Course Outline(URPD-6302)

Urban Sociology course deals with theories and models on the development of
cities, the social dimension of urban design, neighborhood, and cultural planning.
This course combines lectures, discussions, examination, and writing a research
paper and presentation. The objectives of the course are to:
Understand the quantitative and qualitative research methods,

Explain the shift from the traditional view of the focus of public spaces to social space,

Explain key aspects of urban design's social dimension,

Explain the neighborhood characteristics, changes and effects and

Explain the influence of social and cultural dimensions on urban design.

 Con…
Part one
Transformations in urban form
Theories/models on the development of cities
Conventional
Contemporary

Part two
 The social dimension of urban design
The relationship between people and space
Public realm and public life
Accessibility and exclusion
 Con…
Part three
Neighborhood
Neighborhood characteristics and changes
Mixed neighborhood
Neighborhood effects
Part four
Cultural planning
Ethnographic understandings of ethnically diverse neighborhoods
Maximizing straightforward participation,
legitimizing diversity of activity,
Designing in micro-retreats of nearby quietness and
Addressing structural inequalities of open space provision
 Outline

Transformations in Urban Form

Preindustrial city

Industrial city

Contemporary city

The political economy of contemporary cities

 Preindustrial city

Small-scale settlements,

A mercantile economy,

A rigid social order stemming (medieval feudalism),

A small elite(religious, political, administrative and social functions), and

 larger groups of lower classes and outcasts

The elite came to be increasingly segregated from the rest of

urban society,
 Con…
The spatial association of craftsmen of different kinds, reinforced by social

organizations such as guilds,

Fostered group cohesion and spatial clustering of their members

The political, social and economic advantages conferred by guild membership

reinforced external economies derived from spatial association

Spatial differentiation is dominated by a mosaic of occupational districts, with

class and status stratification

Con…
 The industrial city
Inherited few of the social or morphological characteristics of the preindustrial
city
Retain their castles, cathedrals, palaces and other institutional buildings
Products of a new economic logic that turned urban structure inside out from
the preindustrial model
Rich exchanging their central location for the peripheral location of the poor

Occupational clustering has given way to residential differentiation in terms of

status, family structure, ethnicity and lifestyle

 Con…
 Power and status in the city are no longer determined by traditional values,

Profound realignment was primarily economic, rooted in the emergence of

capitalism, and
Reinforced by the technologies emerged during the Industrial Revolution

two ‘new’ social groups: the industrial capitalists and the unskilled factory

workers
the accumulation of capital by individuals became not only morally

acceptable but the dominant criterion of status and power,

 Con…
 Entrepreneurs introduced a new, materialistic value system to urban affairs.

Changes in land use;

Competition for the best and most accessible sites for the new factories and
the warehouses, shops and offices,
Land was given over to the uses that could justify the highest rents, and

The new urban structure became increasingly differentiated.

Social status;
Ascribed in terms of money, became synonymous with rent-paying ability
 Con…

Neighbourhoods were created along status divisions

The size and quality of buildings was positively linked with price

the introduction of new transport services attracted to the fashionable new

dwellings(wealthy and poor)

The rate of urban growth;

a dramatic excess of births over deaths,

 massive immigration
 Con…
Growth of the capitalist economy with successive improvements in urban

transport systems,
Endowed the industrial city with a series of irregular/sporadic but distinctive

suburban zones.
 The contemporary city
 System underpinned by information technologies and networked around the
globe

 free markets as the ideal condition not only for economic organization, but
also for political and social life.
 Free markets have generated uneven relationships among places and regions

 result being an intensification of economic inequality at every scale, from the

neighbourhood to the nation state.
 The pursuit of neoliberal policies and free market ideals has also dismantled a
great deal of the framework for city building and community development
 Con…

Technological change led;

The capacity of firms to adjust the levels and types of their output in
response to varying market conditions
Computer aided design and manufacture (CAD/CAM)

Flexible use of labour (multi skilled)

The creation of new industrial clusters (new industrial spaces)

Ex, Silicon Valley and Orange County in California

 Con…

Rapidly growing ‘sunbelt’ areas of California and the south west of the United

States,
Extensive suburban development and conservative political regimes

Clusters of industrial sectors such as finance, design and marketing in major

cities such as New York, Paris, Milan And London

In Europe there are regions specializing in products such as shoes, ceramics and

textiles
 Con…

Increasing social polarization;

development of protective measures by the more affluent sections of society
(violence and crime are routine),
bunker architecture (‘fortified’ and ‘paranoid’)

gates, barriers and walls, security guards, infrared sensors, panic rooms,
motion detectors, rapid response links with police departments and
surveillance equipment (CCTV),
scanscape
 The political economy of contemporary cities
Politics;
the moral and material contest over the way production, distribution, and
consumption organized on the earth.

Urban political economy;

the link between social organization and economic activity as mediated by
earthly resources.

A socio-spatial dialectic
 Urban spatial structure to the institutions of urban society
 Con…
 all social phenomena are linked to the prevailing mode of production

The forces of production(technology underpinning the production

process), and
the social relations of production ( legal system of property rights

and trade union legislation) that governed the system of production.

a transformation of society to a higher stage of development(tribalism

to socialism)
 Con…
Conflict between opposing social classes inherent in the economic order

The role of the city;

 Greater accumulation of capital, and

 The perpetuation of the economic base.

 Social reproduction (labour and capital),

 The stabilization of the associated social structure led

 The development of a variety of suburban settings

 Access to different kinds of services, amenities and resources

 Con…
The role of government;
Control over the patterns and conditions of provision of infrastructure,

 Neighbourhoods provide distinctive background (consumption habits,

moral codes and expectations).

 Permanent social groupings to emerge within a relatively permanent

structure of residential differentiation

 Con…
The city an expression of capitalism and a means of its perpetuation
recognized that the structure of the city reflects and incorporates
contradictions in capitalist society.
Residential neighbourhoods are cleared to make way for new
office developments,
 disinvestment in privately rented accommodation,

leads to the dissolution of inner-city communities

the switch of capital to more profitable investment in private housing

leads to an expansion of the suburbs
 Con…
Re-creation and transformation of spatial arrangements brings about
locational conflict
Conflict over the nature and location of new urban development,
Over urban renewal, road construction, conservation, land use zoning

The role of government as a legitimating agent,

Defusing discontent through the pursuit of welfare policies,

The provision of a stable and predictable environment for business,

 the propagation of an ideology conducive to the operation and maintenance
of the economic base
 References
Cuthbert, A.R., 2008. The form of cities: Political economy and urban design.
John Wiley & Sons.
Evans, G., 2002. Cultural planning: An urban renaissance? Routledge.
Harris, C.D. and Ullman, E.L., 1945. The nature of cities. The Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science, 242(1), pp.7-17.
Knox, P. and Pinch, S., 2014. Urban social geography: an introduction.
Routledge
Rishbeth, C., Ganji, F. and Vodicka, G., 2018. Ethnographic understandings of
ethnically diverse neighbourhoods to inform urban design practice. Local
Environment, 23(1), pp.36-53.
Scott, A.J. and Storper, M., 2015. The nature of cities: The scope and limits of
urban theory. International journal of urban and regional research, 39(1), pp.1-15.