Population
and Community
Chapter
20: Sociology, Schaefer, 1995-2012
Demography
Malthus and
Marx
- Thomas
Robert Malthus
(1798)
- World's
population was growing more rapidly than the available food supply.
- Increasing
over time: poverty and starvation
- Karl
Marx
- Capitalism
as cause of social ills
- Issue: choices made
on how resources are used
Gathering Information
Population Patterns
Community
IDENTITY based on a sense
of BELONGING to a social and/or geographical
unit, (where you should have gone to high school?)(Language)
Cities:
subsistence and surplus
Pre-Industrial City
(restricted development)
- Closed class
- Guilds (see also)
- Limited division of labor
- Religion dominates
- Little standardization
- Illiterate, little formal
schooling
- Animal power
- Problematic transport and storage of goods
- Difficulties in moving from city to rural areas
- Dangerous
- See: Sjoberg, Gideon. 1955. "The Preindustrial City." American Journal of Sociology.The University of Chicago Press: Chicago. (JSTOR stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2772531)
Industrial City: Gesellschaft:
Different social organization
- Open class system
- Open competition (vs.
guilds)
- Elaborate specialization
- Decline in religious
influence
- Standardization in production
and consumption
- High level of communication
and formal schooling
- Rationality
and modernity
Massive growth potential, leading
to--
Post Industrial City
- Information as wealth
and power
- Corporate control
- Less of a focus on place--a
global reality
- Fragmentation of religious
belief--proliferation of a variety of belief systems
- Critique of standardization
- Electronic networks and
advanced education
or...the
Postmodern City?
Urbanization and Social
Change
Human and Urban Ecology:
Park and Burgess
Conflict:
- Above neglects social
forces and desire for profit (World Systems Analysis)
- New Urban Sociology:
Globalism and Local Space, Economic Forces which shape Urban Growth
- Role of government: FHA,
Highways, Tax incentives, gas subsidies, and the demise of the central cities.
- Banks and home mortgages (versus development of multi-family dwellings)
- Restrictive Covenants (in St. Louis)
- Housing vs. homelessness
- Mapping Decline (book)
- Inequalities
General
Elements:
- Macro level forces
and their impact on urban area
- Economic competition,
dominance, and inequality as sources of change
- Corporations and
Financial Institutions as Agents of Change
Interactionism
Community Attachment
Lineal-Development
- Population size
- Urbanism--distinctive patterns of behavior (Louis Wirth): Size,
density and heterogeneity. Urban Apathy-Helping
Others?
- Insensitivity and limited contact
- Simmel: Number of possible contacts
overwhelming
Systemic:
Urbanism as product of a variety of factors.
Central Cities:
- Long term decline
- Renewal:
Business and tourism vs. residential
- Source of new opportunities:
- Immigrants, Blacks (post WWII),
poor whites
- Impact of industrial shift
- Gans: Variety of dwellers: Cosmopolites,
Singles, Ethnic Villagers, Deprived, and the Trapped
- Defended Neighborhoods and social
isolation
- Social Problems
- Segregation
- Homelessness
- Blight
- Finances
Suburbs:
- Levittown (image, circa 1959)(another)
- Real growth of the Twentieth century
- Wealth, but also increasing diversity
- Rossi: Pushes and Pulls
- Bedrooms vs. communities
Rural:
- Utopia (always idealistic image
in USA)
- Resurgence and growth, or not?:
- Residential
- Significant decrease in farming
- Lack of retail opportunities:
target of the Warehouse stores
- Urban-rural digital divide
Gentrification:
Social
Change
URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/010/commune.html
Owner: Robert O. Keel rok@umsl.edu
References and
Credits for this Page of Notes
Last Updated:
Tuesday, December 5, 2017 7:34 AM
