age of industrial
  revolution (USA))
• Correlates of Social Capital
• Political Participation
• Civic Engagement
• Religious Participation
• The Workplace

13
Bowling Alone

• Causes of decline in social capital
• Suburbanisation factor 50s 60s BUT factor
  80s onwards
• Mobility Urban Sprawl
• Corporate De-localisation
• Privatisation Segregation
• Edge Cities (Garreau, 1991)
• (Other Factors) -
• Time Money
• Family Change - decline of traditional family
• Technology Mass Media
• Generational Effects
• Against the Tide, Small Groups, Social Movements,
  The Net

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Bowling Alone

• Consequences of decline in social capital
• Lack of Trust
• Lack of Shared Fate, Empathy, Social Norms
• Social Capital Emotional Well-Being
• Decline in Democracy
• Not all bad?
• The Dark Side of social capital stifling
  conformity? intolerance/discrimination?