URBANISM

-Mehul Kanodia(2012CODP015)

URBANISM

URBANISM

• Sociological study of life and human interaction in metropolitan areas.

• Moreover it studies the role of cities in role of development of society.

URBANISATION

• A phenomenon of people moving from rural areas towards urban cities.

• It studies the significance of migration and the reasons acting behind it.

URBANISM

• Philosophical foundation of modern urban sociology originate from work of sociologists such as Karl Marx, Ferdinand Tonnies, Emile Durkhiem, Max Weber and George Simmel.

• Importance of the philosophies into sociological theories was propounded and developed by Chicago School of Sociology.

• (Started off to study the expansion of Chicago in 1860 from population of 10,000 to over two million in next half century due to Industrial Revolution.)

URBANISM

• 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 such as :

• Transportation• Communication• Cities• Growth• Mode of life• (Although largely population is the only element which is considered,

these elements are more significant in defining an area as “Urban”.)

URBANISM

• Early urban sociologists framed the significance of symbolic interaction into urban settings. (Max Weber)

• City as a “Superorganism” where individual communities and systems contribute to the seamless functioning of the city itself.

George Simmel• Born on March 1, 1858 in

what is now the middle of downtown Berlin.

• With the help of Julius Friedlander, a wealthy family friend, Simmel moved into academia.

• Had the backing of important colleagues including Mac Weber.

• Died on September 28, 1918.• Wrote Einleitung in die

Moralphilosophie, Philosophie des Geldes and Soziologie.

The Metropolis and Mental Life

• Focuses on elucidating the “modern aspects of contemporary life with reference to their inner meaning.”

• “Instead of reacting emotionally, the metropolitan type reacts primarily in a rational manner… Thus the reaction of the metropolitan person to those events is moved to the sphere of mental activity that is least sensitive and furthest removed from the depths of personality.”

• Thus there’s a prerequisite of creation of a “protective organ.”

In short…

• People and environment (just like rural settings) are coexistent. Just the “environment” in an urban setting is much different.

• The emotional availability of urban population is comparatively lesser than rural population.

• Characteristic features according to Simmels:-

Characteristic Features

• INDIVIDUALITY• AUTONOMY• INDIFFERENT• TECHNOLOGICAL PESSIMISM• INTENSIFICATION OF NERVOUS STIMULATION• PUNCTUALITY, CALCULABILITY and EXACTNESS

BLASÉ ATTITUDE

• Incapacity to react to new sensation due to saturation.

• The individual gets caught up in the complex structure of the city life.

OBJECTIVITY vs. SUBJECTIVITY

“The development of modern culture is characterized by the predomination of what one can call the objective spirit over the subjective… the growth of which is followed only imperfectly and with an even greater lag by the intellectual

development of the individual.”

David Frisby

• Not just a sphere of circulation and exchange of merely money and commodities but also that of social groups and individuals.

• This flow plays a homogenizing role where unique ideas and traditions of diverse groups are hybridized into a single urban way of life.

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