Sociology of the City

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Sociology of the City

• Revision Week

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WK 2 Urbanisation

• Origins of Cities 6-10k years ago
• Ancient Cities (Sjoberg)
• Urban Revolution (Childe)
• Early Western Classical Cities (Greco-Roman
  era)
• Decline of Urbanisation (Middle ages) to rise of
  pre-industrial Cities (Renaissance city of late
  Middle Ages)
• Modernity, Capilalism, Industrialisation
  Urbanisation
• Postmodern (post-industrial) Cities

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WK 3 Key Themes Approaches

• Historical Sjoberg, Childe, Mumford
• Early Urban Reformers Booth, Rowntree, Mayhew,
  Engels (UK) Adams, Riis (USA)
• Modernity Political Economy Weber, Durkheim,
  Marx Engels, Veblen, Benjamin, Tönnies,
  Simmel
• Urban Sociology
• The Ecological Approach The Chicago School of
  Park, Burgess, Wirth et al.
• Late 1960s onwards New Urban Sociology
• Urban Political Economy Lefebvre,
• Conflict Capital Accumulation - Castells,
  Harvey,
• Urban Growth Machine Logan Molotch
• Globalization World Cities Sassen, Hall
• The Socio-Spatial Approach Gottdiener
  Hutchison
• (See also Contemporary Cultural/Postmodern
  Approaches Zukin, Sennett, Bourdieu, Habermas,
  Foucault, Derrida, Baudrillard, Hannigan)

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WK4 The Social Map

• Homo Sociologicus the privileging of the
  external
• Sociology, Psychology Biology
• Social Construction or Co-construction
• The Social Map - Social Classification, Cognitive
  Parsimony Routinisation, Emotion, Complexity
  Reduction Reciprocal Constraint Reciprocal
  Reinforcement, The Janus Self (Homogeneity
  Heterogeneity), Power Relations (Ideology,
  Inertia Dependency)
• Urban Settings Complexity, Functional
  Organisation (Bureaucracy Specialisation)
  Social Interaction Social Control (Reciprocal
  Constraint Reciprocal Reinforcement, Civil
  Inattention ,The Civilising Process,
  Regimentation, Mass Media, Authority
  Surveillance)
• Over-rationalisation (environment and
  interaction) (consumer culture)

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WK5 Urbanism 1 City and (Lost?) Community

• Theme Greater Freedom v. Greater Isolation,
  Social Disorganisation Estrangement
• Defining Community
• Rural to Urban Durkheim, Tonnies etc.
• Simmel - Metropolis and Mental Life
• Wirth The Urban Way of Life
• Gans Urban Villagers
• Suburbia the Suburban Way of Life
• Putnam Bowling Alone

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WK6 Urbanism 2 City, Identity (transformed)
Community

• New Forms of Selfhood- Ascribed, Simple ID to
  Achieved, Complex ID, Expanded Roles
  Interactions
• Dominance of the Visual Simmel, Veblen,
  Benjamin, Foucault, Goffman
• Consumption Urban ID
• Benjamin Arcades Project, City Sketches,
  the Flaneur
• Time Night Life/ 24 hr society )(see
  Melbin, Chatterton Holland) Hedonism Play
• Civilisation Social Control Elias, Foucault,
  Bourdieu
• Urban society as Imagined Community Anderson
  (see also Kornhauser Mass Society)
• Media Imagined Community/Mass Society Celebs,
  Moral Panics (Cohen ) Urban Myths
• Media Reception Hypodermic Active Models
• Sub- Cultures New Forms Of Community
  Fischer, Bellah, Maffesoli

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WK 7 Stratification, Inequality Spatial
Segregation

• Urban Social Classes (change from rural order)
• Capitalist commodification of labour/space
• Laissez Faire/Social Darwinism Uneven
  Development
• Studies of Early Urban Inequality (UK) Booth
  Mayhew, Rowntree, Engels (US) Riis, Veblen, Adams
• Late 19th Early 20th C. Social Strife Rent
  Strikes, Unions, Reform
• Keynesian Restructuring of Capitalism (Post
  1930s)
• Ethnic Gender Divisions
• Late Modernity (from mid 70s) return to (neo)
  classical economics/marketisation
• Urban Polarisation A Growing Gap? Wealth,
  Income, Housing
• Gentrification Ghettoization? Competition,
  Displacement, Fragmentation, Polarisation,
  Underclass, Gating

