Sociology of the City

1. Sociology of the City Revision Week

2. WK 2 Urbanisation • Origins of Cities – 6-10k years ago • Ancient Cities – (Sjoberg) • Urban Revolution – (Childe) • Early Western & Classical Cities (Greco-Roman era) • Decline of Urbanisation (Middle ages) to rise of pre-industrial Cities (Renaissance city of late Middle Ages) • Modernity, Capilalism, Industrialisation & Urbanisation • Postmodern (post-industrial) Cities

3. WK 3 Key Themes & Approaches • Historical – Sjoberg, Childe, Mumford • Early Urban Reformers – Booth, Rowntree, Mayhew, Engels (UK) Adams, Riis (USA) • Modernity & Political Economy: Weber*, Durkheim, Marx & Engels*, Veblen, Benjamin, Tönnies, Simmel* • Urban Sociology: • The Ecological Approach: The ‘Chicago School’ of Park, Burgess, Wirth et al. • Late 1960’s onwards New Urban Sociology: • Urban Political Economy: Lefebvre, • Conflict & Capital Accumulation - Castells, Harvey, • Urban ‘Growth Machine’ Logan & Molotch • Globalization & World Cities: Sassen, Hall • The Socio-Spatial Approach: Gottdiener & Hutchison • (See also Contemporary Cultural/Postmodern Approaches: Zukin, Sennett, Bourdieu, Habermas, Foucault, Derrida, Baudrillard, Hannigan)

4. WK4 The Social Map • ‘Homo Sociologicus’ & the privileging of the external • Sociology, Psychology & Biology • Social Construction or ‘Co-construction’ • The Social Map - Social Classification, Cognitive Parsimony & Routinisation, Emotion, Complexity Reduction: Reciprocal Constraint & Reciprocal Reinforcement, The ‘Janus Self’ (Homogeneity & Heterogeneity), Power Relations (Ideology, Inertia & Dependency) • Urban Settings – Complexity, Functional Organisation (Bureaucracy & Specialisation) Social Interaction & Social Control (Reciprocal Constraint & Reciprocal Reinforcement, ‘Civil Inattention’ ,The ‘Civilising Process’, Regimentation, Mass Media, Authority & Surveillance) • Over-rationalisation (environment and interaction) (consumer culture)

5. WK5 Urbanism 1 – City and (Lost?) Community • Theme – Greater Freedom v. Greater Isolation, Social Disorganisation & Estrangement • Defining Community • Rural to Urban – Durkheim, Tonnies etc. • Simmel - ‘Metropolis and Mental Life’ • Wirth – ‘The Urban Way of Life’ • Gans – ‘Urban Villagers’ • Suburbia & the Suburban Way of Life • Putnam – ‘Bowling Alone’

6. WK6 Urbanism 2 – City, Identity & (transformed) Community • New Forms of Selfhood- Ascribed, Simple ID to Achieved, Complex ID, Expanded Roles & Interactions • Dominance of ‘the Visual’ – Simmel, Veblen, Benjamin, Foucault, Goffman • Consumption & Urban ID • Benjamin – ‘Arcades Project’, ‘City Sketches’, the Flaneur • Time – ‘Night Life’/ 24 hr society – )(see Melbin, Chatterton & Holland) – Hedonism & Play • Civilisation & Social Control – Elias, Foucault, Bourdieu • Urban society as ‘Imagined Community’ – Anderson (see also Kornhauser & ‘Mass Society’) • Media & Imagined Community/Mass Society – Celebs, Moral Panics (Cohen ) & Urban Myths • Media Reception – Hypodermic & Active Models • Sub- Cultures & New Forms Of Community – Fischer, Bellah, Maffesoli

7. WK 7 Stratification, Inequality & Spatial Segregation • Urban Social Classes (change from rural order) • Capitalist commodification of labour/space • Laissez Faire/Social Darwinism & Uneven Development • Studies of Early Urban Inequality: (UK) Booth Mayhew, Rowntree, Engels (US) Riis, Veblen, Adams • Late 19th & Early 20th C. Social Strife – Rent Strikes, Unions, Reform • Keynesian Restructuring of Capitalism (Post 1930’s) • Ethnic & Gender Divisions • Late Modernity (from mid ’70’s) – return to (neo) classical economics/marketisation • Urban Polarisation: A Growing Gap? – Wealth, Income, Housing • Gentrification & Ghettoization? – Competition, Displacement, Fragmentation, Polarisation, Underclass, Gating

