Theories of Urban Sociology Lecture 17: Louis Wirth: "Urbanism As a Way of Life"
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Objectives_template Module 3: Theories of Urban Sociology Lecture 17: Louis Wirth: "Urbanism as a Way of Life" The Lecture Contains: What is Distinctively Urban? Dominance of the City The Concept of Urbanism according to Wirth The Theory of Urbanism and Sociological Research References file:///D|/NPTL%20WORK/Dr.%20Anindita%20Chakrabarti/UrbanSociology/lecture17/17_1.htm [5/31/2013 10:31:42 AM] Objectives_template Module 3: Theories of Urban Sociology Lecture 17: Louis Wirth: "Urbanism as a Way of Life" Wirth was an important member of the Chicago School and he was inspired by Simmel. He wrote his doctoral work on the ghettos of Russian Jewish immigrants in Chicago. Wirth and his colleagues came to view the spatial patterns in the city as a result of powerful social factors such as competition and struggle for survival. They viewed urban space as a container, a built environment that enclosed action. Wirth’s work marks the culmination of what we have been referring to as the classical view of urban sociology. Wirth studied the characteristic of the people in the city and how the life there might produce a distinct urban culture. Thus urbanism as a dependent variable became a thing to be explained. His theory of the city isolated several factors that were universal social characteristics of the city. He makes a case for contrasting between urban/industrial and folk/ rural societies. He draws attention to the peculiar characteristics of the city as a particular form of human association. The article that we will discuss here is considered to be one of the foundational statements of the Chicago school. file:///D|/NPTL%20WORK/Dr.%20Anindita%20Chakrabarti/UrbanSociology/lecture17/17_2.htm [5/31/2013 10:31:42 AM] Objectives_template Module 3: Theories of Urban Sociology Lecture 17: Louis Wirth: "Urbanism as a Way of Life" Wirth begins with argument that what is distinctively modern in our civilization is best signalized by the growth of great cities. Like Simmel before him, Wirth pointed out that nowhere has mankind been farther removed from organic nature than under the condition of life characteristic of great cities. For Wirth, the concept of urbanism is not delimited in space. Urbanism is a goal and a value. Where does this dominance of the city come from? The dominance of the city emerges from the concentration in them of : ● industrial and commercial centres ● financial and administrative facilities and activities ● transportation and communication lines ● cultural and recreational equipment such as the press, radio station, theatres, museums ● hospitals, institutions of higher education file:///D|/NPTL%20WORK/Dr.%20Anindita%20Chakrabarti/UrbanSociology/lecture17/17_3.htm [5/31/2013 10:31:43 AM] Objectives_template Module 3: Theories of Urban Sociology Lecture 17: Louis Wirth: "Urbanism as a Way of Life" Working towards a serviceable definition of urbanism, Wirth locates the problem in the great variations between cities. Cities are different from one another—industrial cities from the commercial, mining, fishing, resort, university and the capital city. Therefore, a sociologically significant definition of the city seeks to select those elements of urbanism which mark it as a distinctive mode of human group life. For sociological purpose Wirth defines city as relatively large, dense and permanent settlement of socially heterogeneous individuals. The Concept of Urbanism according to Wirth Wirth proposes that the central problem for the sociologist of the city is to discover the forms of social action and organization that typically emerge in relatively permanent, compact settlements of large numbers of heterogeneous individuals. City as upholding heterogeneity—the city has been the melting pot of races, peoples, and cultures, and a most favorable breeding-ground of new biological and cultural hybrids, it has not only tolerated but rewarded individual differences. Size and density of the population aggregate—ever since Aristotle’s Politics it has been recognized that increasing the number of inhabitants in a settlement beyond a certain limit will affect the relationships between them and the character of the city. file:///D|/NPTL%20WORK/Dr.