Communities and Urbanization

COMMUNITIES & URBANIZATION

Introduction
George Murdock once said that a community is one of the two truly universal units of society organization, the other one being family (Schaefer, 461). We are all part of a community, and in many cases, we are a part of multiple ones. In chapter 20 of our textbook, we are looking at communities and urbanization. It discusses urbanization and how communities originate. It also looks at the different types of communities. Communities are defined as "a spatial or political unit of social organization that gives people a sense of belonging" (Schaefer, 548). It can be based on a place of residence, such as a city, neighborhood, or a particular school district. It could also be based on common identity, such as gays, the homeless, or the deaf.
Lets take a look at communities and urbanization through the functionalist perspective, the conflict perspective, and symbolic interaction. According to the functionalist perspective, communities are very much structured to maintain their stability as a society. When you look at such things as urban ecology, it is a prime example, because it looks at how different elements in urban areas contribute to stability (Schaefer, 464). According to the conflict perspective, communities are very much structured in a way that separates different communities by certain conflicts. You have the upper class of a community, and then you have the lower working class. You have black and Jews, and then you have the KKK. All these things cause different communities to be separated and structured to unify each different community. One very example of the conflict perspective in this chapter is new urban sociology. Symbolic interaction can be viewed many different ways according to communities. Anywhere from the upper class using very proper etiquette and high posture, to gays wearing a piercing only on their right ear. You also have your working class that may look older and more rigid than the officials and owners of companies who have not had to do a lot of manual work throughout their lives. The list can go on and on. All of these are ways that symbolic interaction helps to set up different communities.
How did communities originate? A community is a spatial or political unit of social organization that gives people a sense of belonging. The community has changed over time, from hunting, fishing and gathering societies or highly modernized postindustrial cities. Early Communities used the basic tools and what they have learned to survive. For food they would have to go hunting, foraging for fruits or vegetables, fishing and herding. Back then they didn't have what we had; they had to depend on the physical environment and what they could use in their own environment. It was no longer necessary to move from place to place for food, people were able to create crops for farming. As time went on agricultural techniques grew more sophisticated and division of labor became developed. People were able to produce more food than they needed so that's how exchanging foods came about. This was a critical step in the emergence of cities. People were able to produce enough food for themselves and for people who didn't involve themselves in farming. It leads to expansions of goods, leading greater differentiation, a hierarchy of occupations and social inequality. Surplus was a precondition not only for the establishment of cities but for a division of members of a community into social classes. The ability to produce goods for other communities marked a fundamental shift in human social organization. Preindustrial cities, as it is termed generally had only a few thousand people living within borders and was characterized by relatively closed class system and limited mobility. In these early cities you were based on characteristics such as family background and education. All of the people living in those towns depended on about 100,000 farmers and their own part-time farming. There were many reasons why these early cities were so small and relatively few. Reliance on animal power (both humans and of burden) as a source of energy for economic production, people had to limit the use of the physical environment. Modest levels of surplus produced by the agricultural sector, as many as 90 farmers had to feed the whole city and take care of them when it came to food. Problems in transportation and the storage of food and other goods if they didn't have anywhere to put the food or if they had no way of getting it to the town they were out of luck. Hardships of migrations to the city for many people who were poor moving from place to place was impossible, even to travel would be impossible because they would have no way of keeping food fresh for the trip. Dangers of city life focusing on the population left the city open to outsiders and it was easier for plagues and fires to occur. Gideon Sjoberg (1960) examined the available information on early urban settlements in medieval Europe, India, and China. He came up with three preconditions of city life: 1) advanced technology in both agricultural nonagricultural areas, 2) favorable physical environment and 3) a well-developed social organization. So Gideon Sjoberg was defining that proximity to use coal and iron only helps if a society knows how to use these natural resources, just like using the river for transportation and for farming. Industrial and Postindustrial Cities, The industrial revolution which began in the middle of the 18th century it focused on not using animals for laboring tasks. Industrialization had a great effect on people and the way they lived and how their communities structured. Emerging urban settlements became centers not only of industry but also of banking, finance and industrial management. Factory systems came into play more often in preindustrial cities and a lot more items were able to be made because of factories. The industrial city was not merely more populous than its preindustrial predecessors; it was based on very different principle of social organization. Preindustrial cities can be compared to industrial cities to have more open class system and more social mobility. After initiatives in industrial cities by women's rights groups, labor unions, formal education became available to many children from poor and working-class families. Gender, race and age were important but your skills were more important and were able to better his or her social position. The postindustrial city is a city in which global finance and the electronic flow of information dominate the economy. Production often takes place outside of urban centers. Social change is a always in the feature of a postindustrial city. Economic restructuring and spatial change seem to occur each decade. In the postindustrial world cities are forced into increasing competitions.
Types of Communities
The United States is made up of many different types of communities. A community is defined as, "A spatial or political unit of social organization that gives people a sense of belonging, based either on shared residence in a particular place or on a common identity (Schaefer 548)." Communities range from rural and small town to suburban and urban. Every community is different from the next. The difference between types of communities relies on size, population, and economic growth. Today a person can choose to live in a village, town, city, or a suburb.
A village is, "A small group of dwellings in a rural area and has a smaller population than a town (The American Heritage)." Villages and towns are very similar; the only difference is the population. A town is, "A population center that is larger than a village, but smaller than a city. It is an area that is more densely populated or developed than the surrounding area (The American Heritage)." One of the major differences between towns and cities is that most of the citizens in a town know everyone and their families. Also a big difference is the school systems. "Small towns usually don't have the real estate value to bring in a lot of tax money for the schools (Armour)." Towns also have fewer sports than in city schools. Unlike city schools that can choose the best players for each team, town schools will sometimes struggle to have teams at all.
