TPR482

SOCIAL &
COMMUNITY
PLANNING
TOPIC 3
THEORIES OF MODERNIZATION AND URBAN
SOCIETY

GS. DR. HJH. NORAINAH ABDUL RAHMAN

 CONTENT
3.1 ORGANISATION AND BUREAUCRACY
3.2 SOCIAL INCLUSION AND SOCIAL
EXCLUSION
3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
-WIRTH, TONNIES, HENDONISM,
AND FISCHER
 3.1 ORGANISATION AND
BUREAUCRACY
• A contemporary societies are essentially
organisational societies in the sense
that almost all needs are met in
organisational settings. In any urban
area, either large or small.

• Babies in cities and towns are born in

hospitals, educated in schools,
subsequently employed in government
or private organisation, enrolled as
member of professional or recreational
organisation or even religion organisation
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 3.1 ORGANISATION AND
BUREAUCRACY
• As there is more specialised division
of labour in society, organisations
also increase in numbers and
variety.
• In interest of efficiency, theses
organisation must develop a
hieracrchy of authority and devise a
system of rules designed toward the
pursuit of specific goals.

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 3.1 ORGANISATION AND
BUREAUCRACY
• A particular form of organisation, known as
bureaucracy, emerges. Max Weber's,
analysis of bureaucracy is a pioneering
study in this particular field in sociology.

• A bureaucratic organisation has a clearly

defined goal. It involves precise calculation
of the means to attain this goal and
systematically eliminates those factors
which stand in the way of the achievement
of its objectives. Bureaucracy is, therefore,
rational action in an institutional form.
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 3.1 ORGANISATION AND
BUREAUCRACY
RELATED WITH TOWN PLANNING

• Residents Association

• Rukun tetangga JKKK Kampung Penghulu

• Pihak Berkuasa Tempatan

• Kerajaan Negeri

• Kerajaan Persekutuan

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 3.1 ORGANISATION AND
BUREAUCRACY
COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT

• Process of increasing capacity of individuals

or groups to make choices and to transform
those choices into desired actions and
outcomes.

• Community empowerment refers to the

process of enabling communities to increase
control over their lives. "Communities" are
groups of people that may or may not be
spatially connected, but who share common
interests, concerns or identities.
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 3.1 ORGANISATION AND
BUREAUCRACY
COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT

• 'Empowerment' refers to the process by

which people gain control over the factors
and decisions that shape their lives.
• It is the process by which they increase their
assets and attributes and build capacities
to gain access, partners, networks and/or a
voice, in order to gain control. "Enabling"
implies that people cannot "be empowered"
by others; they can only empower themselves
by acquiring more of power's different forms
(Laverack, 2008). 8
 3.1 ORGANISATION AND
BUREAUCRACY
PARTICIATION AND APPROACH OF
COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT
• Community participation creates a 'social learning'
process whereby professionals and local people learn
from each other and build working partnerships for
sustainable improvements.
• Empowerment enhance individual competence and self
esteem which, in turn, increase perceptions of
personal control.
• Individual action - small mutual groups -
organizations - social and political actions.
• Community organizations – opportunity for members
to gain skills and competencies necessary to
allow them to move towards achieving health
outcomes.
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SOCIAL
EXCLUSION
Definition of Inclusive Society
• A society for all in which every
individual, each with rights and
responsibilities, has an active role to
play - World Summit for Social
Development (1995)

• A society for everyone built on

fundamental values of fairness,
equality, social justice, human rights
and freedom as well as on the principle
of tolerance and diversity - UNESCO
(2012)
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SOCIAL
EXCLUSION
Definition of Inclusive Society
Inclusiveness for:

• All citizen of Malaysia regardless

of gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic
level and geographical

• Key driver to individual and societal

wellbeing

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SOCIAL
EXCLUSION

12
SOCIAL
EXCLUSION
Element of Social Inclusion and Social Exclusion

13
SOCIAL
EXCLUSION
Prerequisite Elements for Creating an Inclusive Society

14
SOCIAL
EXCLUSION
Marginalised and Disadvantaged Group

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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
1. WIRTH • The famous sociologist Louis Wirth wrote his landmark
as a Way of Life. Wirth published this piece in the
American Journal of Sociology in 1938, as
major transformations were occurring.
• More and more people were moving into cities and
the world was rapidly urbanizing and Wirth argued
that urbanism, or the condition of living in a city, was
become the way of modern life.
• Wirth believed that there is something specific about
living in a city that changes the ways people
behave and interact. In other words, living in a city
does something to our personalities and our very
way of life - it's not just about living in a particular
place.

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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
1. WIRTH LOUIS WIRTH’S THE CONCEPT OF URBANISM

• The concept of “Urbanism” represents a way of

life. The term generally denotes the diffusion
of urban culture and the evolution of urban
society.

• It reflects an organization of society in terms of a

complex division of labour, high levels of
technology, high mobility, interdependence
of its members in fulfilling economic
functions and impersonality in social relations.

