Sociology Week 8: Cities and Urban Life

Sociology Week 8: Cities and Urban Life

• Week 8 focuses on cities and urban life
• Session 8/1: The Chicago School of Sociology on urbanization
• Session 8/2: Religious pluralism in the city
• Valeria Fabretti teaches those sessions
• Guest lecture (session 9/3): Prof. Patrick Le Galès on "The Rise and Fall of the Sociology of the Global City"
• Readings for Week 8
  • Giddens, Anthony & Sutton, Philip W. (2021). Sociology. 9th Edition, London: Polity. Chapter 13 "Cities and urban life"—Theorizing urbanism, Community and urban personality, The Chicago School, City spaces, surveillance and inequality, classic studies and sociological imagination, pp. 516-525
  • Simmel, Georg: “The Metropolis and Mental Life”, in Giddens, Anthony & Sutton, Philip W. (2022). Sociology: Introductory Readings. 4th Edition, London: Polity, pp. 93-97
  • Fabretti, Valeria et al. (2019). “Increasing plurality and neglected pluralism: Religious Diversity in the Suburbs of Rome”, in Bock, J.J.; Fahy, J. and Everett, S. (eds.) Emergent Religious Pluralisms, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, pp. 167-193.

Enrolment and Resources

• Enrolment 8/1 one day in Luiss Library scheduled for week 8
• Quiz on urban sociology topics: https://etc.ch/jBzC

Quiz Debriefing

• Settlement sizes and terminologies: villages, towns, cities, megacities (a cluster of densely settled areas around a major city forming a continuous network) e.g. Mexico City, conurbation (a cluster of cities and towns forming a continuous network) e.g., Milan metropolitan area, Ruhrgebiet in Germany
• Rome is somewhat in-between a city and megacity, metropolitan city is sometimes used as terminology
• Mobility: In 1950, only 30% of the global population was urban, by 2007, it overtook the rural population, and by 2050, it's projected to reach 70% (UN 2010)
• Graph of urban population % from 1950 to 2050

Georg Simmel (1958-1918)

• Born and lived in Berlin; studied philosophy
• Remained an academic outsider in a largely antisemitic German academy
• Co-founder of the German Society for Sociology with Max Weber and Ferdinand Toennies
• Interested in social interaction particularly in the city
• Influenced the Chicago School of Sociology
• The Metropolis and Mental Life (1903)

Sociological Perspective on the City

• Sociological perspective (CW Mills): human agency, personal troubles, biography and social structures, history
• Simmel's argument long before mills that the individual is in-between two forces: individuality of existence and social forces.
• The city as a space shaping mindset and social relations

Simmel's Attributes to City and Rural Life

• City life: Urbanism—rapid telescoping of changing images, pronounced differences within what is grasped at a single glance, unexpected violence stimuli, and reacts primarily in a rational manner
• Rural life: feelings and emotional relationships, steady equilibrium of unbroken customs, peaceful and stable milieu

Nostalgia of Community in German Sociology

• Max Weber, Georg Simmel, and Ferdinand Toennies had a sociological perspective on social interactions
• Shared a concern with the loss of community and spontaneity with modernization
• Emphasized the rise of individualism, rationalism, and bureaucratic relations
• Projected this pessimism into urban sociology

Film Metropolis

• Influential German science-fiction film (highly stylized) about a futuristic, culturally developed Utopia and a bleak underworld of mistreated workers
• Shows the conflict and struggles of the rebellious class versus the privileged class

Chicago School of Urban Sociology

• 1920s to 1940s
• Key names & concepts to remember:
• Peter Park: urban ecology, studied with Simmel in Germany
• Louis Wirth: urbanism as a way of life, influenced by Simmel and Toennies; born in Germany, grew up in a rural setting before moving to the U.S.A as a teenager

Urbanism as a Way of Life (Wirth)

• Influences of cities on social life are greater than the ratio of urban population, not only a dwelling-place and workplace, but center of economic, political, and cultural life.
• Secondary contacts (salespeople, public transport) are dominant
• Weak interpersonal bonds and weak solidarity and fast pace of life

Urban Ecology (Parks)

• In the natural world, organisms tend to be distributed systematically, achieving balance or equilibrium
• Cities are sorting mechanisms selecting for individuals best suited to various regions
• Ecological concepts (competition, invasion, and succession) help understand urban areas
• Neighborhoods shift in adjusting to livelihoods, showing distinct and contrasting social characteristics

Urban sociology & Human Geography

• Urban sociology: Study of human interaction in urban areas
• Urban geography: Impact of urban processes on the physical and human world
• Urban Studies are transdisciplinary fields.
• Cities are generators of economic growth, ideas, entrepreneurism and have frequently surpassed national policies in enacting stringent climate change and social justice policies.

Sanctuary Cities

• Municipalities that limit or deny cooperation with the national government in enforcing immigration law

Discussion and Feedback on Mid-term Exam

• Discussion and feedback session on the mid-term

Outlook to Week 9: Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality

• Session 9/1: Feminism, gender identity, and social constructionist theories
• Session 9/2: Book presentation ("The Global Fight Against LGBTI Rights" by Phillip Ayoub and Kristina Stoeckl)

Readings for Week 9

• Giddens, Anthony & Sutton, Philip W. (2021). Sociology, 9th Edition, London: Polity. Chapter 5—Theories and perspectives, Feminist theories and Poststructuralism and postmodernity, pp. 88–93; Chapter 7—Gender and Sexuality, Gender, sex, and sexuality, Gender identity, Social constructions of gender and sexuality, pp. 245-250, Gender inequality, Feminist perspectives, Feminist movements, pp. 256–266
• Beauvoir, Simone. "Woman—The Second Sex?" in Giddens, Anthony & Sutton, Philip W. (2010). Sociology, Introductory Readings, 3rd Edition, London: Polity, pp. 143–146
• Butler, Judith. (2011). Gender Trouble. Taylor and Francis. Preface (1999) and Section 1.1 "Woman"

Additional Concepts (from scattered parts of document)

• Gentrification
• Inner-city decay
• Social inequalities in the city
• Theoretical synthesis (combining conflict and social interactionist perspectives)
• Mapping the city (mapparoma)