SOC356Y1 Lecture Notes - Social Forces
Document Summary
Analyzes individual life in the context of modern, metropolitan life, of social forces and structures of urban life with those of traditional rural, small town settings. Metropolis is a location for social life where the larger structures, forms of contact and forces such as money economy threaten the individuality and autonomy" of individual. Each of these differs from traditional settings, leaving individuals more depen- dent on others, and more subject to impersonal exchange values. Metropolis is also a site where personal freedom and flexibility can expand, so individ- uals are less constrained by the limiting, closed traditional social forms, such as commu- nities. Also believes that prejudice can be eliminated and there could be greater free- dom for individual actions and thoughts, and greater possibility of social mobili- ty. At the same time, simmel believes that it is important that individual particularity and incomparability is expressed in the working out of a way of social life.
