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CHAPTER COMMENTARY

This chapter opens with a consideration of eighteenth-century Paris, and three modern-day

‘global cities’: London, New York and Tokyo, using these to prompt the question of what the

urban experience is like, how it is changing, and how is it differentiated across the world. In

the twentieth century observers began to distinguish between towns and cities, the latter

being more cosmopolitan and international, often as a result of cross-national migration to

new cities like Chicago. From the start, attitudes to cities have been polarized, with

assessments ranging from ‘civilized virtue’ to ‘smoking inferno’. Such views found

expression in novels and poetry, much of which focused on the extreme inequalities of

urban settings.

From here, the chapter moves on to outline and compare theories of urbanism. Beginning

with the basic ideas of Weber and Tönnies, introducing Simmel’s Metropolis and Mental Life

as a Classic Study. We then move on to a full account of the Chicago School urban research,

from which two themes are outlined: the urban ecology approach and urbanism as a way

of life. The ecological approach uses a metaphor adapted from physical science: cities were

organisms which responded to their environmental conditions, a view supported empirically

by the tendency for cities to grow beside sources of water, fertile land or transport

networks. Similarly, within cities themselves there is a natural balance between competing

groups, who often become spatially segregated. The analogy of species in a lake is used to

support this idea.

Urban ecology is associated with the image of a city of concentric rings with the inner city at

its core. Beyond this decaying core the rings are cut into segments which are competed for

by different population subgroups. Hawley later revived this approach by stressing

interdependence between areas rather than the continual competition for scarce resources.

Businesses in the core service the populations of other areas; those populations in turn

provide a labour force. The perspective overall has made enormous contributions, but most

Chicago School work draws very heavily on the US experience and tends to disregard the

importance of interventionist planning and design in the process of urban ‘evolution’.

Wirth’s concept of the urban way of life (presented here as a Classic Study) stresses the

‘overall’ effect of the city on social life and in particular the paradox of proximity and

anonymity. In other words, the existence of greater opportunity for social interaction leads

to greater superficiality and instrumentality in those meetings. Again, Wirth was largely

working from the experience of American cities and is thought, even by his close

Cities and Urban Life

44

contemporaries, to have overplayed the impersonal nature of the urban. Theorists like Gans

and Krupat have offered alternative accounts.

Recent theories of urbanism, influenced by Marx, stress the need to analyse the wider

economic and political changes which impact upon cities. Harvey sees urbanism as one

aspect of the created environment brought about by industrial capitalism. Supply and

demand operate to alter the commodity price of land. There is an ongoing restructuring of

space which is shaped by industrial location, regulation of planning decisions and individual

choices about housing moves, etc. David Harvey has highlighted social inequalities inherent

in this, which he calls uneven spatial development.

Another recent theory suggested by Stephen Graham argues that techniques and

technologies which were designed for war zones have crossed over into civilian applications

in urban environments, which he calls ‘new military urbanism’. Cities have become key sites

for terrorist aggression, and governments have adopted military-style surveillance

techniques of monitoring.

Patterns of suburbanization have been facilitated by tax breaks and broader economic

change. Castells also stresses the importance of spatial form in expressing underlying social

struggle. Skyscrapers represent the dominance of money’s role in the city. A city is not just a

location but is the expression of a process of collective consumption. This process, affected

by both government and the market, helps produce a distinctive created environment.

While such ideas move away from the biological analogies of Chicago, they also

complement them. The text uses Logan and Molotch’s work as a way of integrating the two.

The emphasis here is on the ways in which broad economic forces are mediated by

distinctive local social systems, often leading to conflicts between the interests of business

and residents.

The text then traces the development of cities from the ancient walled cities of Rome to

more modern forms that have emerged via the process of urbanization that has led to the

huge cities we know today as conurbations. The cutting edge of urban life today is the

megalopolis as first represented by the north-east seaboard of the United States. Britain

was the pioneer urbanizer, but latecomers outstripped even that pace of change.

Urbanization is now a global phenomenon as Figure 6.1 on page 220 illustrates, a trend

likely to become even more marked in the future.

Post-war urban changes in the USA and the UK are examined. Key themes in the

development of the USA have been suburbanization, inner city decay and ethnic conflict.

