Transcript OAD313 Computer Applications in Business II: Introduction

SOC123G Social Problems:
Unit 13
Urban Life
Monday, July 20,
2015
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
Bolender
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
References
Bast, J. L. (1998, February 23). Sports stadium madness: Why it
started, how to stop it. Retrieved March 16, 2002, from The
Heartland Institute Web site:
http://www.heartland.org/studies/sports/madness-ps.htm
Kendall, D. (1998). Social problems in a diverse society. Boston: Allyn
and Bacon.
Macionis, J. J. (2002). Social problems. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Mooney, L. A., Knox, D., & Schacht, C. (1997). Understanding social
problems. Cincinnati, OH: Wadsworth.
Mooney, L. A., Knox, D., & Schacht, C. (2000). Understanding social
problems (2nd ed.). Cincinnati, OH: Wadsworth.
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Devotions
Does God have something against cities?
I have heard that the people of Sodom and
Gomorrah are utterly evil. . .Then the Lord rained
down fire and flaming tar from heaven upon
Sodom and Gomorrah. . .eliminating all life. . .
Genesis 18:20b, 19:24, 25b (The Living Bible)
Go to the great city of Nineveh, and give them this
announcement from the Lord: I am going to
destroy you, for your wickedness rises before me;
it smells to highest heavens.
Jonah 1:2 (The Living Bible)
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
Urbanization
The transformation of a society from a
rural to an urban one
The Industrial Revolution caused cities to
grow rapidly and began to house most of
the world’s population
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
United States
200 years ago, over 90% of the population
lived in rural areas
Currently, less than 23% of the population
live in rural areas
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
Causes of urbanization
Pull
• Higher income jobs were the result of the Industrial
Revolution
• Urban amenities
– Entertainment
– Libraries and museums
Push
• Making a living as a farmer became more difficult as
technology replaced farm hands
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
Urban Population
Cities or towns of 2,500 or more
inhabitants
Urbanized Area
One or more places and the adjacent
surrounding territory that together have a
minimum population of 50,000
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
Urbanism
The culture and lifestyle of city dwellers,
often characterized by individualistic and
cosmopolitan norms, values, and styles of
behavior.
Urban Consciousness
An awareness of the consequences of city
living--positive and negative
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
Suburbs
The urbanlike areas surrounding central
cities
Suburbanization
The process in which city dwellers move
to the suburbs due to concern about the
declining quality of life in urban areas
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
Metropolitan Area
Consists of a central core area containing
a large population, together with adjacent
communities that have a high degree of
social and economic integration with the
core--large cities and their surrounding
suburbs
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
Deindustrialization
The loss or relocation of manufacturing
industries out of the central cities
Deconcentration
The redistribution of the population from
cities to suburbs and surrounding areas
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
Urban Sprawl
Rapid, unplanned, and low-density
development at the edge of urban areas
Caused by the decentralization of the urban
population
Problems with urban sprawl
Numbing sameness of much of this cityscape
Consuming land at a rapid rate (low-density use)
Automobile use
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
Edge Cities
Business centers located some distance
from the old downtowns
Movement of businesses away from the
central city
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
Decentralization and the Urban Poor
The decentralization of the urban population into suburbs
and edge cities raises one final concern: The high costs
of suburban, automobile-based living screen out most of
the poor. Urban decentralization, then, has a social-class
dimension: The well-to-do move away from the central
cities; the poor stay behind. As more jobs relocate to
outlying areas, economic opportunity for inner-city
residents keeps going down. This is one reason that the
highest concentrations of poverty are now found in
central cities.
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Unit 13:
Urban Life: Regionalism
Regionalization
Residents of suburbs “use” city services
and cultural offerings without paying taxes
for them
A metropolitan-wide government is
formed to handle the inequities and
concerns of both suburban and urban
areas
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Unit 13:
Urban Life: Regionalism
Sport Stadiums and Regionalism
 A variation of the regionalism theme is the issue of sports stadiums
subsidized by local tax dollars (often property tax, sales tax, and/or
entertainment tax ).
 The problem is that it is not unusual for the working poor locked
into the “official city limits” to subsidized the sports stadiums for the
middle/upper middle classes who live outside the city limits and/or
county line limits—often the working poor cannot afford to
purchase the tickets for the games held in the stadiums that their
sale taxes subsidized.
 Some of the population of the “greater region” might enjoy the
benefits of the stadium without bearing the burden of the subsidy-except for the sales tax paid on the ticket/food/parking—which is a
MINOR contribution to the total subsidy.
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Unit 13:
Urban Life: Regionalism
Sports Stadiums Madness:
Why it Started, How to Stop It (Bast, 1998)
The United States in the grip of a massive
spending spree on professional sports
Nationally, subsidies to professional sport
facilities are costing taxpayers approximately
$500 million a year
Competition among cities for professional sport
franchises has dramatically lowered rent
payments from teams, often to zero--operating
subsidies have become the rule
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Unit 13:
Urban Life: Regionalism
 Taxpayers must bear the risk that the deal struck with the private
team owners or developer to repay the bonds falls short due to
poor attendance, cost overruns, or some other reason
 The big money in professional sports goes to the team owners and
players, who may or may not invest or spend the money in the host
community.
