Lesson 3 Meaning, Nature and Scope of Urban Sociology PDF

URBAN AND RURAL SOCIOLOGY Reference: Rai Technological University, Concepts of Urban Sociology Lesson 3: Meaning, Nature and Scope of Urban Sociology Prepared by: Samuel O. Parami, MPD, MM. Specific Objectives  Define urban sociology;  Explain the emergence of...

URBAN AND RURAL SOCIOLOGY Reference: Rai Technological University, Concepts of Urban Sociology Lesson 3: Meaning, Nature and Scope of Urban Sociology Prepared by: Samuel O. Parami, MPD, MM. Specific Objectives  Define urban sociology;  Explain the emergence of urban sociology  Characterize the nature of urban sociology  Delineate the scope of urban sociology  INTRODUCTION ❑ Urban sociology is a branch of sociology that seeks to study life in cities and their impact on society’s development. ❑ Social scientists were prompted to make cities a subject matter of study due to the social upheaval caused by the Industrial Revolution. ❑ Urban sociology seeks to describe and interpret the causal connections between the constitutive elements of a city and the factors that give rise to them  INTRODUCTION ❑ Urban sociology is a study of impact of city life on man’s social actions, social relationships, social institutions and types of civilization derived from and based on urban modes of living. ❑ It is a normative discipline of sociology seeking to study the structures, environmental processes, changes and problem of an urban area and by doing so provide inputs for urban planning and policy making. ❑ The scope of the discipline has significantly expanded over the years  DEFINITION ❑ Urban sociology is the study of the social organization and interaction of population groups within the built environment– the physical superstructure of highways, abandoned factories, suburban housing development, shopping malls, gated communities, public housing, manufacturing areas and the like created by modern capitalism.  DEFINITION ❑ It also deals with the historic forces, which have produced the industrial and corporate cities of the present era; the location of industrial and commercial areas within the contemporary city; the lifestyles of racial and ethnic groups within urban neighborhoods; and the effect of social, economic, and political forces on patterns of everyday life in cities of suburbs.  DEFINITION ❑ Urban sociology examines social structures and processes of modern urban ways of life and its implications for city dwellers with the socio-cultural milieu. ❑ This rapid expansion of urbanism requires a comprehensive understanding of urban relevant phenomena and urban sociology attempts to focus on the urbanized social way of life and its impact on the surroundings, the suburbs in particular. ❑ Urban sociology is the sociological study of the various statistics among the population in cities.  DEFINITION ❑ Urban Society: is the social organization resulting from the way people in cities act and interacts with one another and with their physical environment. ❑ Urbanization: refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change  EMERGENCE OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ Urban sociology is one of the oldest sub-disciplines of sociology dating back to the mid- nineteenth century although it emerged as a distinct sociological discipline in the early 20th century ❑ The social changes caused by Industrial Revolution and the development of cities motivated social scientists to make the city the subject matter of study  EMERGENCE OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ Focus on the influence of urban environment on man, his actions, relationships, institutions and modes of thinking, acting, behaving with others. ❑ The urban social milieu, the physical environment, the conditions that follow the socio-cultural and physical surroundings, the circumstances that are incumbent and the consequences that occur are all foci of attention of urban sociology.  EMERGENCE OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ The social, economic and technological forces that operate through human social milieu play determinant part in individual, familial and social life of an urban person as his roles and statuses undergo tremendous transformations affecting in turn the summum bonum of his life.  EMERGENCE OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ The philosophical foundations of modern urban sociology originate from the work of sociologists such as: Karl Marx, Ferdinand Tönnies, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber and Georg Simmel who studied and theorized the economic, social and cultural processes of urbanization and its effects on social alienation, class formation, and the production or destruction of collective and individual identities.  EMERGENCE OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ These theoretical foundations were further expanded upon and analyzed by a group of sociologists and researchers who worked at the University of Chicago in the 20TH century The pioneers of Chicago school Louis Wirth, Robert E. Park, Ernest W Burgess, R.D. McKenzie conducted a series of urban sociological studies between 1915 and 1940 Scholars of the Chicago School originally sought to answer a single question: how did an increase in urbanism during the time of the Industrial Revolution contribute to the magnification of contemporary social problems?  EMERGENCE OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ The importance of the theories developed by the Chicago School within urban sociology have been critically sustained and critiqued ❑ they still remain one of the most significant historical advancements in understanding urbanization and the city within the social sciences.  NATURE OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ In urban sociology, the kind of social relations studied are the relations which occurs in an urban society. The urban society is studied and investigated according to sociological methods and techniques. ❑ Urban sociology studies general and specific features. ❑ Certain features which are to be found in every urban society and are therefore, to be regarded general. ❑ There are certain specific features peculiar to one or more towns but inapplicable to others.  