Suburbs have attracted white middle-class families seeking more space, lower taxes, less

pollution and (initially) racially segregated schools. As a direct result, inner city areas

suffered as the tax base declined, the physical environment deteriorated and burdens on

welfare spending grew. In some areas this cycle of deterioration has been as bad as

anywhere in the developed world. Examples of urban unrest in many of the world’s larger

cities are included and these are seen as extreme examples of urban problems. Key factors

are poverty, ethnic hostilities and crime – and insecurity caused by all three. Nonetheless,

despite such a grim portrait, attention is given to positive responses to such problems, such

as that contained in the Faith in the City report (1985) in the UK

Also covered here is the fiscal and political background to urban decline as well as policies of

urban renewal. All the major landmarks of central–local relations are here – local

government reorganization, the introduction of capping and budget crises. Also included is


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an analysis of housing privatization and the subsequent slump in house prices. The material

includes a case study of the redevelopment of London Docklands, a famous example of

urban recycling. This is often a key aim of the planning process but is frequently the

outcome of selective gentrification of inner-city areas.

It is the developing world where major urban growth will take place in the twenty-first

century – the so-called megacities and the text includes a case study of Mumbai to illustrate

the emerging economic, environmental and social challenges associated with such rapid

growth. These are sketched in with reference to other developing countries. The text then

turns to the emergence of urban centres which have become hubs for the global economy,

what Sassen terms ‘global cities’. This globalizing process is exacerbating the tensions that

always exist between cities and their surrounding areas.

The recent ‘infrastructural turn’ in urban studies has also drawn attention to the enormously

complex networks on which cities depend. Rather than giving up on cities altogether, as

some radical environmentalists have argued, there is a growing interest in modifying and

transforming them into eco-cities or sustainable cities which aim to minimize its inputs of

energy and resources and to reduce its outputs of pollutants and waste products.

The final section highlights the ongoing importance of the city as a political unit even under

conditions of globalization. At least three functions are likely to be important. Firstly, cities

are responsible for managing the urban habitat; second. they deal with problems of cultural

integration presented in their cosmopolitan populations; and third, they provide venues for

political representation and management. The London 2012 Olympics is given as an example

of cultural projects used for tackling urban decline. The consequent importance of the role

of city mayors is discussed and this positive tone marks the end of the chapter.


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TEACHING TOPICS

1. Representations of the city

This topic aims to isolate the main processes and features of the modern city. There is also

an attempt to examine the varying attitudes towards urban living which have accompanied

its development.

2. The Chicago School

The aim here is to place key writers in historical and geographical context. Another key goal

is to demonstrate the continuity between the Chicago School and contemporary urban

sociology.

3. Urban growth and urban decline

This topic stresses the immense contrast between the relative decline in urban living in the

West and the continuing mushrooming of cities in the developing world. The focus is on

corrective policies in the West and on population issues in the developing world.

4. Governing cities

Here the emphasis is on the role of cities as active agents of socio-economic activity, and

the recognition of the emergence of a number of tiers of global cities as described by Sassen

and by Castells. In particular this topic examines the concept of the city as an engine of

regeneration and a site of cultural experience.

ACTIVITIES

Activity 1: Representations of the city

A. Read pages 206-8 on the ideas of Weber, Tönnies and Simmel. Look for the similarities in

their views of urban life. Which, if any, seems to be more positive about the possibilities of

urban living? Why?

B. Read the two passages below. The first is an account of nineteenth-century English

urbanization. The second relates Ebeneezer Howard’s later enthusiasm for a different kind

of pattern.

Night spread over the coal-town: its prevailing colour was black. Black clouds of

smoke rolled out of the factory chimneys, and the railroad yards, which often cut

clean into the town, mangling the very organism, spread soot and cinders

everywhere. The invention of artificial illuminating gas was an indispensable aid to

this spread: Murdock’s invention dates back to the end of the eighteenth century,

and during the next generation its use widened, first in factories, then in homes;

first in big cities, later in small centres; for without its aid work would frequently

have been stopped by smoke and fog. The manufacture of illuminating gas within

the confines of the towns became a characteristic feature: the huge gas tanks

reared their bulk over the urban landscape, great structures, on the scale of a


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cathedral: indeed, their tracery of iron, against an occasional clear lemon-green sky

at sunrise, was one of the most pleasant aesthetic elements in the new order.

Such structures were not necessarily evil; indeed, with sufficient care in their

segregation they might have been comely. What was atrocious was the fact that,

like every other building in the new towns, they were dumped almost at random;

the leakage of escaping gas scented the so-called gas-house districts, and not

surprisingly these districts frequently became among the most degraded sections of

the city. Towering above the town, polluting its air, the gas tanks symbolized the

dominance of ‘practical’ interests over life-needs.

