Download Understanding Urban Development - Sociology of the City - Lecture Slides and more Slides Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! Sociology of the City Understanding Urban Development – Key Approaches docsity.com Urban Theory • Urban Theory as a ‘sub-set’ of Social Theory – While in practice the two are intimately connected, there is an assumption amongst urban theorists that life in cities is distinctive • Urbanisation & Urbanism • All urban theorists deal in some way with the ‘4 Cs’ • Culture: Beliefs & Physical Environment • Consumption: Consumption and production of all goods and services (private & public) • Community: Urban social life - includes the size and distribution of populations; demography and change; how humans beings live and interact in close proximity to one another • Conflict: Overt and covert conflict and competition between interest/status groups and classes (Parker, 2004) docsity.com The Chicago School • Pioneers in Urban Sociology • Founded in 1893 and by led by WI Thomas and Albion Small (pupil of Max Weber) • Home of American Journal of Sociology • Cc 1910’s onwards became a highly influential centre for Urban Sociology • A Darwinian Model – Human Ecological Approach docsity.com • Key Figures in Urban Sociology at Chicago until 1940’s: Robert Park (‘The City’), Ernest Burgess (Model of Urban Form), Louis Wirth (The Urban Way of Life) • Park and Burgess, focused on the way in which the spatial structure of the city emerged from the struggle for space and resources, with capitalism being merely one feature or medium of that struggle. • Main methods ethnography and spatial analysis The Chicago School docsity.com • ‘The City’ (1915): • (i) The City Plan & Organisation • (ii) Industrial Organisation & Moral Order • (iii) Secondary Relations & Social Control • (iv) Temperament & Urban Environment • Park’s Stages of Urban Development • 1) Inter-group competition • 2) Domination • 3) Succession • 4) Invasion The Chicago School docsity.com New Urban Sociology • Until 1930’s Urban Sociology is barely a sub branch of the discipline • Urban focus displaced towards a focus on the ‘problem of order’ (Parsons etc.) • Late 1960’s – Social Problems of Ethnic, Class Division, Riots, Social Activism etc. prompt a paradigm shift away from ecological view of urban development. Ecological view seen to be more suited to explaining the development of immigrant cities, but inadequate for exploring current urban problems • Revival of Marxist & Weberian perspectives on Urban Life • Uneven Development docsity.com New Urban Sociology Henri Lefebvre • 1. City is the product of the economic and political relations of capitalism • 2. City affected Industrial/Commercial (primary) and Real Estate (secondary) • 3. Space is integral to social organisation and social relations • 4. Governance, space and social control docsity.com New Urban Sociology • Manuel Castell’s: ‘Collective Consumption’ • David Harvey: Capital Accumulation Theory • John Logan & Harvey Molotch: The Urban ‘Growth Machine’ docsity.com
