The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Jane Jacobs, the author of "The Death and Life of Great American Cities, " talks about the problems of the city and why she thinks that they were created. She states, "This book is an attack on current city planning and rebuilding. It is an attack, rather, on the principles and aims that have shaped modern, orthodo city planning and rebuilding." It is an interesting topic and I believe Jean Jacobs lets the reader understand her perspective right from the beginning in the introduction whn letting the reader know what she is talking about when she speaks about the city.

It is unfortunate that Jean Jacobs is no longer with us, but her legacy lives on. http://creativitymachine.net/2006/04/26/the-death-and-life-of-a-great-urban-crusader/

Chicago School and Other Interesting Information

Two men by the name of Park and Burgess say that ghettos are Geseillschaft and everyone is out for themselves.
An article written by Gans called "Fiery" was a very important article in terms of cities and communities. Gans spoke about cities and the slums and stated that Wirth's three points that he talks about in his writing do not always destroy cities but often they can help them too.
The three points that Gans is talking about are size, heterogeneigty, and density. The three factors Gans says do not always destroy the cities. Gans also said that there are five people who live in cities. 1.) Cosmopolites (usually wealthy, they feel they have to live there)
2.) Young/Single
3.) Ethnic Villagers
4.) Deprived People
5.) Trapped and downwardly mobile.
According to Gans these are the five people who make up cities. Gans spoke about cities through a variety of essays and alot of his work and reaction are interesting to read about.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0254/is_1_60/ai_74643770/pg_13

Slums in New York City

After discussing slums in New York City, I decided to research about early New York City, specifically the story of Seneca Village in the 1800's. We learned about Gemeinschaft and it has to do with community, mechanical solidarity and status whereas, Geseillschaft, is more of a contract, organic solidarity, and class. With organic solidarity we are bound to one another. This was an interesting topic to talk about and also it was very relevant to what I read about in the Seneca Village article.

https://www.nyhistory.org/seneca/nyc.html

The Industrial Revolution

After learning about the Industrial Revolution, I thought it was very cool to see the beginning of that era. I learned about the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th century. It was also very cool to learn about the family and how its changed. How we have gone from living in villages where everyone knew eachother to living in cities where you would be lucky if you know just on person. Families have gotten closer over time and have more meaning to some.

It was also interesting to view marriage as a contract because I have never talked about it in that way. It is a unique approach and I could see how it could be called a contract in some ways. Along with my view it was very cool to see others feelings about the Industrial Revolution. So here they are......http://en.wordpress.com/tag/industrial-revolution/

Urban Sociology (Tuesday February 3rd)

After learning about the urban revolution, I thought that it was one of the most interesting topics I have ever learned about in terms of sociology in the city. The urba revolution took place in about 4,000 B.C. In order to have an urban revolution, there must be six steps that must take place. First, there needs to be a large permanent settlement. Next in the urban revolution came the non agricultural class. In this class we see specialists in jobs such as, potters, blacksmiths etc. After this takes place there then has to be taxation to take place in order to have an urban revolution. Next, there has to be a ruling class. Their job is to get money, organize, and make rules. We saw this exist in ancient Egypt where the rulers eventually became gods, but it did exist there. Fifth, there was records kept where the people would write on clay pallets all the records that took place. We see this all over today in everyday society with records such as criminal, credit history etc. So documenting records has been around since the Urban Revolution took place. Finally, trade has to take place in order for the city to survive. All six of these steps equals surplus which equals the city which equals trade. It is a very interesting formula but this is how the urban revolution began.
After reading others view on urban sociology, I found some information on modern life cities and some statistics about a large amount of people living in the city in 2008. It was a great bog to read about. Here is the link......http://perencanamuda.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/the-urban-revolution/.

The Metropolis and Mental Life and Other Readings

After reading about certain topics such as the mental life and the city etc. it was interesting to learn about Simmel's perspective on this topic. Simmel stated, "The deepest problems of modern life flow from the attmpt of the individual to maintain the independence and individuality of his eistence against the sovereign powers of society, against the weght of the historical heritage and the external culture and technique of life." We also talked about the city life and how different the mental state is between one from the city and one from suburbia.
Simmels ways can be compared with other familiar concepts in sociology from theorists before him. "Simmel combines ideas from all of the three major classical writers and was influenced by Hegel and Kant. When Simmel discusses social structures, the city, money, and modern society, his analysis has some similarities to the analyses of Durkheim (problem of individual and society), Weber (effects of rationalization), and Marx (alienation). Simmel considered society to be an association of free individuals, and said that it could not be studied in the same way as the physical world, i.e. sociology is more than the discovery of natural laws that govern human interaction" (http://uregina.ca/~gingrich/simmel.htm).

Mumford wrote about what he thought the city was in his document, "The City" in 1869. It seems to be a valid point in his writing even though the document was written in 1869. The city, as one finds it in history, is the point of maximum concentration for the power and culture of a community. "The city, as one finds it in history, is the point of maximum concentration for the power and culture of a community" (Mumford). I could see some comparisons between this document compared to Webers' "The City" and Mumford's document called "What is a city?"

Overall, these documents show similar comparisons when describing the city and its characteristics. The similar statements between each of the sociologists show the comparisons in thier writings and their ideas of what the city is and the way it has its effect on the people in that area.