(Louis Mumford, The City in History, London: Pelican, 1966, p. 536)

Howard’s alternative antidote to the horrors of the overcrowded city was a

‘commonwealth’ along the lines of Thomas More’s Utopia: the population evenly

distributed among a number of manageable towns, containing well-built houses

and attractive gardens, and surrounded with a green belt of countryside. As with

Ledoux’s plans for Chauz, the towns – circular in shape – were to incorporate and

harmonize the residential and the industrial. There was to be a strict limit on the

size of the garden city – Howard suggested 32,000 people. As the first city reached

its specified limit, another would be started a short distance away. Thus, over time,

a vast planned network of garden cities would spread over the country, each

connected to the others by an Inter-Municipal Railway. Howard called this vision

‘Social City’ …

Howard’s cities were to be ‘co-operative commonwealths’, superseding capitalism.

The basic tenet was to eliminate the private landlord by transferring the ownership

of land to the community; rents would finance roads, hospitals, libraries and

schools, rather than lining the pockets of rich men. Howard also advocated ‘gas and

water socialism’, that is, utilities provided by the town on a non-profit basis. He

originally called his scheme ‘new Jerusalem’, and considered the names Rurisville

and Unionville (all very American-sounding), but finally settled on Garden City since

it was ‘pictorially evocative while politically neutral’. Howard then set forth to

preach the ‘Gospel of the Garden City’, under the title ‘The Ideal City Made

Practicable, A Lecture Illustrated With Lantern Slides’.

(Pamela Neville-Sington and David Sington, Paradise Dreamed: How Utopian

Thinkers Have Changed the World, London: Bloomsbury, 1993, pp. 72–3)

1. As you compare the two passages, make a list of the contrasts between the two models

of urban growth.

2. Think about an urban centre with which you are familiar. It may be your home town, the

location of your educational institution or simply one you know well. Consider it in

relation to the above models and then write a short account of its distinguishing

features. Evaluate your feelings towards the place.

Activity 2: The Chicago School

Read the sections of the text which apply (starting on page 208) and then study these

extracts from two of the Chicago School’s key figures, Robert Park and Louis Wirth:


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Not only transportation and communication, but the segregation of the urban

population tends to facilitate the mobility of the individual man. The processes of

segregation establish moral distances which make the city a mosaic of little worlds

which touch but do not interpenetrate. This makes it possible for individuals to pass

quickly and easily from one moral milieu to another, and encourages the fascinating

but dangerous experiment of living at the same time in several different

contiguous, but otherwise widely separated, worlds. All this tends to give to city life

a superficial and adventitious character; it tends to complicate social relationships

and to produce new and divergent individual types. It introduces, at the same time,

an element of chance and adventure which adds to the stimulus of city life and

gives it, for young and fresh nerves, a peculiar attractiveness. The lure of great cities

is perhaps a consequence of stimulations which act directly upon the reflexes. As a

type of human behaviour it may be explained, like the attraction of the flame for

the moth, as a sort of tropism.

The attraction of the metropolis is due in part, however, to the fact that in the long

run every individual finds somewhere among the varied manifestations of city life

the sort of environment in which he expands and feels at ease; finds, in short, the

moral climate in which his peculiar nature obtains the stimulations that bring his

innate dispositions to full and free expression. It is, I suspect, motives of this kind

which have their basis, not in interest nor even in sentiment, but in something

more fundamental and primitive which draw many, if not most, of the young men

and young women from the security of their homes in the country into the big,

booming confusion and excitement of city life. In a small community it is the normal

man, the man without eccentricity or genius, who seems most likely to succeed.

The small community often tolerates eccentricity. The city, on the contrary,

rewards it. Neither the criminal, the defective, nor the genius has the same

opportunity to develop his innate disposition in a small town that he invariably

finds in a great city.

(Robert Park, ‘Suggestions for the investigation of human behaviour in the urban

environment’, in Robert Park and Ernest Burgess, The City, Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 196, pp. 40–1)

While urbanism, or that complex of traits which makes up the characteristic mode

of life in cities, and urbanization, which denotes the development and extensions of

these factors, are thus not exclusively found in settlements which are cities in the

physical and demographic sense, they do, nevertheless, find their most pronounced

expression in such areas, especially in metropolitan cities. In formulating a

definition of the city it is necessary to exercise caution in order to avoid identifying

urbanism as a way of life with any specific locally or historically conditioned cultural

influences which, though they may significantly affect the specific character of the

community, are not the essential determinants of its character as a city.

