SOC-1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 57: Ernest Burgess, Advantageous, Manuel Castells
Document Summary
Premodern cities: self-contained entities that stood apart from the predominantly rural areas in which they were located. Urban areas were linked by road systems, but travel was a specialized affair for such categories as merchants and soldiers. Robert park: the city grows by expansion, but it gets character by the selection and segregation of its population, so that every individual finds eventually, either the place where he/she can or the place he/she must live. Urbanism as a way of life: within the city, three themes emerge, cities are composed -- ecologically -- of "natural areas" or habitats. Definition: an approach to the study of urban life based on an analogy with the adjustment of plants and organisms to the physical environment. According to ecological theorists, the various neighborhoods and zones within cities are formed as a result of natural processes of adjustment on the part of population as they compete for resources.