Assignment Code: BSOE-141/ASST /TMA /2022-23

Course Code: BSOE-141

Assignment Name: Urban sociology

Year: 2022-2023

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

There are three Sections in the Assignment. You have to answer all questions in the Sections.

Assignment – I

Answer the following in about 500 words each.2×20

1. How did urban sociology emerge? Discuss the role of the Chicago school of thought with examples.

Ans) Emergence of urban sociology: In the West, particularly following the Industrial Revolution, urban sociology first developed as a separate field of sociology at the beginning of the 20th century. It gained popularity in America: urban sociology became centred in cities like Chicago. Societal scientists choose to study cities as a result of the social changes brought on by the Industrial Revolution and the growth of urban areas. Urban sociology was developed in an effort to comprehend the rapid urbanisation process that occurred from the late 19th century through the first decade of the 20th century and the effects it had on social life. The centre of this field was the American city, which was becoming more well-known and was expanding quickly.

Sociologists like Max Weber and Georg Simmel began to concentrate on the speeding up of urbanisation and its implications on sentiments of social alienation and anonymity after the Industrial Revolution. Notably, Georg Simmel is regarded as the originator of urban sociology due to his contributions to the discipline in his 1903 publication The Metropolis and Mental Life, among other works.

G. Simmel's Die Großstädte und das Geistesleben from 1903; Max Weber's Die Stadt from 1921; and R. Maurier's Le Village et la ville from 1929 are the first three sociological masterpieces on urban sociology. However, Robert E. Park provided the actual impetus. When it was first published in the American Journal of Sociology in 1915, his paper "The City," which predicted the dawn of a new era, received little attention. The field of sociology was still largely unspecialized. It was still working hard to obtain recognition, which came very gradually. The tipping point occurs in 1925. His work was included with other entries in a tiny book called The City, which Park later republished. The Urban Community, a collection of brief articles they co-edited, was released the following year. The response was astounding. In 1929, the first urban sociology textbook was published. The new field has since prospered and grown. However, it is significant to note that the status of urban sociology is intimately tied to the degree of urbanisation and development of a given country.

The Chicago School: Through ground-breaking investigations into urban settings and social interactions, the Chicago School of Sociology is largely recognised for having established urban sociology as an academic sub-field. This group of sociologists conducted extensive research on Chicago's urban setting throughout the early 20th century, and their contributions to the field are still felt today. Subsequent scholars have begun to theorise urban phenomena using qualitative approaches like ethnography and land-use mapping. The Chicago School combines anthropological and sociological theories to comprehend how urban structures and small-scale interactions in cities are interconnected. The Chicago School aimed to give subjective meaning to how people relate to one another in relation to structural, cultural, and social contexts.

The Chicago School had a strong ideological commitment to the idea of urban culture, which it saw as a commonality shared by all citizens of cities, regardless of social class, gender, or racial background. However, the Chicago sociologists were tackling the main issue facing American society at the time by highlighting the requirements and paradoxes of social integration for a diverse local society: how to create a society out of a collection of disparate communities and competitive individuals fighting for survival. The difficulty of reconstructing social interaction patterns for former peasants and transients in an urban-industrial milieu was similarly acute, even though conditions in European cities were not as severe. Urban sociology emphasised the study of spatial patterning in addition to the study of social integration.

2. What do you understand by “New” urban sociology? Explain.

Ans) A paradigm change in urban sociology that started in the 1970s and established a preeminent approach is referred to as the "new urban sociology" notion. This method places a strong emphasis on Marxist and post-Marxist urban political economy (class, race, gender, agenda-setting big business in banking and real estate, and the involvement of government officials at all levels in influencing, if not determining, the outcomes of social activities in settlement space), the independent role of organised and constructed space itself, as first stated by Henri Lefebvre, and the role of culture, symbols, signs, themes, and p This entry discusses the new paradigm's substance, its applications, how it differs from the sociology's previous paradigm, and how significant recent work has applied the prevailing paradigm to the present and projected future of urbanised settlement space.

The second trend is now referred to as "community studies." It comprises of extensive ethnographic investigations of the social structures of many communities and the residents' ways of life.

Social challenges in general and urban difficulties in particular in the 1960s and 1970s were considerably different from those that gave rise to the Chicago School. Integration on a social and cultural level was no longer a problem. Now, the most pressing urban issues were those relating to the control and directions of an urban-industrial society. In addition, new social movements were emerging that questioned the entire idea of progress and industrialization. These movements demanded that human experience take precedence over economic growth and that society and nature should interact in new ways. Gender concerns were brought up as crucial. Social science has finally accepted the diversity of urban life in a multicultural society. The primary component in the structuring of both daily living and urban processes became the widespread state intervention in people's lives through its control of social services and public amenities. A new urban reality consequently gave rise to a new urban sociology. In both America and Europe, it had distinct tendencies. Urban social analysis in America was centred on political conflict and negotiation thanks to pluralist political science.

