Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

For the sociologists of the Chicago School, or those formed in that tradition, consumption of goods and services provides a degree of contextuality that locates actors in social and physical space and time. These places and spaces are contextualized through culture, consumption, land values, and myriad other social forces. Consumption adds character to the individual, but also creates external effects in the local neighborhood. For Chicago School sociologists, consumption essentially operates in two ways. First, the location of businesses drives land values that cause a shift in the local population composition. Second, consumption of goods, products, and services characterizes populations according to urban versus rural status, ethnicity, neighborhood, gender, and age. Later theorists in the Chicago mold duly noted the reflexive nature of social networks and local ecology on consumption patterns and identity construction. The Chicago School of sociology refers to authors at or affiliated with the University of Chicago sociology department from approximately post-World War I through perhaps the early 1940s. The research conducted at Chicago during this time was largely oriented toward several major themes: urban expansion, community and neighborhood studies, the science of sociology, and symbolic interactionism. The setting for much of the research that came out of Chicago was the ... log in or subscribe to read full text