%20Anindita%20Chakrabarti/UrbanSociology/lecture17/17_4.htm [5/31/2013 10:31:43 AM] Objectives_template Module 3: Theories of Urban Sociology Lecture 17: Louis Wirth: "Urbanism as a Way of Life" The Relation between the Theory of Urbanism and Sociological Research On the basis of the three variables: number, density of settlement, and degree of heterogeneity, urbanism can be approached from three interrelated perspectives: ● As a physical structure ● As a system of social organization ● from the point view of human personalities Physical structure: comprising a population base, technology and an ecological order. This perspective looks at the demographic factors—such as the city has more people in their youth than children and old people. The city cannot reproduce itself because the birthrates are lower and sometimes the death rates are higher than in the countryside. Competition for space is great so that each area generally tends to be put to the use which yields the greatest economic return. Place of work become dissociated from place of residence. The pattern of land use, the land values, rentals, and ownership, the nature and functioning of the physical structures, of housing, of transportation and communication facilities, of public utilities—these and many other phases of the physical mechanism of the city are not isolated phenomena unrelated to the city as a social entity, but are affected by and in turn affect the urban mode of life. file:///D|/NPTL%20WORK/Dr.%20Anindita%20Chakrabarti/UrbanSociology/lecture17/17_5.htm [5/31/2013 10:31:43 AM] Objectives_template Module 3: Theories of Urban Sociology Lecture 17: Louis Wirth: "Urbanism as a Way of Life" As a system of social organization: Cities have a characteristic social structure, a series of social institutions and a typical pattern of social relationships. Wirth had identified the following major effects upon human association and social life in communities that are typically large and whose population is dense and socially heterogeneous. Firstly, increase of individual variation in the population. Level of differentiation is greater in the cities. The personal traits, the occupations, the cultural life, and the ideas of the members of an urban community are expected to range between more widely separated poles than those of rural inhabitants. He contrasts such bonds with that of folk society. Instead of competition and formal control mechanism, in folk society we have bonds of solidarity. Secondly, large numbers contribute to the segregation of population groupings. City dwellers are also dependent on more people for the satisfactions of their life needs than are rural people and thus are associated with a greater number of organized groups. At the same time, they are less dependent upon particular persons. In other words, the city is characterized by secondary rather than primary contacts. file:///D|/NPTL%20WORK/Dr.%20Anindita%20Chakrabarti/UrbanSociology/lecture17/17_6.htm [5/31/2013 10:31:44 AM] Objectives_template Module 3: Theories of Urban Sociology Lecture 17: Louis Wirth: "Urbanism as a Way of Life" Thirdly, the weakening of the bonds of kinship and the declining social significance of the family . Fourthly, the transfer of recreational, industrial, educational activities to specialized institutions outside the home has deprived the family of some of its most characteristic historical functions. Fifthly, on the whole the city discourages an economic life in which the individual in time of crisis has a basis of subsistence to fall back upon, and it discourages self-employment. Sixthly, it is largely through the activities of the voluntary groups, be their objectives economic, political, educational, religious, recreational or cultural, that the urbanite expresses and develops his personality, acquires status, and is able to carry on the round of activities that constitute his life-career.1 1In the class the number of voluntary associations in the College/Institute can be discussed here. file:///D|/NPTL%20WORK/Dr.%20Anindita%20Chakrabarti/UrbanSociology/lecture17/17_7.htm [5/31/2013 10:31:44 AM] Objectives_template Module 3: Theories of Urban Sociology Lecture 17: Louis Wirth: "Urbanism as a Way of Life" Seventhly, Wirth argued that while traditional ties have decreased, interdependence between people has increased. In cities it becomes important to communicate through indirect media and to articulate individual interests by a process of delegation. Typically in the city, interests are made effective through representation. Finally, social control in the cities proceeds through formally organized groups. It follows too that the masses of men in the city are subject to manipulation by symbols and stereotypes managed by individuals working from afar. In other words, they are operating invisibly behind the scenes through their control of the instruments of communication. file:///D|/NPTL%20WORK/Dr.%20Anindita%20Chakrabarti/UrbanSociology/lecture17/17_8.htm [5/31/2013 10:31:44 AM] Objectives_template Module 3: Theories of Urban Sociology Lecture 17: Louis Wirth: "Urbanism as a Way of Life" Reference: ● Wirth, Louis. 2005 (1938). “Urbanism as a way of life”. In The Urban Sociology Reader. Jan and Mele (ed.). London: Routledge. file:///D|/NPTL%20WORK/Dr.%20Anindita%20Chakrabarti/UrbanSociology/lecture17/17_9.htm [5/31/2013 10:31:44 AM].