Urban Sociology: Unit-1 C-613

URBAN SOCIOLOGY
Unit-1
C-613
MEANING
• Latin word ‘URBANUS’- means belonging to a city.
• Urban sociology is the sociological study of life and human interaction in
metropolitan areas.
• It is a normative discipline of sociology seeking to study the structures,
environmental processes, changes and problems of an urban area and by
doing so provide inputs for urban planning and policy making.
• In other words, it is the sociological study of cities and their role in the
development of society.
• Notably, Georg Simmel is widely considered to be the father of urban
sociology for his contributions to the field in in works such as The
Metropolis and Mental Life, published in 1903.
DEFINATION
• JARY & JARY- The study of social relationships and structures in the city.
• BARKER- Urban Sociology deals with the impact of the city life on social
action, social relationship, social instruction and the types of civilization
derived from and based on urban modes of living.
• LEWIS MUMFORD- Urban society a melting point of various cultures of
world due to the development of industries, rail, road & slums.
• ERICKSON- Urban sociology is a generalizing science. Its practical aim is to
search out the determinants and consequences of diverse forms of social
behavior found in the city.
NATURE
• It is the subtract area of general sociology.
• It is a social science.
• It is a theoretical as well as an applied science.
• It is a categorical science not a normative science.
• It is an abstract not a concrete science.
• It is a special not a general science.
• It is value free science.
• It is based on universal, authentic and valid scientific data.
• Urban sociology is the sociological analysis of city and its life style.
• It concerns the dynamism of society stimulated by urbanization.
• It tends to identify the urban problems and implement possible remedies
to solve them.
• It is a factual study of urban social living.
• It plays attention to the social relation among the city dwellers.
• It studies the social relation which may harmonious or conflicting.
SOROKIN & ZIMMERMAN’S FEATURES OF URBAN COMMUNITY:
• Social heterogeneity
• Secondary relationships
• Secondary control
• Large scale division of labour and specialisation
• Large scale social mobility
• Lack of community feeling
• Social disorganisation
• Unstable family
SCOPE
• MARSHALL (1998)
1. Urbanization.
2. Rapidly growing industrial cities.
3. Complex social relationships, and
4. Social structures.
• SIMMEL (1903)
1. Urban life-style and personality.
2. Urban social organization and culture.
3. Physical characteristics of cities.
4. Social characteristics of the inhabitants.
• AZAM & ALI (2005)
1. Social change perspectives
a. Morphology of cities.
b. Population dynamics.
c. Transformation of urban communities, etc.
2. Social organization perspectives
a. Individuals
b. Groups
c. Voluntary association
d. Bureaucracy
e. Social institution
3. Ecological perspective
f. Population
g. Environment
h. Technology
4. Social problem perspectives
a. Environmental pollution
b. Illness
c. Family fragmentation
d. Poverty
e. Unemployment
f. Drug addiction
g. Class and juvenile delinquency
h. Prostitution and trafficking and so on
5. Social policy perspectives
a. Recognition and identification of the problems, and
b. Ability to solve the identified problems.
IMPORTANCE
• Help to understand the historical back group of cities and how they
evolved.
• Studying urban areas as medium of social change.
• Analyse diff aspects of human interaction.
• Analyse diff bet rural and urban areas.
• Helps in analysing the process of migration.
• For planning and reform policy programs.
• Helps in understanding diff aspects of urban life i.e. Changing institution,
behaviour etc.
• Helps to understand issues due to urbanization sucg as degradation,
slums, poverty etc.
RURAL vs. URBAN WORLD
• The world can be broadly divided into two types of human settlements, rural
and urban.
• A variety of conceptual approaches has been applied to determine the
essential social characteristics and dynamism of urban industrialism.
• 2 approaches to understand urban society-
1. Trait complex approach- In this approach empirical attributes generally
quantitative traits are taken for analyzing differences like, occupation, size,
density, homogeneity and environment etc.
2. Ideal type approach-
a. Non-polar ITA- : The concept of an "ideal type" has been applied to
communities as it has been applied to the study of other social phenomena.
This conceptual device is a constructed proposition, which designates the
hypothetical characteristics of a "Pure" or "ldeal " type. As used in this sense
the terms pure or ideal have nothing to do with subjective evaluations of
phenomena being studied. The technique of ideal type analysis is a form of
comparative method. Actual empirical instances are compared with the ideal
type to see how closely they approximate the ideal type. 'This type of
approach is known as non-polar ideal type approach.
b. Polar ITA- This is also known as ~ural-urban Continuum polar ideal type
analysis, which compares empirical cases with the two logical extremes. It
generally assumes that there is continuum between the two polar types
along which empirical cases order themselves. Continuum is an
uninterrupted series of gradual changes in the magnitude of a given
characteristic forming a linear increase or decrease through a series of
gradual degrees. Rural and urban communities cannot be placed in
watertight compartments. There is continuity between the two. As a
community moves from the folk to the urban end of the continuum, there
occur shifts from:
o cultural intimacy and organization to disorganization
o collective or community orientation to individualization
o the sacred to the secular.
• CRITICISM-
1. The folk-urban conceptualization of social change focuses attention primarily
on the city as a source of change to the exclusion or neglect of other factors
of an internal or external nature.
2. The wide range in the ways of life and the value system are treated as same
and are mostly concerned with only the formal aspect. The intra variants are
not recognised.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RURAL &URBAN
• Sorokin & Zimmerman ‘Principles of Rural and Urban Sociology’ (1929)