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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
1. WIRTH LOUIS WIRTH’S THE CHARACTERISTIC OF
URBANISM

1.Transiency:

• An urban inhabitant's relation with others last

only for a short time; he tends to forget his old
acquaintances and develop relations with new
people.

• Since he is not much attached to his neighbours

members of the social groups, he does not mind
leaving them.

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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
1. WIRTH LOUIS WIRTH’S THE CHARACTERISTIC OF
URBANISM

2. Superficiality:
• An urban person has the limited number of
persons with whom he interacts and his
relations with them are impersonal and formal.
• People meet each other in highly segmental
roles. They are dependent on more people for
the satisfaction of their life needs.

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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
1. WIRTH LOUIS WIRTH’S THE CHARACTERISTIC OF
URBANISM

3. Anonymity:
Urbanities do not know each other intimately.
Personal mutual acquaintance between the
inhabitants which ordinarily is found in a
neighbourhood is lacking.

4. Individualism:
People give more importance to their own vested
interests
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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
LOUIS WIRTH’S WHAT IS THE CITY
1. WIRTH
• The most common way to define a city was by
population size. But Wirth was unsatisfied with this
definition alone, arguing that there are more factors
must take into consideration.
• In addition to size, Wirth argued that another defining
feature of the city is density. This refers to the number of
people settled in a particular area. This is important because
a large cluster of people will impact how individuals
interact with one another and with the city itself.
• Finally, Wirth believed that social heterogeneity was the
third defining quality of a city. Heterogeneity in this
context refers to the different racial and ethnic
groups that make up a place. Cities have always been
melting pots and destinations for immigrants.
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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
LOUIS WIRTH’S WHAT IS THE CITY
1. WIRTH
Population size:
Creates great diversity because large numbers of people
coming together logically increase potential differentiation
among themselves, and with migration of diverse groups
to city; creates need for formal control structures, e.g.
legal systems; supports proliferation of further complex
division of labour specialization; organizes human
relationships on interest-specific basis, i.e. "social
segmentalization", where secondary relationships are
primary, in essence urban ties are relationships of
utility; creates possibility of disorganization and
disintegration.

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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
LOUIS WIRTH’S WHAT IS THE CITY
1. WIRTH
Population density:
i ntensifies effects of large population size on social
life; manifests quality of separateness, e.g. economic
forces and social processes produce readily identifiable
distinct neighbourhood, "ecological specialization";
fosters a loss of sensitivity to more personal aspects of
others, instead tendency to stereotype and categorize;
results in greater tolerance of difference but at same
time physical closeness increases social distance; may
increase antisocial behaviour.

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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
LOUIS WIRTH’S WHAT IS THE CITY
1. WIRTH
Population heterogeneity:
With social interaction among many personality
types results in breakdown of the rigidity of caste lines
and complicates class structure, thus increased social
mobility; with social mobility tend to have physical
mobility; leads to further depersonalization with
concentration of diverse people.

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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
FERDINAND TONNIES
2. TONNIES • Born in Germany, 1855 – 1936
• Experience the industrialization of Germany
• Experience the population explosion within Germany
• Founded the German Sociological Society (along with
Max Webber, Georg Simmel and Werner Sombart) – serving
as its president from 1909 to 1933
• He opposed the rise of the Nazism and was dismissed
from his port in 1933 (when Hitler rose to power)
• Considered social structure of city
• Defined and described two basic organizing principles
of human association or two contrasting types of
human social life, a typology with a continuum of pure
type of settlement:
• Gemeinschaft (community)
11/20/2023 • Gesellschaft (association) 25
3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
FERDINAND TONNIES
2. TONNIES
Gemeinschaft
• Often translated as community — refers to groupings based
on a feeling of togetherness.
• May be exemplified by a family or a neighborhood
community;

Gesellschaft
• Often translated as society / association — on the other
hand, refers to groups that are sustained by an
instrumental goal.
• A joint-stock company or a state or nation.

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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
GEMEINSCHAFT
2. TONNIES
Gemeinschaften are broadly characterized by a
moderate division of labor, strong
personal relationships, strong families, and
relatively simple social institutions.

Historically, Gemeinschaft societies were racially and

ethnically homogeneous. Gemeinschaft could be
based on shared place and shared belief as well as
kinship, and he included globally dispersed religious
communities as possible examples of Gemeinschaft.

