Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Cities were a feature of all the great ancient civilizations. Relatively small by modern standards, they nevertheless facilitated a far more diverse range of activities than was possible in other forms of human settlement. The city and the urban way of life that accompanies it, however, inasmuch as they have interested sociologists, are of more recent origin and are closely linked to the rise of industrialism. In the nineteenth century the city and urbanism began to exert a powerful fascination upon social theorists and sociologists. Marx and Engels saw the rise of the city as an integral part of human development and they recognized, as did Weber, that differing cultural and historical conditions lead to different types of cities. In addition, however, they argued that the human condition experienced in cities is the product of economic structure. Engels went so far as to examine the human condition of the working class in nineteenth-century Manchester in what has come to be seen as a pioneering exercise in social inquiry. Tönnies drew an unfavorable contrast between the social bonds that are experienced in rural societies ( Gemeinschaft ) with the much weaker ties that are common to towns and cities ( Gesellschaft ). This pessimistic view of life in the city was shared by Simmel, who regarded the unique characteristic of the modern city as the intensification of nervous stimuli ... log in or subscribe to read full text