 The lowly fan receives no benefit, and may even face higher ticket
prices due to the waste and “gold plating” that the subsidy causes.
 It is not unusual for cities to spend millions in sport stadium
subsidies while at the same time neglecting infrastructural
needs…such as dilapidating public school facilities.
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Unit 13:
Urban Life: Regionalism
Note
The discussion about sports stadiums is
related to the social problems created by
the regionalism phenomenon. The
instructor enjoys professional sports...and
enjoys attending events at major sport
stadiums.
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Unit 13:
Urban Life : Structural-Functionalist
Perspective (Order Paradigm)
The development of cities is a natural and
functional one. Although cities initially
functioned as centers of production and
distribution, today they are centers of
finance, administration, and information.
This shift of focus has contributed to the
entrapment of certain population groups.
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Unit 13:
Urban Life : Structural-Functionalist
Perspective (Order Paradigm)
Urbanism’s Effect on Social
Solidarity (Durkheim)
Mechanical solidarity
Social bonds based on shared religious beliefs and a
simple division of labor--rural
Organic solidarity
Social bonds based on interdependence and an
elaborate division of labor (specialization)--urban
(Kendall, 1998, p. 389)
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Unit 13:
Urban Life : Symbolic Interactionist
Perspective (Pluralist Paradigm)
According to early German sociologist Georg Simmel, urban
life is so highly stimulating that people have no choice but
to become somewhat insensitive to events and individuals
around them. Urban residents generally avoid emotional
involvement with one another and try to ignore events-including violence and crime--that take place nearby. They
are wary of other people, looking at others as strangers. At
the same time, Simmel thought that urban living could be
liberating because it gives people opportunities for
individualism and autonomy.
(Kendall, 1998, p. 390-391)
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Unit 13:
Urban Life : Symbolic Interactionist
Perspective (Pluralist Paradigm)
Classical Theoretical View (Lewis Wirth)
 Because of the heterogeneity, density, and size of urban
populations, interactions become segmented and transitory,
resulting in weakened social bonds. Those bonds that do develop
are superficial and detract from the closeness of primary
relationships.
 Wirth held that as social solidarity weakens, people develop certain
social-psychological conditions including
Loneliness
Depression
Stress
Antisocial behavior
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2015
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
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Unit 13:
Urban Life : Symbolic Interactionist
Perspective (Pluralist Paradigm)
Modern Theoretical View (Herbert Gans)
Disagreed with Wirth--cities do not interfere
with the development and maintenance of
functional and positive interpersonal
relationships
Gans saw the city as a patchwork quilt of
different neighborhoods or urban villages,
each of which helped individuals deal with the
pressure of urban living
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2015
© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
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Unit 13:
Urban Life : Symbolic Interactionist
Perspective (Pluralist Paradigm)
Subculture
Is a group of people who share a distinctive set
of cultural beliefs and behaviors that set them
apart from the larger society
To reduce problems of loneliness and alienation
in city life, people develop subcultural ties to
help them feel a sense of community and
identity
(Kendall, 1998, p. 391)
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© 1998-2002 by Ronald Keith
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Unit 13:
Urban Life : Conflict Perspective (Conflict
Paradigm)
As usual, conflict theorists study the “haves”
versus the “have-nots.”
A good example of this concept in the urban
context is how government run urban
renewal projects often displace low
income people in favor of attractive urban
monuments (such as sport arenas). The
desires of the middle class are ranked
higher than the needs of the powerless.
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
Urban Crime
 The general population considers crime the number one
social problem, urban crime is the focus of that opinion
 Successful tactics in reducing urban crime
 Community policing
Uniformed police officers patrol and responsible for certain areas
of the city
 Defensible space
Larger communities are divided into smaller sections
Architects and urban planners physically alter streets to
discourage criminal activity, such as drive by shootings
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
Disturbing Trends in Distressed Cities
 The United States remains an urban nation--but of all
urban dwellers, 60% now live in suburbs--not in the
nation’s 522 central cities
 Concentrations of the poor are increasing in all cities--in
1968 30% of the nation’s poor lived in cities--now the
figure is 42%
 Current building codes and zoning laws are so restrictive
that it is often easier to allow existing residential
property to deteriorate than to maintain or improve
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
 Jobs are leaving cities in massive numbers and are not
being replaced--70% of new jobs, most requiring
extensive technical training, are being created outside
cities
 Many older cities are burdened with foul physical sites
created for a smokestack economy that no longer exists-existing governmental cleanup standards and related
costs exceed the property’s value, and there are no
compensating incentives
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
Urban areas are experimenting with several
innovative approaches toward revitalizing the
center cities.
Newark, Ohio city government coordinates block by
block renovations. It is a combination of
orchestrating the various governmental agencies
into one focus as well as motivating property
owners, in a small well-defined area, to upgrade
their property in unison with their neighbors.
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Unit 13:
Urban Life
Cincinnati, Ohio is another example-one of our own MVNC graduates,
Dennis Dalton, renovated 100 plus
years old housing in the center of
Cincinnati. He assisted the working
poor as well as physically revitalized
a neighborhood--one building at a
time.
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2015
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