CHARACTERISTICS OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ sociological analysis of city and its life style ❑ concerns the dynamism of society stimulated by urbanization ❑ urban problems and possible remedies to solve them ❑ Factual study of urban social living ❑ social relation among the city dweller ❑ geo-spatial cultural issues and comparative analysis of urban ecology  CHARACTERISTICS OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ social relation which may harmonious or conflicting ❑ a social science ❑ a theoretical as well as an applied science ❑ categorical science not a normative science ❑ an abstract not a concrete science ❑ value free science ❑ based on universal, authentic and valid scientific data  CHARACTERISTICS OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ Two major currents came to characterize urban sociology in the early period 1. University of Chicago - emphasized the demographic and ecological structure of the city, the social disorganization and pathology of the urban normative order and the social psychology of urban existence 2. ‘Community studies’ - broad- gauged ethnographic studies of the social structure of individual communities and the ways of life of the inhabitants  CHARACTERISTICS OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ Two major currents came to characterize urban sociology in the early period ❑ These two orientations are divided into the culturalists’ approach and the structuralists’ approach in the urban sociology ❑ The culturalists emphasize on how urban life feels, how people react to living in urban areas; and how the city life is organized. This approach tries to study and explore the culture, organizational and social psychological consequences of urban life. Example: Louis Wirth’s works  CHARACTERISTICS OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ The structuralists’ approach investigates the interplay between the political and the economic forces, the growth, decline and changing spatial organization of urban space. ❑ They consider city as the physical embodiment of political and economic relationship. ❑ They argue that the city itself is an effect of more fundamental forces and cities are shaped by social powers that affect all aspects of human existence ❑ sociologists like Park, Burgess and McKenzie of the Chicago School belong to this approach.  SCOPE OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ The scope of urban sociology is very vast and multidimensional ❑ Relies on the related sciences and borrows from history, economics, social psychology, public administration and social work ❑ The subject-matter of urban sociology is cities and their growth, and it deals with such problems as: ❑ planning and development of cities, traffic regulations, public waterworks, social hygiene, sewerage works, housing, beggary, juvenile delinquency, crime and so on  SCOPE OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ Sub-headings of urban sociology: A. Introductory scope 1. Urban ecology - studies the facts of the urban environment, emphasizing the study of population in the cities 2. Urban Morphology - study of the social life of urban areas and that of an urban organization 3. Urban Psychology - covers the behavior and the mode of living of the people in urban areas  SCOPE OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ Sub-headings of urban sociology: ❑ Analytical scope - Analyzing urban sociology is another important field of study. Under the analytical scope, various concepts and important phases of urban life are developed and studied B. Reformative scope ❑ Under the reformatory scope of urban sociology, the problems of urbanism are studied. ❑ This includes some of the important issues such as the impact of urbanization on urban society leading to urban  SCOPE OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY ❑ 3 Additional Dimensions: Gottdiener and Hutchision (2011) 1) The shift to a global perspective- 2) Attention to the political economy of pull factors - (government policies including mortgage guarantees for lenders, tax deductions for homeowners, and the like) in urban and suburban development,. 3) Appreciation of the role of culture in metropolitan life and in the construction of the built environment  FEATURES OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY 1) Heterogeneity : Urban community is a heterogeneous group, where people belong to different race, religion, language, and creed 2) Secondary relations : The urban community is characterized by secondary relations People are indifferent towards one another. Face-to-face, friendly or intimate relations may not be observed among people  FEATURES OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY 3) Voluntary Associations : According to standard of living, they form their own residential groups and needed institutions and association 4) Social Mobility : In urban society, social status is not traditional but based on the economic status, educational standard and talent  FEATURES OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY 5) Individual Freedom : In urban community, men and women have more independence. People are more individualistic in their attitudes. 6) Occupations : All people are engaged in non-agricultural jobs, such as business, marketing, office, police, court, industry and factory, transport communication, hospitals and educational institutions, theatre, share market etc. So, they are always far away from nature and simple life  FEATURES OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY 7) Secondary Control : In urban community individual behavior is not controlled by family, religion and neighborhood. It is controlled by secondary organizations, such as, government, police, court etc. 8) Lack of Community Feeling : There is a lack of community feeling, feeling of oneness, unity and integrity of the family, neighborhood in the city. In urban community, people are busy in their individual achievement  FEATURES OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY 9) Social Disorganization : Urban community has number of institutions and associations. They are working independently. So, there is always struggle, conflict and competition. Thus, social disorganization is seen and felt. 10) Unstable Family : Family is no longer the economic, educational, protective, recreational and effective unit. Family has lost much of its control over its individual members. Many of the traditional functions of the family are transferred to the external agencies. It is said that the urban family is not firmly organized  SUMMARY ❑ The rapid expansion of urbanism requires a comprehensive understanding of urban relevant phenomena. ❑ George Simmel is widely considered to be the father of urban sociology. He contributes to the field in works such as ‘The Metropolis and Mental Life’ published in 1903. ❑ Urban sociology is the study of how urban settings shape human behavior and how human behavior shape urban settings.