This document provides an overview of urban sociology and the study of cities. It discusses two major orientations in urban sociology: culturalist, which deals with people's experiences and the distribution of wealth and power in cities, and structuralist, which deals with the physical and economic relationships within cities. The document also examines some challenges in understanding the informal structures of cities and how urban environments vary between societies and over time. It explores how the built environment shapes social interactions and movement through cities.

1. Invitation to Urban Studies

2.  Urban is a sociological variable affecting
people systematic/identifiable ways;
 Urban sociology scientific study seeking to
discover systematic causes and effects;
 Urban sociology has difficulty defining what
is meant by urban ;
 Going to study city- matrix of structures and
activities comprising largest, most complex
social organizational forms;

3.  Two major orientations are:
 Culturalist deals with people’s experiences in
cities, and how cities figure in the distribution
of wealth and power.
 Structuralist deals with cities physical and
economic relationships.

4.  Enacted- planned as a unit from beginning,
changes are deliberate and planned out;
 Crescive- elements emerge gradually,
interrelationships not due to formal
deliberation but spontaneous accomodations
among different parts;
 Ecology- refers to natural order worked out
over time by individuals; variety of life forms
use same environment in mutual ways;

5. Challenge of understanding informal
structure of cities fact that urban areas lack
physical or spatial closure; we have not
reached limits of urban influence when we can
no longer see city skyline on horizon;
Another challenge: cities and nature of urban
life vary among societies; Urban places look
and operate differently within same society at
different pts of time;

6.  Public spaces- there is need to reach back into store of
knowledge- of public or streetlore-about how to move
through crowds, what seat to choose on bar or bus,
how not to draw unwanted attention, conducting
yourself while standing in lines;
 Cities as Culture- Cultural influences in city
communicated to rest of society; high culture as
representing “true” cultural expression of city;
 What do cities symbolize? City as dangerous place;
high visibility of minorities and immigrant groups;
cultural transitions, immigrant groups make peace
with host society; transforming neighborhoods and
streets;

7.  Prejudice and discrimination leading to exclusion;
 Going private- public places-parks, squares, bear
logos of corporate sponsors; bringing
unpredictability of urban environment under
control; e.g. surveillance of homeless, street kids,
punks;

8.  Structural elements channel perception and
movement;
 Lynch(1960) identified five elements:
1. Paths- directs people travel in moving;
2. Edges- barriers hemming in movement
3. Districts- large areas having cohesive quality.
4. Nodes- smaller public places, junctions, turning
pts, traffic circles, squares.
5.Landmarks- outstanding feature of cityscape;
anchor individual’s mental map; people usually
pass them rather than entering.

9.  Whyte(1988) How welcoming is our public space?
People are drawn to other people and to crowds;
obstructed pedestrians squeezing past are polite and
unruffled (13) Crowded sidewalk “schmoozers” natural
habitat; engineering of microenvironments important
in whether space is seen as welcoming;
 Low ledges along buildings designed to discourage
sitting intended to keep people moving;
 Food, sound of falling water, shade in summer and
sunlight in winter will comfort them;
Urban environments shape social life.

10.  Lofland(1985) people taking matters into own
hands making public space their own
 Passing from status of regular “customer” to
“patron” to “resident” recognizable fixture in
minds of others; “colonized the territory” a
semi-privatized realm;
 Envelope- layer(s) of attitude, demeanor, and
details of performance; other public actors
where individual operates threatening to
envelope one’s envelope urban public space rich
in situated energies;

11.  Growth industry private consulting
companies specializing engineering
financially successful festivals; behind
expression of solidarity and tradition are
promoters doing business (25) theming of
contemporary urban spaces promoting tourism
leading to constantly improving level of
facilities, amenities, and services; cities
underwriting costs of stadiums, festival
themed malls, convention centers (27)

12.  Agents of development are doing urban
sociology; applied sociology; modifying
urban environments produce particular
perceptions/ behaviors compatible with profit
motive;
 Facilitating recreational behavior or shaking
down the suckers Disney and the sanitation of
experience making public spaces safe and
predictable

13.  Offering natural setting dramatic political
expression; providing large #s of people that
can be mobilized; providing critical mass;
containing large numbers of poor and
minorities; confrontations between law
enforcement, poor and minorities; streets
and public squares provide setting for
massing of human energies e.g. Stonewall
defiance against suppressed right to gay
sexual identity

14. Thanks