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Complete literature summary Urban Places Social Problems
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A complete and detailed summary of all literature for the course Urban Places and Social Problems
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UPSP Literature SummaryG. SIMMEL “THE METROPOLIS AND MENTAL LIFE” (1903)
Alienation
Georg Simmel
o Lived in Berlin in early 19th century
o Industrialisation
o Everything was changing in his lifetime
What are the effects of the city on the individual
And how does the individual relate to the society
What is the psychological basis of metropolitan life?
o Intensification of nervous stimulation
o Crowding
In response, the city inhabitant develops a “protective organ” (i.e. intellectually)
o Head over heart
o Rationality
o Smaller towns: operate more on emotion
Unrelenting hardness
Consequences (individual):
o Blasé attitude
o Self-preservation at all costs
o Reserved
o Feelings of worthlessness
o Too much stimulation —> can’t handle that
Consequences (societal):
o Urbanites are impersonal
o Driven by calculated efficiencies(?)
o Decline of social capital
Community lost
JANE JACOBS “CHAPTER 2: THE USES OF SIDEWALKS: SAFETY” (1961).
Jane Jacobs (1916-2006)
What makes cities unique from towns or suburbs
o They are full of strangers
If we don’t feel personally safe among strangers, our fear will breed decline
If streets look interesting, the city looks interesting
And safety is their fundamental task!
Who keeps the peace in cities?
o Not police but the people
What are the three main qualities streets must have?
o 1. Public/private space
o 2. Eyes upon the street
o 3. Must have users continuously
“Public street civilising service”
o Bars, churches, other examples?
Without eyes upon the street, you have either danger, refuge, or turf wars
The daily ballet
You can’t buy safety
1
,EMERSON ET AL. (1995). WRITING ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELDNOTES.
R. SAMPSON, GREAT AMERICAN CITY: CHICAGO AND THE ENDURING NEIGHBORHOOD
EFFECT. (2012).
Sampson writes, “The cites order by a spatial logic” (p.6)
o There are patterns
Distance is both geographical and social
o Social —> what opportunities they have and their daily lives
Spatially inscribed social differences are discusses as “neighbourhood effects” —> place matters
Cities are not random and not driven by choice —> very much structured
o Dependent on our class, gender, race our choices are different
What does it mean to think spatially as a sociologist?
o Think relationally
People/people
People/places
Places/places
o Who gets to be in certain spaces and why?
o Uncover meanings people attach (or not) to places
Interaction in the city
Proximity brings people together with each other and spaces
o You are surrounded by people all the time
Interaction can be alienating
Interaction can be liberating
Interaction can increase public safety and also cause fear or concern
ROBERT E. PARK “THE CITY” (1925)
E. BURGESS “THE GROWTH OF THE CITY” (1925)
Burgess Text
Chapter II The Growth of the City: an introduction to a research project
It is obvious how enormous the changes (done with the machine industry) are in the cities
Such as the transition from a rural to an urban civilisation
Subtle changes in our social life (“social problems”) are mostly found in the larger cities
Statistical studies mainly deal with the effects of urban growth but it has also showed the characteristics
of urban populations compared with rural populations
Larger proportion of women
Greater percentage of youth and middle-aged
Higher ratio of foreign-born
Increased heterogeneity of occupation + growth of the city
Alters its social structure
Paper: 1. The expansion of the city, 2. Processes of urban metabolism and mobility which are closely
related to expansion
Expansion as physical growth
Expansion of a city seen as physical growth (by city plan, zoning, and regional surveys)
Public utilities companies have attempted to predict the direction and rate of growth in the city in order to
anticipate future demands of their services
2
, Striking development during last few decades: appearance of a number of vast urban
aggregates/conurbations
Formed through simultaneous expansion of a number of neighbouring towns and have grown
towards each other
Phenomena of great geographical and social importance: they give rise to new problems in
organisation of life and well-being of inhabitants and their varied activities
“The metropolitan area of the city” —> term for the tendency of the great city to expand
Expansion as a process
Typical processes of the expansion of the city can be best illustrated by a series of concentric circles
Tendencies of any town or city to expand radially from its central business district “The Loop” (I)
Area in transition invaded by business and light manufacture (II)
(III) inhabited by workers in industries and have escaped area of deterioration (II) but want easy
access to work
(IV) “residential area” of high-class apartment buildings
(V) commuters’ zone — suburban areas
Main fact of expansion (seen in chart) — the tendency of each inner zone to extend its area by the
invasion of the next outer zone —> succession
However no city fits perfectly into this chart
General process of expansion involves antagonist and complementary processes of concentration and
decentralisation
Transport converges in the central business district
Economic, cultural, and political life centers here
Expansion deals with physical growth of the city but also the extension of technical services
A tremendous development of communal existence —> one unified water system, one giant gas
company, one huge electric plant
These great public utilities are a part of the mechanisation of life in great cities and have little or
no other meaning for social organisation
Process of expansion can be studied in the aspect of consequent changes in the social organisation and
personality types
Social Organisation and Disorganisation as Processes of Metabolism
Think of urban growth as the process of metabolism in the body
Normally the processes of disorganisation and organisation may be thought of as in reciprocal
relationship to each other, and as cooperation in a moving equilibrium of social order towards an end of
vaguely or definitely regarded as progressive
Expansion of the city redistributes individuals and groups by residence and occupation
3
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