It is particularly important to call attention to the danger of confusing urbanism

with industrialism and modern capitalism. The rise of cities in the modern world is

undoubtedly not independent of the emergence of modern power-driven machine

technology, mass production, and capitalistic enterprise; but different as the cities


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of earlier epochs may have been by virtue of their development in a preindustrial

and precapitalistic order from the great cities of today, they were also cities.

For sociological purposes a city may be defined as a relatively large, dense, and

permanent settlement of socially heterogeneous individuals. On the basis of the

postulates which this minimal definition suggests, a theory of urbanism may be

formulated in the light of existing knowledge concerning social groups...

(Louis Wirth, ‘Urbanism as a way of life’, in On Cities and Social Life, Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1964, p. 66)

1. Visit an estate agent and compare the prices and locations of different types of property.

Consider the way the relative merits of the urban and the rural are presented in

descriptions of location. Try and relate these to sociological ideas about the nature of

urbanism.

2. Take a walk or a drive around a nearby town or city. Try to visit different types of areas

and make notes on the types of housing you see, the attractiveness of the physical

environment and the general ‘vibes’ you get from the place. What makes different areas

different from one another, and are they both equally ‘urban’?

Activity 3: Urban growth and urban decline

A. Read pages 219-27 of the text.

1. Make a list of the key trends that have affected cities in the West in the last few decades.

2. Focus now on the idea of urban renewal. What do you think are the main barriers

preventing repopulation of inner areas?

3. Look particularly at the subsection ‘Gentrification and urban recycling’ (page 225). How is

it that urban inequality can actually be dangerous?

B. Read pages 227-32, ‘Urbanization in the developing world’, and also the Global Society

Box 6.1 (pages 229-30) on Mumbai. Make notes on the contrasts between the megacities in

developing countries and the way London, New York and Tokyo are portrayed in the

opening paragraphs of the chapter.

C. Now read the sections on pages 236-8. List the ways in which space can act as a ‘thinking

board’ for broader social changes relating to living more sustainably.

Activity 4: Governing cities

Read pages 238-40 of the text.

A. Study this passage from a Fabian Society pamphlet making the case for elected mayors:

Localities today compete with each other for resources, inward investment and,

indeed, citizens. Whether it’s Birmingham and London competing for Millennium

lottery monies in Britain, or Liverpool and Valencia competing to build the Ford

Escorts in Europe, or increasingly Tokyo and Derbyshire competing to produce TVs

in the global economy, competition has become a key task for government at the

local level. That’s a change from the pre-Thatcher era and it’s a change we have to


50

recognise as we reconstruct our local institutions. It demands a capacity in local

government to act as a voice for the community, promoting the locality and arguing

the case for inward investment and public resources.

… [W]e acknowledge that public ownership is not essential to the pursuit of the

public interest. Translating this to the local level, we know that local authorities,

acting alone, cannot achieve progress in tackling many difficult public policy

problems. We need a range of players and agencies to act together to achieve

change. The police alone cannot reduce crime, the local authority alone cannot

create jobs, and the public sector by itself cannot reduce pollution. It is by local

authorities acting in partnership with other stakeholders that change can be

effected. Local councils working with the private sector, TECs [Training and

Enterprise Councils] and education institutions to create jobs; the police working

with local communities and public bodies in Health and Education to tackle crime

and so on.

… So interest in the elected mayor springs entirely from our view that local

government is changing and must change further if it is to play a vibrant role in a

pluralist democracy,

(M. Hodge, S. Leach and G. Stoker, ‘More than the flower show: elected mayors and

democracy’, Fabian Society Discussion Paper 32, 1997, pp. 2–3)

1. See if you can find examples in the passage of the ‘three realms’ described in the text.

Which seems the most significant in your view?

2. How convinced are you that cities need mayors in order to be influential ‘agents’? Can

you think of examples that lend support to that notion? How many mayors of European

cities can you name?

B. Study this passage from Logan and Molotch’s analysis of the activity of urban politics:

For those who count, the city is a growth machine, one that can increase aggregate

rents and trap related wealth for those in the right position to benefit …

Cities are in a position to affect the ‘factors of production’ that are widely believed

to channel the capital investments that drive local growth. They can, for example,

lower access costs of raw materials and markets through the creation of shipping

ports and airfields … Localities can decrease corporate over-head costs through

sympathetic policies on pollution abatement, employee health standards and taxes

…

Perhaps most important of all, local publics should favour growth and support the

ideology of value-free development. This public attitude reassures investors that

the concrete enticements of a locality will be upheld by future politicians. The

challenge is to connect civic pride to the growth goal, tying the presumed economic

and social benefits of growth in general to growth in the local area. Probably only

partly aware of this, elites generate and sustain the place patriotism of the masses.