Thus, in urban sociology, these two orientations are separated into the culturalists' approach and the structuralists' approach. The culturalists place a strong emphasis on how city life is structured, how it feels to live there, and how people respond to it. With this method, the cultural, organisational, and social psychological effects of urban life are investigated. The artwork of Louis Wirth fits under this category.

The structuralist method looks at how political and economic factors interact, as well as the expansion, contraction, and shifting spatial configuration of urban area. The tangible representation of political and economic relationships, in their view, is the city. They contend that social forces that have an impact on all facets of human existence form cities and that the city itself is a result of more fundamental forces. This method is used by sociologists from the Chicago School like Park, Burgess, and McKenzie. Thus, both methods must be used in any research of urban sociology. As a result, urban sociology is a field that combines the two aforementioned techniques rather than having a distinct individual identity.

Assignment – II

Answer the following questions in about 250 words each.3×10

3. Discuss the role of “network” in urban society with examples.

Ans) The idea that networks serve as an organising principle leads to the redefinition of social institutions. The social structures in this place are made up of interactions between people that involve production, consumption, power dynamics, or having a voice in an important interaction with the cultural fabric. Sociology must seize the chance to discuss the conceptual and methodological issues in the context of the emerging new social structure.

Network analysis has been a focus of sociological research. Popular works include those by Wellman, Fischer, and Granovetter. The territorial restriction ends as soon as communication technologies that create interactive social activities are widely used. However, it is not possible to assume that society's spatial dimension will terminate with this end of distance. For many people, the meaningful physical place is a significant source of experience-building. Additionally, because interactive communication takes place over great distances, physical space still needs to be considered. It only aids in the development of a new form, type, or kind of space. Electronic networks and information flow make up this area. It also consists of territories because the physical area and network connectivity are both necessary for their operation.

This flow of space is made up of several locations that are connected by means of communication, infrastructure, and information technology. The "global city" has been the subject of much discussion recently. It is significant to remember that this global city is more than just a sizable metropolitan area that has a prominent position in the global geographical landscape. Such cities have been around for a while and were known as "global cities." The global metropolis is not a territorial city as a result. It can be found in a variety of cities around the globe, including tiny, sizable, and even bigger areas. Global economies located in many cities and connected to one another make up these global cities. These are used to manage international communication. For instance, because to its network of worldwide management, some of Manhattan may qualify as a global city.

4. How is globalization and network significant in urban sociology? Discuss.

Ans) Alongside information technology, globalisation becomes the second pillar of societal transformation. This includes organisational, technological, and institutional components. This trend is historically new because previous internationalisation, as also seen by David Held et al., was unable to fully profit from information and communication technologies (1999). The third dimension encased in the cultural manifestation is the electronic hypertext, which serves as both the common frame of reference for symbolic processing from all sources and all communications. The medium that connects people to one another and to shared multimedia hypertext is the internet, which has developed rapidly along with globalisation. As this culture is founded on virtual reality, hypertext is essential to its development. A symbolic environment's foundation is built on virtuality, which also becomes a component of the experience that communicative individuals are creating and sharing.

The demise of the concept of a sovereign nation-state is the final key aspect of these new global networks. This is not meant to call into doubt the institution of the nation-state, but change is inevitable as power structures shift. National governments, transnational networks, organisations, and so on all undergo changes. Thus, the entire political representation is revised and re-presented. In addition to the aforementioned, there is a significant patriarchal crisis due to women's insurgency and the emergence of homosexual and lesbian movements that oppose anti-heterosexual attitudes and practises. This is a step toward creating various types of families with more equitable living principles. The crisis concerns the speed, velocity, and human cost that patriarchy will entail. This could vary as a result of socialisation, personal networking, and multiple sexual orientations. These are the alterations in way of life that go along with other spheres of social change.

5. What are slums? Discuss its main features.

Ans) Slums are defined in a variety of ways, ranging from broadly global to locally specific. The term "slum" refers to an area with a high population of the poor, a depressing standard of living, and insufficient access to basic utilities including energy, water, sanitation, drainage, and transportation. According to their needs, certain groups have changed the concept of a slum. "One or a group of individuals living in the same dwelling in an urban area who lack one or more facilities, i.e., secure tenure, durable housing, sufficient living space, access to better water and sanitation services," is how the UN defines a "slum" operationally.

For the purposes of the Census, a slum is defined as a residential area with dwellings that are unfit for human habitation due to deterioration, overcrowding, improper planning and design of such buildings, narrowness or improper planning of the street, lack of ventilation, light, or sanitation facilities, or any combination of these factors that endanger the safety and health of the occupants.

However, the public authorities frequently fail to acknowledge and address the slum as a significant or equal component of the metropolis. Due of this, there is a dearth of information on slums. Slums are therefore neglected urban areas with horrendously substandard housing and living circumstances. Slums range from large, unplanned squatter colonies without legal recognition or rights to densely populated, filthy central city tenements.