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WK8 Urban Disorder, Crime, Deviance, Surveillance
and Social Control

• The Dangerous Classes (19th C.) Segregation,
  Religion, Temperance Rational Recreation
• Causes of Urban Crime - Individual Deviance/
  Immorality, Anomie, Alienation, Social
  Disorganisation, Compositional Factors,
  Subcultures, Culture of Poverty Underclass
  Norms, Uneven Development and Scale,
  Disadvantage, Racial Disparity, (Hyper)
  Segregation, Isolation, Media Difference
• Causes of Urban Crime Strain Theories Merton
  and others
• Opportunity Insecurity (Savage et al)
• Forms of Urban Crime Deviance
• Civil Disorder Riot Collective Strain?
• The New Dangerous Classes?
• Social Control, Law Order Policing Prisons
• Social Control Surveillance Society - Mass
  Media Governmentality Surveillance Society
  (Lyon)

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WK9 Urban Governance Politics

• Power, Politics Policy
• The Structure of Urban Politics
• Theories of Urban Governance Elite Theories/
  Public Choice/ Urban Political Economy/Urban
  Growth Machine/Urban Regime Theory/Consensus
• Changing Nature of Urban Governance
• Urban Democracy Corruption, Machine
  Politics Bossism
• Urban Governance Collective Consumption
  (Castells)
• Challenge to Collective Consumption (1970s
  onwards)
• Political Participation (Local Elections)
  understanding declining turnout no need, no
  point, privatisation, secessionism,
  centralisation, globalization
• Filling the Gap Urban Social Movements
• Metropolitan Social Policy The Ongoing Debate
  (liberal social intervention v conservative
  market intervention)
• Social Justice (Harvey, 1973)

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WK 10 Modern Postmodern Spaces and Places

• The sociological distinction between space and
  place
• Lefebvre Space as Experienced, Perceived
  Imagined
• Harvey Created Spaces
• Topophilia Space, Place, Emotion, Authenticity
  - Yi Fu Tuan
• Rational Society The Rationalisation of Urban
  Space (see Disenchantment, Weber)
• Urban Planning Grand Visions Howards
  Garden City (1890s onwards), Le Corbusiers
  Rational/Geometric City (1920s )
• Modern Cities - High Rise, Homogeneity
  Disenchantment, Garden Suburbs, New Towns,
  Sprawl, MMR
• New Urbanism traditional neighbourhood design/
  anti-modernist anti - sprawl etc. (see Jacobs)
• Postmodern City (Derrida, Foucault, Baudrillard)
  Fantasy City (Hannigan) Re-enchantment of
  space?
• Global Cities Homogeneity, Rational/Functional
  Spaces with Enchanted Veneer, Glocalization

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WK 11 Global City

• Defining Globalization see also Robertsons
  phases of globalization
• The World City (Friedmann), The Global City
  (Sassen), Information City Space of Flows
  (Castells)
• Restructuring the Economy of the Global City
  Developed Economies Deindustrialisation
  (shift to IT, Financial Services and other forms
  of Commercial/Service industry)
• The Global Labour Market The New Migrant City
  Offshoring/Inshoring - Global Movements
  Migrant Cities
• Life Work in Global City (Developed)
  Polarisation (Sassen), Brazilianization (Beck),
  Flexibility, End of Work ( Rifkin)
• Life Work in Global City (Developing) Rapid
  Industrialisation ,Rapid Urbanisation, Growth,
  Uneven Development Expanding Inequality, Select
  Settlements Shanty Towns
• The Future of The Global Urban Society? Global
  Megalopolis Utopia or Dystopia?
  
  Continuing Polarisation Segregation or New
  Consensus? Urban Governance Politics. New
  Community Social Order or Social
  Disorganisation Authoritarianism? (see Mellor,
  1989)