There are also many other aspects that make cities and towns different. The transportation systems in towns are less developed than cities. A small town is lucky to have one taxi service, which usually only has one or two cars. There are not airports, bus stations, or subways. Traffic jams in towns almost never happen and the traffic lights in small towns typically don't exceed two or three. Small towns also have a limitation on restaurants, grocery stores, and clothing stores. The wages are a lot less than in the cities. Fine arts that are offered in the cities are not available in towns. Typically there are fewer crimes committed in small towns. Also, the residences of small towns do not easily adjust to change. They are used to the slow pace of town life. Advances in technology are also slower to come to towns than in the cities. There are so many aspects that set apart towns from cities, but that's what makes each one unique in their own way.
A city is defined as, "A center of population, commerce, and culture; a town of significant size and importance (The American Heritage)." Cities are noted for their diversity in its physical appearance and its population. Sociologist Herbert J Gans has distinguished five types of people found in cities: "Cosmopolites are residents that remain in cities to take advantage of unique cultural and intellectual benefits. The unmarried and childless people choose to live in cities because of the active nightlife and varied recreational opportunities. Ethnic villagers are residents that prefer to live in their own tight-knit communities. These people are usually immigrant groups that isolate themselves in such neighborhoods to avoid resentment from well-established urban dwellers. The deprived are very poor people and families that have little choice but to live in low-rent, and often run-down, urban neighborhoods. Then there are the trapped. These city residents wish to leave urban centers but cannot because of their limited economic resources and prospects" (Gans 472). For some the city is the land of opportunity and dreams and for others it is the exact opposite.
Some of the problems that face the cities in America are crime, unemployment, overcrowded schools, air pollution, noise, and insufficient public transportation. One of the more continual problems that cities face is the residential segregation. "Segregation has resulted from the polices of financial institutions, the business practices of real estate agents, the action of home sells, and even urban planning initiatives" (Schaefer 472-473). Another major problem cities face is the massive growth in transportation. The large amounts of traffic in cities has led to many worries involving safety issues. Cities are growing and changing every day, and that's what one of the main reason that cities remain so diverse.
A suburb is any community that is near a large city. "More than 138 million people, or about 51 percent of the population of the United States live in the suburbs. There are three social factors that differentiate suburbs from cities. First, suburbs are generally less dense than cities; in the newest suburbs, no more than two dwellings may occupy an acre of land. Second, the suburbs consist almost exclusively of private space. For the most part, private ornamental lawns replace common park areas. Third, suburbs have more exacting building design codes than cities, and those codes have become increasingly precise in the last decade" (Schaefer 474).
Most of the population within a suburb is very diverse, however the suburb itself is usually very alike. One distinction between suburbs and towns is that the suburban residences rely on cities to survive. Many of the citizens work in the cities and the local government provides the suburban areas with water, sewage, and fire protection. Suburbs seem as if they are part city and part town, however they are just as different as towns and cities.
Asset-Based Community Development
Many communities, such as Cincinnati's Over The Rhine area, have developed a variety of negative stereotypes and stigmas. Other areas that have this problem would be South Bronx, NY or South Central Los Angeles, CA. It is very hard for these communities to overcome these labels and address the problems within their community. In the past, our policymakers would focus on a community's needs, deficiencies, and problems to try to find the solution. Recently, since around 1990, we have tried to take a different approach to helping these communities. Community leaders and policymakers are now focusing more on the assets and skills of the community, the dedication of the organizations within the community, and economic as well as physical resources available to the community. They take these assets into account and try to apply the assets to rebuild the community and overcome the negativity. These assets are the foundation upon which the Asset-Based Community Development project was built on.
The Asset-Based Community Development Institute (ABCD) is co-directed by John L. McKnight and John P. Kretzmann (Asset-Based, 1). Together they have demonstrated that the assets of a community are the key building blocks to revitalize and re-establish these communities. Many people are unaware of the amount of assets that each community has. There are the skills of the people in the community including youth and disabled people to thriving professionals. There is usually a certain amount of dedication to the community coming from citizens within associations such as churches and neighborhood associations. The power of these associations combined with the resources of formal institutions such as schools, parks, businesses, and social service agencies can provide a wealth of assets to a community. The ABCD approach also seeks to utilize the physical and economic resources of these local institutions.
By the late 1990's, communities nationwide were identifying and utilizing their resources in order to bring them out and create a positive outlook with dramatic results. The ABCD approach has provided leaders with a solution that is relatively cheap, effective and empowering, that avoids paternalism and dependency and can be supported by all levels of the community (Co-Intelligence, 1). The words "community" and "assets" seem to be heard in every political speech and corporate report and during the last five years we have seen real community innovations. This new approach has affected the ways in which leaders can attack the development challenges that affect many of our communities in a profound way.
Conclusion
In this chapter, we learned about how different communities were developed. We learned about preindustrial cities, industrial cities, and postindustrial cities. We learned the process of urbanization through the functionalist and conflict perspectives. We also learned about the many different types of communities that there are. Communities are found everywhere. No matter where you go, you will always find yourself in a community of some sort, and you will always belong to a community somewhere, whether it be residential or political, or both. It's amazing to think about all the different types of communities there are in this world, and which types of communities you yourself might be associated with.

RESOURCES
Armour Vivian. Personal Interview: Treasure of a Small Town School. 18 Nov. 2004.
Asset-Based Community Development Institute. http://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/abcd/abcdbackground.html
Co-Intelligence Institute www.nwu.edu/IPR/abcd.html
Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. Date Accessed 18 Nov. 2004
Schaefer, Richard T. Sociology 8th Edition
The American Heritage. Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. 2000. Houghton