Characteristics of Slums

Dilapidated and in poor condition houses: Slums are made of poor design and scrap materials. These are often raised on unauthorized land.

High Density of population and Housing: It leads to over-crowding and congestion; one room is often used for all practical purposes of domestic living. In Mumbai and in many other big cities, it can be seen that in the slum areas one room tenement with 100 sq.f. to 150 sq.f. of space is occupied by more than 10 persons.

Apathy and Social Isolation: Though the slum- dwellers are functionally integrated to the city life, apathy and social isolation characterize a slum. Under these circumstances, the slum- dwellers find it almost impossible to improve these conditions through their own efforts.

Assignment – III

Answer the following questions in about 100 words each. 5×6

6. Describe the process of urbanization and the concept of urban.

Ans) Process of urbanization: Urbanization as a structural process of change is generally related to industrialization but it is not always the result of industrialization. Urbanization results due to the concentration of large-scale and small scale industrial and commercial, financial and administrative set up in the cities; technological development in transport and communication, cultural and recreational activities. There are lots of different ways of explaining the meaning of "urban". Here are some of the possibilities:

1. Landscape: Urban areas are densely settled places, built-up settlements with bricks-and-mortar continuity.

2. Population and Density: Urban areas are clustered, dense, settlements with populations above a certain size.

3. Functional: Urban areas are places characterised by urban ways of living, urban ways of relating to other people, of urban economic activities, of urban forms of identity and social organization. It is called "functional" because we are talking about how things work or function. The urban area works differently from a rural area.

7. Describe the concept of urbanism as given by Louis Wirth.

Ans) The concept of “Urbanism” represents a way of life. The term generally denotes the diffusion of urban culture and the evolution of urban society. Louis Wirth has mentioned four characteristics of urban system or urbanism – heterogeneity of population, specialisation of function, anonymity and Impersonality and standardisation of behaviour. Urbanism is a special concept which Inherits within itself all the characters connected with Urbanization and the urban way of life. The concept was given its final shape by Louis Wirth. Urbanism is a category of relevant element terms. It is a developing concept as the urban life pattern Itself, as it appears, is a developing and constantly changing phenomena.

Following Louis Wirth, Urbanism is a way of life, is characterised by extensive conflicts of norms and values, by rapid social change, by increased social differentiation, greater social mobility, by higher levels of education and income, by emphasis on material possessions and individualism, by impersonality of relationships and decline in Intimate communication and by increase in formal social controls. “Urbanism is not synonymous with city.” ‘City’ refers to an area distinguished principally by size, population, density and social diversity, whereas urbanism refers to a complex of social relations.

8. How many types of occupation are found in urban areas? Discuss

Ans) Urban areas mean places where modernisation has occurred and where there’s a huge population. Examples of urban areas are large mega cities like New Delhi and Mumbai, or smaller cities like Jaipur, Bhopal or Pune.

Types of Occupation

1. In towns and cities, it is easy to spot many people working in the streets. Some examples are those of vegetable vendors, ice-cream sellers, cobblers, rickshaw pullers, etc.

2. Another one of the urban livelihoods in India is that of a factory worker. These people are not formally employed and thus, fall in the unorganised sector.

3. A majority of urban livelihoods in India fall under this category of workers. Examples of this is a marketing manager of a company, a civil engineer working on bridges, or a doctor working in a hospital. They earn the highest ‘salary’ in the city per month, but they don’t earn ‘hourly wages’ like labourers.

9. Outline the features of a “Gated Community” in big cities.

Ans) Besides the services of gatekeepers, many gated communities provide other amenities. These may depend on a number of factors including geographical location, demographic composition, community structure, and community fees collected. When there are sub-associations that belong to master associations, the master association may provide many of the amenities. In general, the larger the association the more amenities that can be provided.

Amenities also depend on the type of housing. For example, single-family-home communities may not have a common-area swimming pool, since individual homeowners have the ability to construct their own private pools. A condominium, on the other hand, may offer a community pool since the individual units do not have the option of a private pool installation.

There are seven features of gated communities affecting residents' preference: the gates and security, activities and facilities, landscape and recreational, density, same socio-economic class, open spaces, and friendship.

10. Discuss the meaning of consumer culture and concept of leisure.

Ans) Consumer culture: It describes a lifestyle hyper-focused on spending money to buy material goods in a capitalist economy, a culture often attributed to the United States of America. From 1900 to 2000, market goods have come to dominate American life and for the first time in history, consumerism has no practical limits. Consumer culture has provided affluent societies with peaceful alternatives to tribalism and class war, it has fuelled extraordinary economic growth. The challenge for the future is to find ways to revive the valid portion of the culture of constraint and control the overpowering success of the twentieth century.

Leisure : Concept of leisure emerged as a new idea in post-industrial societies as a by-product of changes in occupation and production processes where the urban dweller engaged in factory work, offices from day till night. Therefore; the idea of giving a break to the worker the notions of entertainment; parks etc came. Many scholars have worked in this area and contributed to the knowledge of leisure.