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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
GEMEINSCHAFT
2. TONNIES There are three types of Gemeinschaft relationships:
Kinship, Friendship, and Neighborhood or Locality
• Kinship Gemeinschaft is based on Family; the
strongest relationship being between mother and
child, then husband and wife, and then siblings.
Gemeinschaft also exists between father and child, but
this relationship is less instinctual than that of mother
and child. However, the father-child relationship
is the original manifestation of authority within
Gemeinschaft.
• Kinship develops and differentiates into the
Gemeinschaft of Locality, which is based on a common
habitat
• There is also Friendship, or Gemeinschaft of the
mind, which requires a common mental community
11/20/2023 (eg: religion). 28
3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
GESELLSCHAFT
2. TONNIES • Gesellschaft (often translated as "society" or "civil
society"), in contrast to Gemeinschaft, describes
associations in which, for the individual, the larger
association never takes on more importance than
individual self-interest. Gesellschaft is maintained
through individuals acting in their own self-
interest.
•
• A modern business is a good example of
Gesellschaft. The workers, managers, and owners
may have very little in terms of shared
orientations or beliefs, they may not care
deeply for the product they are making, but it is in
everyone's self-interest to come to work to make
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money, and thus, the business continues. 29
3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
GESELLSCHAFT
2. TONNIES • Characterized large city, city life is a mechanical
aggregate characterized by disunity, rampant
individualism and selfishness, meaning of existence
shifts from group to individual, rational, calculating,
each person understood in terms of a particular role
and service provided; deals with the artificial
construction of an aggregate of human beings which
superficially resembles
• The Gemeinschaft in so far as the individuals
peacefully live together yet whereas in
Gemeinschaft people are united in spite of all
separating factors, in Gesellschaft people are
separated in spite of all uniting factors.
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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
3. HENDONISM • Hedonism is a school of thought that argues that
pleasure and happiness are the primary or most
important intrinsic goods and the proper aim of
human life. A hedonist strives to maximize net
pleasure (pleasure minus pain).

• Ethical hedonism is the idea that all people have the

right to do everything in their power to achieve the
greatest amount of pleasure possible to them. It
is also the idea that eve pleasure should far
surpass their amount of every person's pain.

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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
3. HENDONISM • Hedonism is a sub philosophy of utilitarianism, which says
to act in a way that maximizes utility. Hedonists
equate pleasure with utility and believe that pleasure is
the master of all humankind, and acts as the
ultimate life goal.

• Hedonists believe that there are only two motivators

of human action, pleasure and pain, and that decisions
should only be made that further our pleasurable
experiences and minimize or completely eliminate our
painful ones.

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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
HEDONISM SUSTAINABILITY
3. HENDONISM • Bjarke Ingels, an architect from Denmark that created the
term hedonism sustainability

• What does hedonism sustainability does is transform the whole

sustainability movement into something very youthful, dynamic
and egalitarian. It proves that design and architecture can be
economically profitable as well as environmentally
sustainable.

• An urban waste-processing and power plant in (completely flat)

Copenhagen converted into a multi- purpose urban ski slope known as
Copenhill. At the same time that the plant generates heat
and electricity for 140,000 homes, skiers dressed in can ride
elevators to the top and ski down to the bottom. At night, there's a
backdrop of beautiful neon CO2 smoke rings illuminated in the night
sky.
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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
FISCHER’S THEORIES OF URBANISM
4. FISCHER
• Claude Fischer discusses three major theories of
urbanism in the context of the way it transforms
behaviours and the psychological effects on
individuals.

• The first, deterministic theory is specific to the

place in that its main tenet is that, unlike the rural
environment, the urban environment increases
social and psychological disorders.
• As theorized by Georg Simmel and subsequently Louis
Wirth, increased stimuli (i.e., noise, lights, and people)
inherent in the city can cause undue stress on
individuals.
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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
FISCHER’S THEORIES OF URBANISM
4. FISCHER
• In response, city dwellers adapt by withdrawing from
interactions. What little interactions they do have are
rational and unemotional and only serve as a means
to and end.
• The avoidance of any interpersonal relations leads to
fewer and fewer interactions and weakened network
and kinship ties until the individual is alone and with
out any support systems; all precursors to
deteriorating social, mental and physical health.

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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
FISCHER’S THEORIES OF URBANISM
4. FISCHER • The second Fischer theory is compositional theory,
which is specific to the people
•
Founding theorists Herbert Gans and Oscar Lewis posit
that rather than the ecological environment, such as
size and density, non ecological characteristics,
such as class, ethnicity, family structure, diminish social
and psychological health.

• Ecological impacts are regarded when they indirectly

alter the social composition.

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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
FISCHER’S THEORIES OF URBANISM
4. FISCHER • For instance, redrawing district maps so that a
disproportionate of lower class citizens now inhabit
the same zone could have consequence for the amount
of resources available to them, thereby leaving
people unprotected, vulnerable, and possibly
isolated.

• Fischer’s subcultural theory, the final theory in

urbanism discussed here, posits that the phenomena of
critical mass characteristic in urban society can
give rise to new subcultures.

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3.3 URBAN SOCIETY THEORIES
FISCHER’S THEORIES OF URBANISM
4. FISCHER
• Similar to compositional theory, subcultural theory
promotes the idea that urbanism strengthens social
life rather than destroying it. Strong social ties
persist, in spite of urbanism, and actually flourish
into new and diverse subcultures. In fact,
subcultures typically cannot survive anywhere other than
a large urban city as a subculture requires a large
enough interest base.

• However, subcultural theory argues that contact between

different subcultures can cause friction and
ignite social disorder. Again, like compositional
theory, social disorder is not directly created by
urbanism, but instead by proxy.
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Thank you