Urban Sociology

The fifth edition of this book extends the discussion of the challenges faced by urban sociology in the global age, while covering the issues traditionally associated with urban sociology. It presents a balanced review of the ecological perspective and the political and economic contexts of the urban environment. Topics include communities in cities, minority and ethnic groups, poverty, power, crime, cities in economic development and underdevelopment, metropolitanization and urban sprawl, and urban policy and planning. The final chapter explores the significance of cyberspace, transnationalism, and global terrorism for the future of urban sociology.

The fifth edition of this text presents a balanced review of the ecological arguments that the urban arena produces unique experiential and urban-based cultural effects while exploring the broader political and economic contexts that produce and modify the urban environment. In addition to examining the urban dimensions of such topics as community formation and continuity, minority and majority dynamics, ethnic experience, poverty, power, and crime, it provides an analysis of the spatial distribution of population and resources with regard to the metropolitanization of the urban form, and the interaction between urban concentration and development and underdevelopment. From a first chapter that begins with a discussion of some of the more micrological features of the urban experience, the text focuses on the significance of the more macrological cultural, social organizational, and political dimensions of urban change, in an historical span that includes the first cities and concludes with an exploration of the implications of cyberspace, transnationalism, and global terrorism for the future of urban sociology. While the work focuses primarily on the North American case, its analytical and integrated discussion makes it applicable to urban societies in general.

Chapter 1 An Invitation to Urban Studies
Chapter 2 From Ancient Cities to an Urban World
Chapter 3 The Urban Tradition in Sociology
Chapter 4 Community and the City
Chapter 5 Ethnic and Minority Groups
Chapter 6 Patterns and Consequences of Urbanization in Poor Countries
Chapter 7 Urban Growth and Transitions in the United States
Chapter 8 Ecology, Capitalism, and the Expanding Scope of Urban Analysis
Chapter 9 Poverty, Power, and Crime
Chapter 10 Urban Policy
Chapter 11 Urban Sociology: An Evolving Perspective on the World