Chapter 5 - Urban Sociology

Front 1

Who were the first sociologists, and what did they argue?

-societal transformation

-barbarianism

-primitive

- social evolution

Back 1

Marx and Engel.

(1) Argued that societal transformation primarily results from conflict between the proletariat and capitalists

(2) The rise of the city amounts to a transition from barbarianism to civilization

(3) some cities remain as a primitive community,

(4) Social evolution of humans was not yet complete

Front 2

Explain the tennets of Gemeinschaft

Back 2

- people have an essential unity of purpose

- work together for the common good

-united by ties of family and neighborhood

-

Front 3

explain the tennets of gesellschaft

Back 3

- mechanical aggregate

-disunity

- rampant individualism

- selfishness

- belief in common good is rare

- little social ties

Front 4

Why was gesellschaft and gemeinschaft important to sociology?

Back 4

one of the first theories to understand human settlements by means of a continuum.

Front 5

What theories did Durkheim endorse? which Sociologists was his theories close to?

Back 5

- mechanical and organic solidarity. Tonnies

Front 6

Explain mechanical solidarity

Back 6

-social bonds based on likeness, common belief, custom

- mechanical because those who participate in it do so with an almost automatic response to tradition

Front 7

explain organic solidarity

Back 7

- social oder based on individual differences

- rests on a complex division of labor, in which many people specialize in many different occupations

Front 8

How do tonnies and Durkheim differ? How are they similar, if at all?

Back 8

(1) Durkheim believed that life within the larger society was just as natural to the small groupings in rural environment

(2) Tonnies did not share Durkheims negative views of modern society

(3) Durkheim reverse Tonnies terminology

Front 9

What were Durkheims thoughts on Organic Solidarity? Especially, the complex division of labor?

Back 9

he saw the possibility of greater freedom and choice for all of societys inhabitants

Front 10

Simmels Characteristics of the City

Back 10

(1) the intensification of nervous stimuli with which the city dweller must cioe

(2) highly attuned to time, Urbanites

(3) the importance of money

Front 11

The individuals response to the city (Simmel)

Back 11

(1) Urbanite develops a blase attitude (social reserve or detachment)

(2) This indifference may transform into antagonism

Front 12

Who systematically looked at the social psychology of city life?

Back 12

Simmel

Front 13

Who was the first to survey more than one type of cities? where did he look?

Back 13

Weber. He looked in Europe, Middle East, China, India.

Front 14

Who developed the "full urban community" theory?

Back 14

Weber

Front 15

What are the characteristics necessary to constitute a "full urban community?"

Back 15

(1) a fortification

(2) a market

(3) a court of its own and at least partially autonomous law

(4) a related form of association

(5) at least partial political autonomy

Front 16

What did Weber identify as an ideal type?

Back 16

A model constructed from real-world observation that highlights the crucial elements of some social phenomenon (Like his full urban community theory)

Front 17

Describe Webers views of the city

Back 17

(1) believed that cities could be positive and liberating forces in human life

(2) He did not see much hope for 20th century cities )believed older cities of the medieval period best exemplified the full urban community)

(3) believed that cities had lost their political and military autonomy

Front 18

Sum up the main concept of each sociologist and their attitude towards the city:

Marx and Engels

Back 18

1) The city can free individuals to act on their own, but works will need to overcome their explotation. (Most optimistic)

Front 19

Sum up the main concept of each sociologist and their attitude towards the city:

Tonnies

Back 19

(2) The inevitable emergence of gesellschaft will result in a loss of communal relationships. (Pessimistic)

Front 20

Sum up the main concept of each sociologist and their atittude towards the city:

Durkheim

Back 20

(3) The organic solidarity found in a complex division of labor in the city can provide greater freedom and choice in life. (Optimistic)

Front 21

Sum up the main concept of each sociologist and their attitude towards the city:

Simmel

Back 21

(4) City can be liberating but also alienating. Abundance of stimuli promotes a detached approach. (Mixed, mostly)

Front 22

Sum up the main concept of each sociologist and their attitude towards the city:

Weber

Back 22

(5) Cities are linked to the larger societal context; medieval, not modern, cities better exemplified the full urban community. (Mixed)

Front 23

Sum up the main concept of each sociologist and their attitude towards the city:

Park

Back 23

(6) Cities have potential to enhance the human experience; need to do on-site investigation of the city and its people (optimistic)

Front 24

Sum up the main concept of each sociologist and their attitude towards the city:

Wirth

Back 24

(7) Size, density, and heterogeneity lead to segmented and depersonalized relationships, possible antisocial behavior. (negative)

Front 25

Sum up the main concept of each sociologist and their attitude towards the city:

Gans

Back 25

(8) City is actually a complex mosaic of many lifestyles and so individuals' urban experience varies accordingly. (mixed, mostly)

Front 26

Sum up the main concept of each sociologist and their attitude towards the city:

Fischer

Back 26

(9) Large cities have capacity to support many subcultures and thus strengthen in-group relationships. (optimistic)

Front 27

Describe Parks Systematic Urban Sociology

Back 27

1) First, urban research must be conducted by disciplined observation, like anthropologists study other cultures

2) conceived the city as a social organisms, with distinct parts bound together by internal processes

3) All these parts are connected

Front 28

What was Wirth's definition of the city?

Back 28

(1) large

(2) dense

(3) socially and culturally heterogeneous people

Front 29

What 4 factors that Wirth described in terms of a city's population

Back 29

(1) a large population produces greate diversity in the cultural and occupational characteristics of the city

(2) the condition of cultural diversity produced by a large population has the additional effect of creating a need for formal control structures

(3) a large differentiated population supports the proliferation of specialization, and an occupational structure based on differing occupations

(4) Specialization organizes human relationships more on an "interest-specific" basis, which Wirth described as "social segmentalization"

Front 30

Wirths 4 factors or consequences of population density.

Back 30

(1) pop density intensifies the effects of a large population size on social life. (the city seperates into a mosaic of readily identifiable regions or districts)

(2) Wirth called this process of serparating the city into districts "ecological specialization" (today we use the term natural area

(3) Argued that urbanites develop mental shorthand (a mental mapping of the city, its regions, and its inhabitants)

(4) Suggested that high density might cause an increase in antisocial behavior

Front 31

Wirths 3 consequences of social difference or heterogeneity

Back 31

(1) social interaction amoung such a variety of personality types in the urban milieu tends to break down the rididity of caste lines and to complicate the class structure

(2) physical movement typically accompanies social mobility (lack of true neighbors)

(3) the concentration of diverse people leads inevitably to further depersonalization

Front 32

Names Gans' four types of lifestyles

Back 32

(1) the cosmopolites

(2) the unmarried or childless

(3) the ethnic villager

(4) the poor or trapped

Front 33

Cosmopolites

Back 33

highly educated, live in city for its stimulation

Front 34

unmarried or childless

Back 34

single adults or couples without children, older couples whose children have left or died from 9/11

Front 35

ethnic villagers

Back 35

1st and 2nd generation working class residents, many traditional values upheld, tend to cluster in local areas

Front 36

the deprived or trapped

Back 36

poor, handicapped, broken family situations

Front 37

Subcultural theory of urbanism

Back 37

the urban milieu strengthens group relationships

Front 38

Is urban malaise a truth?

Back 38

researchers have found over the past 40 years that no significant difference in the mental health of urban versus non-urban residents exists