8. WK8 Urban Disorder, Crime, Deviance, Surveillance and Social Control • ‘The Dangerous Classes’ (19th C.) – Segregation, Religion, Temperance & ‘Rational Recreation’ • Causes of Urban Crime - Individual Deviance/ Immorality, Anomie, Alienation, Social Disorganisation, Compositional Factors, Subcultures, Culture of Poverty & Underclass Norms, Uneven Development and Scale, Disadvantage, ‘Racial Disparity’, (Hyper) Segregation, Isolation, Media & Difference • Causes of Urban Crime – Strain Theories – Merton and others • Opportunity & Insecurity (Savage et al) • Forms of Urban Crime & Deviance • Civil Disorder & Riot – Collective Strain? • The New ‘Dangerous’ Classes? • Social Control, Law & Order – Policing & Prisons • Social Control & Surveillance Society - Mass Media & Governmentality – Surveillance Society (Lyon)

9. WK9 Urban Governance & Politics • Power, Politics & Policy • The Structure of Urban Politics • Theories of Urban Governance – Elite Theories/ Public Choice/ Urban Political Economy/Urban ‘Growth’ Machine/Urban Regime Theory/Consensus • Changing Nature of Urban Governance • Urban ‘Democracy’ – Corruption, ‘Machine Politics’ & ‘Bossism’ • Urban Governance & ‘Collective Consumption’ (Castells) • Challenge to Collective Consumption (1970’s onwards) • Political Participation (Local Elections) – understanding declining turnout – ‘no need’, ‘no point’, privatisation, ‘secessionism’, centralisation, globalization • Filling the Gap: Urban Social Movements • Metropolitan Social Policy: The Ongoing Debate (liberal social intervention v conservative market intervention) • Social Justice (Harvey, 1973)

10. WK 10 Modern & Postmodern ‘Spaces and Places’ • The sociological distinction between ‘space’ and ‘place’ • Lefebvre – Space as Experienced, Perceived & Imagined • Harvey – ‘Created Spaces’ • Topophilia; Space, Place, Emotion, Authenticity - Yi Fu Tuan • Rational Society & The Rationalisation of Urban Space (see ‘Disenchantment’, Weber) • Urban Planning – ‘Grand Visions’ – Howard’s Garden City (1890’s onwards), Le Corbusier’s Rational/Geometric City (1920’s +) • Modern Cities - High Rise, Homogeneity & Disenchantment, Garden Suburbs, ‘New Towns’, Sprawl, MMR • New Urbanism – traditional neighbourhood design/ anti-modernist anti - sprawl etc. (see Jacobs) • Postmodern City (Derrida, Foucault, Baudrillard) & ‘Fantasy City’ (Hannigan) – Re-enchantment of space? • Global Cities – Homogeneity, Rational/Functional Spaces with ‘Enchanted’ Veneer, Glocalization

11. WK 11 Global City • Defining Globalization – see also Robertson’s phases of globalization • ‘The World City’ (Friedmann), ‘The Global City’ (Sassen), ‘Information City’ & ‘Space of Flows’ (Castells) • Restructuring the Economy of the Global City: ‘Developed’ Economies – Deindustrialisation (shift to IT, Financial Services and other forms of Commercial/Service industry) • The Global Labour Market & The New Migrant City – ‘Offshoring/’Inshoring’ - Global Movements & Migrant Cities • Life & Work in Global City (Developed) : Polarisation (Sassen), ‘Brazilianization’ (Beck), Flexibility, End of Work ( Rifkin) • Life & Work in Global City (Developing) : Rapid Industrialisation ,Rapid Urbanisation, Growth, Uneven Development & Expanding Inequality, Select Settlements & Shanty Towns • The Future of The Global Urban Society? Global Megalopolis – Utopia or Dystopia? Continuing Polarisation & Segregation or New Consensus? Urban Governance & Politics. New Community & Social Order or Social Disorganisation & Authoritarianism? (see Mellor, 1989)