• Applicable to traditional rural community and developing industrial urban
areas of 19th and early 20th cen.
RURBANIZATION
• It is the process where we find increasing influence of urban
characteristics in rural life or rural areas like internet access other
employment opportunities etc
• Kayasr (1990) say rurbanization is a process of altering rural forms the
preselected urban patterns and lifestyles, which create new genetically
altered rural forms.
• Sorokin in his book 'Rural- Urban Sociology' also use the term
rurbanization. According to him the term was invented in 1980 by C J
Galpin.
• Bauer and Roux around 1975 also took about Rurbanization or 'Scattered
City'. They have emphasized on the use of land in the rural areas not only
for agriculture but also for other non-agricultural activities. The defined
rurbanization as the diffusion of urban activities in rural areas around the
metropolis.
• RURAL-URBAN DIFFERENCES:
• Contrast between city and country breaks down into a series of contrasts.
Image think of a spectrum with rural community standing at one extreme
and the large scale metropolis at the other.
• An urban area is defined in Indian census in terms of following features
and they are:
– All areas under a Municipal Corporation or a Municipality or under and
Notified Area Committee on direct and Cantonment will be regarded as
urban areas.
• The social logical characteristics that differentiate a rural community and
an urban one are the modes of community life, habits and attitudes of the
people, and not simply size and geographical location.
• The principal occupation of the people in rural areas all over the world is
farming. Farming is not merely an economic activity, it is also a way of life.
• Whatever might be the difference in terms of race and climate, of location
and of resources, there is a mud and general contractor in every country
between the social life of a rural area and that of urban area.
• Rural area and urban area differ from each other in many aspects some
of which are:
1. Predominant of primary, face-to-face relations and contact in rural areas.
The ways to ruralize are fixed on them by society, usage and custom. On
the other hand, an urbanite has an exact opposite setting, where one live
under conditions categorised by decline of primary, face-to-face relations
and corresponding increase of secondary group ties.
2. The occupation of ruralite i.e. farming broadly influences his attitude
towards life, his philosophy, thoughts and aspirations. There is little variety
in the occupational pattern of rural being. The urban areas, in contrast offer
an almost limitless range of ways to make a living. It is indeed impossible to
describe the diversity and the heterogeneity of occupational life in the City.
The occupation of an urbanite keeps him aloof from nature.
3. Absence of keen competition among farmers tend to make them more
conservative and traditionally bound. The living and working conditions of
an urbanite are comparatively more competitive.
4. In rural areas, the family is relative the dominant and consequently the
individual does not seem to count as a separate entity. The status of the
individual depends largely upon the status of the family. Description is the
ruling principle in determination of social status of an individual. While in
the city the status of an individual depends largely upon his
accomplishments, merits and capabilities. This is due to the fact that urban
life is characterized by competition and mobility.
5. Rural life tends to retain a relatively simple form as folklore, folk legends, folk
songs and dances. Wild the urban life cuts off from natural surroundings, it is
heterogeneous and change full and often wants novelty and excitement.
6. In rural areas, agriculture is sometimes affected to a large extent due to
rainfall, drought, flood etc. Which are beyond the control of farmers, naturally
they become fatalistic and superstitious. An urbanite on the contrary is not
bound by any such shackles of tradition. They develop more dynamic and
positive approach towards life. They develop the capacity of responding
quickly to changing situations.
7. Community sentiments is more intense in rural areas than that in urban areas.
8. The population in rural areas is sparse. The people live in their own farms.
Even the villages and hamlets have small population. Hamlet is a very small
settlement with just a group of houses. While the urban areas are thickly
populated where few square miles million of people live and houses are joined
together.
9. Among rural people the social changes are seldom found. Mostly the people
are satisfied with their social conditions. Very rarely they changed their place
of residence and profession. It means the rate of social mobility is insignificant
among them. In contrary the urban life is ever changing due to the expansion
of education, technology and industry. People change their professions,
residences and classes for adjustment with new social conditions. This type of
adjustment in society is called social mobility which is high in rate in urban
areas.
10. In rural lifestyle social stratification is significantly found in caste, profession
and economic resources while in urban areas, economic resources and
education standards are important elements.
11. In rural areas social interaction is informal, slow and under necessary
conditions. In urban lifestyle it is formal, reciprocal and fast.
12. On the basis of similarity in social life, solidarity exists in rural areas. People
live and organised social life. While in urban areas, due to different social
conditions, the life is seldom organised due to which loose solidarity is found.

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URBAN SOCIOLOGY

• Sorokin & Zimmerman ‘Principles of Rural and Urban Sociology’ (1929)

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