Sociology: Sociology and Urban Change Urban Essay example

Submitted By Chopecoleman
Words: 540
Pages: 3

• What draws people to cities? Education, finances,
• How do neighborhoods form and change?
• Does living in cities influence who we are, who our friends are, and how we live?
• Why are we so many social problems found in cities? Population
Urban
•Population density 1,000+ people per square mile and surrounding areas with population density of 500+ ppl per square mile
Rural
•Everything else
Urbanization
•Census Bureau- growth in population proportion living in cities and urban areas
•Sociological perspective- descriptive of how cities and communities form and change and how dimensions of places affect way that people interact with each other
Davis (1965)
•Process of urbanization follows "S curve" driven by timing of industrialization
•Example: Great migration of African Americans from rural south to industrial cities of north
Urban suburban and rural patterns if settlements
New urban forms
•Cocurbs: Dallas/Fort Worth, Seattle/Tacoma
-seamless transition between two cities
•Megacities- Mexico City
-cities over 10 million people
∙Megaregion/Northeast corridor of U.S.
Suburban changes
-before twentieth century low population density and trade specialization; later, bedroom communities and annexation
•White flight
-Northeast, Midwest, and later in the West
•Redlining
-differential government support by race
•Urban sprawl
-edge cities(Sugarland, Katy, Conroe, Woodlands)

Neighborhoods and urban Change
Urban ecology
•The Chicago school
-different segments of population sort themselves into that area of city in which they thrive
•Park and Burgess:Concentric Zones Map of Chicago
-as individuals assimilate and move upward, they move outward to residential zones
City as growth machine
•Urban change can be thought of as direct result of political and economic interests working to promote growth
•In pursuit of growth, local government/ regulate use and distribution of land within city through taxation, policing, and regulation
Racial and tonic segregation in the growth machine(city)
•Growth coalitions sought to keep poor African Americans and Latino populations from spreading in particular ways
∙"No-go" zones
•Different groups, bringing different resources and differential influence to political discussion, pitted again it's each other

Living in an Urban World
•Klineberg (2012)
-documents growth in number of Americans living by self
-not necessarily negative trend
•Putnam (2000)
-expresses concern with growing social isolation
Urbanization as a way of life
Simmer (1902/1972)
-Seminal work on effects of urbanism on individuals
-City dwellers found both freedom and