According to Boorstin, the competition among cities ‘helped create the booster

spirit’ as much as the booster spirit helped create the cities.


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(John Logan and Harvey Molotch, Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place,

California: University of California Press, 1987, pp. 50–62)

1. Do some background research into a locality of your choice. Try and get hold of samples

of its promotional material. What examples can you find of the ‘boosterism’ referred to

above?

2. Do you think judgements about ‘places’ actually make much difference to the pattern of

social life? Can you think of examples from your own experience where they have?

DISCUSSION & REFLECTION QUESTIONS

Representations of the city

Would life really be more pleasant if we gave up on the concept of urban life?

How do ideas about and attitudes to urban life affect the shaping of social space?

Does the ‘countryside’ really exist now that societies are so highly urbanized?

The Chicago School

Is it useful to think in terms of places being more or less urban than others?

Can you see traces of Chicago School thinking in urban sociology today?

What do you understand by the term ‘created environment’?

Urban decline and urban growth

Should the developing countries stop urbanizing because of the terrible conditions of

overcrowding?

Is inner city decline largely a case of ‘place problems’ or ‘people problems’?

Why is Los Angeles such a dangerous and divided city?

Managing cities

Does ‘locality’ matter in a world of globalized social relationships?

Why do groups come into conflict over the use of space in cities?

What do you think are the most important elements for successful ‘urban

management’?

ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. Is ‘the urban’ a place or a way of being?

2. Assess the contemporary relevance of the Chicago School for an understanding of the

urban condition.

3. Compare the relative fortunes of urban centres in the First and the Third World since the

1960s.

4. Discuss the view that places have become little more than commodities to be sold to the

highest bidder.


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MAKING CONNECTIONS

Representations of the city

Images of and attitudes towards cities can be gauged with further reference to theories of

globalization in Chapter 4. The impact of urban life on the environment is tackled in Chapter

5 and the importance and power of visual representations can be further appreciated after

some study of media influence (Chapter 18).

The Chicago School

The emphasis on the fate of the individual in an urban environment leads to obvious

parallels with the interactionist paradigm and the structuring of space and time, both the

subject of Chapter 8. The Chicago School has also come to stand for a particular tradition of

fieldwork and could therefore be used as an illustration in relation to Chapter 2.

Urban growth and urban decline

The experience of the poor and homeless of both developed and developing countries can

be used to link into the chapters on poverty and global inequality (Chapters 13 and 14). The

general problems of the contemporary city also feature in the context of environmental

risks in Chapter 5.

The importance of place

Once again the idea of space–time as constitutive ties this topic back to Chapter 8; it also

raises important questions about the role of localities in political and economic decision-

making. One might want to consider especially the debates about political and social

movements discussed in Chapter 22.

SAMPLE SESSION

Governing cities

Aims: To demonstrate the strategies and techniques employed in the marketing of cities.

Outcome: By the end of the session students will be able to:

1. Articulate reasons for the practice of place marketing.

2. Apply many of the techniques to a specific example.

3. Locate their own decisions about location and migration within the debates about

place.

Preparatory tasks

Students will divide into two groups and each group will be given a place (a city or a region

is best) to sell. The groups should read thoroughly the boxed inset about the staging of the

2012 Olympic Games in London (pages 241-2). In addition, they should access background

information and publicity material from the cities that competed to host the 2012

Olympics. They should then research and prepare material for presentations: one group

taking the role of the organizing committee reassuring London taxpayers of the benefits


53

the Games will bring; the other adopting the identity of a pressure group concerned at the

adverse effects the preparation for the games will have on the community in their part of

East London.

Classroom tasks

1. Two individuals will be chosen to form a panel along with the tutor. Each group will

then in turn deliver a presentation in which they deliver their case. Multimedia may be

used if resources and setting are appropriate. Each group will face questions from the

panel. (25 minutes each)

2. Tutor will sum up and panel will deliver its judgement on which presentation was the

most convincing. (5–10 minutes)

Assessment task

Construct a portfolio of work containing:

(a) a draft copy of a press release, summarizing the core elements of your argument;

(b) a critical commentary on the issues raised and conflicts experienced during the

preparation of your presentation.

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