Urban Life and Society

This book was first undertaken as a revision of an earlier work,The Sociology of Urban Life(1982). However, the large amount of time that has since elapsed, along with the vast changes that have occurred in the urban world, in the field of urban sociology, and in my own thinking on this subject, has led to this fresh new book. While some of the more basic and valid materials from the original book have been retained, particularly in the early chapters on the long history of urban development up to the middle of the twentieth century, the rest of the book has been revised, updated, and rewritten. Several previous chapters have been reorganized, reformulated, or dropped, and one completely new chapter has been added. Equally significant, updated materials from the perspectives of the "new urban sociology," or "political economy" have also been added. This is reflected most directly in the two separate chapters on urban economic institutions and political institutions. Rather than being confined to just these two chapters, and segregated from other parts of the book, materials on the new urban sociology and political economy are also integrated into many other chapters, where they are most relevant. The overall goal of this book is to provide a more comprehensive view of the broad field of urban sociology through a more balanced approach, providing exposure to all of the major theoretical perspectives that have, over time, defined the field's core concepts, as well as the ever changing boundaries. The author of such an approach is sometimes tempted to present an eclectic assortment of topics, in the hope that nothing significant will be left out. On the other hand, there is an equally compelling temptation to provide a more limited and focused perspective, with the risk that the greater selectivity of materials will provide a far less comprehensive overview of the field than usually called for by "survey" type courses common to urban sociology. This book attempts to avoid the extremes suggested above. Of necessity, urban sociology remains a highly speculative and interpretive field, requiring the synthesis of a vast assortment of theories, concepts, data, and research findings. But such a synthesis ideally must provide a workable balance between focus and breadth, and between extreme eclecticism and rigid systemization. Hopefully, this balance has been achieved by the introduction to six major perspectives as the book's guiding frame of reference. They include: 1) the social change perspective; 2) the ecological perspective; 3) the social structure perspective; 4) the cultural (and social-psychological) perspective; 5) the social problems perspective; and 6) the social policy perspective. In turn, these perspectives are presented in the context of past, present, and projected future ,urban development, and with a concern for the quality of life in cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas. The above perspectives are implied or assumed throughout the book rather than spelled out in every instance, but they are defined and explained in more detail in the introductory chapter. Somewhat unique to this book (as part of the social structure perspective) are separate chapters on urban social institutions, including contemporary economic, political, welfare, and educational institutions, which developed in response to the demands and expectations of modern urban civilization. On the other hand, the survival of traditional social institutions, such as religion and the family, which are preurban in their origins, is often severely challenged by modern urbanization, and, as a result, these institutions have become significantly modified in urban societies. These two rapidly changing urban institutions are discussed in some detail in a separate chapter. While urban sociology had traditionally focused entirely on cities, anal more recently on the wider range of cities, suburbs, and metropolitan arGold, Harry is the author of 'Urban Life and Society', published 2001 under ISBN 9780130216052 and ISBN 0130216054.