Difference in Social Relations Between City Dwellers and Rural Communities
Why are the social relations between urban and rural areas so different and what causes these differences to occur? This question is what I am going to be arguing. I will be doing this not only through my opinions and ideas, but also through the works of Georg Simmel, Louis Wirth and Ernest Burgess. All three of these urban scholars add a slightly different view of urbanism as a way of life.
Georg Simmel's interpretation of interpersonal social relations in the city is one based on the stimulus a person comes in contact with. Simmel writes this in his essay, "The Metropolis and Mental Life." He clearly states, "The intensification of emotional life due to the swift and continuous shift of external and internal stimuli." (Blackwell, 11) This stimulus can be ones that leave a lasting impression on you or they can be ones that have only a subconscious effect on you.
A lasting impression would be a stimulus from some one or some thing that causes you to always remember that stimulus and react a certain way to it every time to encounter it. For example, if you were to get mugged in any ally way, every time you would encounter an ally way again you would either be scared to go through it or purposely try to avoid it. Your brain would remember a negative stimulus that left a lasting impression on you. This can work both ways for both a positive stimulus and for a negative stimulus.
A stimulus where your subconscious is affected can also be called the blasé attitude. A good example of the transformation of this is when a person moves into a city like New York from a rural area. When the person first arrives, the city will seem very fast paced and noisy, but as you keep encountering these stimuli you start to become less effected by them and eventually you forget that they are there all together. In a month or so, you will eventually not notice the fast pace or the noise around you.
Simmel's interpretation of interpersonal social relations in the city is one
Georg Simmel's interpretation of interpersonal social relations in the city is one based on the stimulus a person comes in contact with. Simmel writes this in his essay, "The Metropolis and Mental Life." He clearly states, "The intensification of emotional life due to the swift and continuous shift of external and internal stimuli." (Blackwell, 11) This stimulus can be ones that leave a lasting impression on you or they can be ones that have only a subconscious effect on you.
A lasting impression would be a stimulus from some one or some thing that causes you to always remember that stimulus and react a certain way to it every time to encounter it. For example, if you were to get mugged in any ally way, every time you would encounter an ally way again you would either be scared to go through it or purposely try to avoid it. Your brain would remember a negative stimulus that left a lasting impression on you. This can work both ways for both a positive stimulus and for a negative stimulus.
A stimulus where your subconscious is affected can also be called the blasé attitude. A good example of the transformation of this is when a person moves into a city like New York from a rural area. When the person first arrives, the city will seem very fast paced and noisy, but as you keep encountering these stimuli you start to become less effected by them and eventually you forget that they are there all together. In a month or so, you will eventually not notice the fast pace or the noise around you.
Simmel's interpretation of interpersonal social relations in the city is one