Urban Places and Social Problems
Lecture 1
Cities are created, they are social constructions by people
Sociologists: why is this city one way and not another?
o How do people interact?
Where we live matters —> can’t study sociology without taking into consideration the place
Study concepts —> don’t want you to memorise things
o What is the big picture
Each week will build on each other —> stay on top of the reading
Thinking spatially
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
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
o Community lost?
But also … liberation!
Metropolis = Locale of freedom
Produces independence
Individualism
Opportunities for uniqueness
Safety
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
Ethnography
Ethnography is the study of people as they go about their daily lives
How people come to understand the social world around them and their place in it, as well as to question what
people say in light of what they do
Lecture 2
Chicago school of (Urban) Sociology
Dominated sociology for 50+ years (1842-1942)
Reportedly trained half of the worlds sociologists by 1930
Studied everyday life as well as interactions
They saw the city as a research lab
Background: Sociology as a science
Beginning of the 1900’s a lot of European migration (as we are facing now in the EU)
What is the impact of these immigrants (minorities) on the city
Background: Europe’s influence
German sociologists -> Weber, Simmel
British settlement movement
Background; Reform and action
Lecture 1
Cities are created, they are social constructions by people
Sociologists: why is this city one way and not another?
o How do people interact?
Where we live matters —> can’t study sociology without taking into consideration the place
Study concepts —> don’t want you to memorise things
o What is the big picture
Each week will build on each other —> stay on top of the reading
Thinking spatially
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
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
o Community lost?
But also … liberation!
Metropolis = Locale of freedom
Produces independence
Individualism
Opportunities for uniqueness
Safety
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
Ethnography
Ethnography is the study of people as they go about their daily lives
How people come to understand the social world around them and their place in it, as well as to question what
people say in light of what they do
Lecture 2
Chicago school of (Urban) Sociology
Dominated sociology for 50+ years (1842-1942)
Reportedly trained half of the worlds sociologists by 1930
Studied everyday life as well as interactions
They saw the city as a research lab
Background: Sociology as a science
Beginning of the 1900’s a lot of European migration (as we are facing now in the EU)
What is the impact of these immigrants (minorities) on the city
Background: Europe’s influence
German sociologists -> Weber, Simmel
British settlement movement
Background; Reform and action
