The previous Book of the Year focused on bio-ecological theory. Because BES is a social-ecological research and education endeavor, the Project Management Committee agreed that this year our book should focus on social theory. An ideal book to help all of us in the project who are not social scientsts is Mark Gottdiener and Ray Hutchinson's book, The New Urban Sociology, 4th Edition, published in 2010. Some of us have
profited by reading earlier editions of this book, which combines social processes
and social heterogeneity thinking.
Hence, it is an excellent social mirror for our originally biological
and geophysical spatial approach summarized by patch dynamics and the nested
watershed concept. They label their
approach, “socio-spatial,” but those of you in the social sciences should not
jump to the conclusion that this book is a resurrection of the discredited
aspects of the Chicago School, or that it is an exercise in environmental
determinism.
The book is written as a text book and therefore will be an
accessible (but not condescending) introduction for biophysical scientists and
educators in BES. Hopefully, it will
also provide fodder for our social science members to weigh in with their own
insights and experience on the concepts, cases, and controversies the book
discusses.
The book comprises 14 Chapters that address the foundational
theories in urban sociology and the contemporary issues and controversies about
the topic. The chapter titles are as
follows:
1. The New Urban Sociology.
Including topics such as urban regions, megacities, and articulation of
the socio-spatial approach.
2. The Origins of Urban Life. The long history of urbanization through
capitalist industrialization.
3. The Rise of Urban Sociology. Here are the field’s founding giants,
whose theories continue to echo in
current controversies and applications: Simmel, Wirth, the Chicago School and
the rise of human ecology.
4. Contemporary Urban Sociology. Theories and applications of political ecology,
class conflict, capital accumulation, real estate, and urban culture.
5. Urbanization in the United States. Our national urban history, through the rise
of the post-war metropolis.
6. Suburbanization, Globalization, and the Emergence of the Urban
Region. This chapter includes
deindustrialization, uneven development, suburbs and beyond, multi-nucleated
regions.
7. People and Lifestyles in the Metropolis: Urban and
Suburban Culture. Class differentiation
and space, gender, revitalization, and migration are topics.
8. Minority Settlement Patterns, Neighborhoods, and
Communities. Neighborhood dynamics, new
forms of community, and interaction without proximity.
9. Metropolitan Problems: Racism, Poverty, Crime, Housing,
and Fiscal Crisis. The socio-spatial
approach to social problems, income inequality, affordable housing, and service
problems are additional topics beyond those in the subtitle of the chapter.
10. Urbanization in the Developed Nations. This chapter compares and contrasts urban
processes in Western and Eastern Europe and Japan vis a vis the US.
11. Globalization and Urbanization in the Developing
World. Changing perspectives on
urbanization, the demographic transition, primate cities, shantytowns, and
informal economies are discussed here.
12. Metropolitan Planning and Environmental Issues. Sprawl, the sociology of land use planning,
trends in planning are covered.
13. Metropolitan Social Policy. Topics include the “tragedy of the commons,”
uneven development, privitism, and social justice.
14. The Future of Urban Sociology. Understanding the new urban world features
here.
These topics are all helpful in understanding the social
side of the Baltimore equation, as well as for understanding the national and
international context in which Baltimore fits.
The changing nature of the global network of urban areas is a crucial ingredient
in this understanding.
Each chapter ends with a list of key concepts, important
names, and discussion questions.
The book is published in paperback by Westview Press. The authors chose this publisher to be able
to produce a book that was more affordable than the average university
textbook. You can order it from your
local bookstore, or your favorite online source. Used ones go for the mid 20 USD, and new for a
little less than 50 USD. It is also available
as an e-book from some sources. Those of
you at colleges and universities might request that your library obtain a copy
and put it on reserve. The OCLC website –
worldcat.org – can tell you whether local libraries have the book.
We will be planning a series of webinars to discuss various
chapters or topics in the book. If you
want to be alerted to these, contact the BES Project Facilitator, Holly Beyar
at beyarh at caryinstitute dot org.
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