Encyclopedia of Sociology

CITIES

Michaelson (1976, pp. 17–32) has argued that
none of these aforementioned ecological approach-
es to the city explicitly study the relationship be-
tween the physical and the social environment, for
the following reasons: (1) their incomplete view of
the environment; (2) their focus on population
aggregates; (3) their failure to consider contribu-
tions of other fields of study; and (4) the newness
of the field. Since Michaelson wrote his critique,
sociologists have given more attention to the ur-
ban environment.

NEW EXPLANATIONS OF CITIES

Traditional explanations of cities did not ade-
quately account for the economic, political, racial
and social upheavals in U.S. cities during the 1960s.
Further, urbanization in less developed regions
does not necessarily follow the Western pattern.
City growth may absorb national population incre-
ments and reflect a lack of rural employment, a
migration of the rural unemployed to the city, and
a lack of urban industrial development. Increasing
concentration of population in larger cities in less
developed regions may be followed by the emer-
gence of more ‘‘Western-style’’ hierarchies of cit-
ies, functions, and interorganizational relation-
ships. Many cities in less developed regions experience
the environmental hazards of Western cities, a
compartmentalization of life, persistent poverty
and unemployment, a rapidly worsening housing
situation, and other symptoms of Western social
disorganization. The juxtaposition of local urban-
ism and some degree of Western urbanization
may vitiate a number of traditional Western solu-
tions to urban problems.

Kasarda and Crenshaw (1991, pp. 467–500)
have summarized and compared theoretical per-
spectives concerning how urbanization occurs in
less developed regions. Modernization-human
ecology perspectives portray city building as the
result of changes in social organization and appli-
cations of technology. Rural-urban migration, re-
sulting from urban industrialization and excess
rural fertility, can eventually lead to the reduction
of rural-urban economic and social differences
(Hawley 1981). Dependency-world-system perspec-
tives describe the capitalist world-system as guid-
ing change in the less developed regions so as to
maintain the dominance of the more developed
core (Wallerstein 1974). Urban bias perspectives

emphasize the role of the state, sometimes gov-

erned by urban elites, which relys on urban re-

sources, and favors urban over rural development

(Lipton 1977). Kasarda and Crenshaw (1991) re-

gard these perspectives as underspecified and as

lacking empirical confirmation.

Political economy perspectives explain city

growth in more developed as well as less devel-

oped regions as a product of globalization, includ-

ing capital accumulation and nation-state forma-

tion (Tilly 1975). Europe and the United States

colonized non-European peoples and obtained

raw materials from the colonies which they proc-

essed and exchanged with their colonies as manu-

factured products. Colonial areas gained political

independence after World War II. Economic re-

structuring then resulted in the globalization of

economic and cultural life, and changes in the

international division of labor between cities.

Sassen (1991) indicates that following World

War II communications technology facilitated the

dispersion of manufacturing by multinational cor-

porations to low-wage cities, some in former colo-

nial areas. A globally integrated organization of

economic activity then supplanted world econom-

ic domination by the United States. Economic

activities were integrated beyond national urban

hierarchies into a small number of key global

cities, which are now international banking cen-

ters, with transnational corporate headquarters,

sophisticated business services, information proc-

essing, and telecommunications. These cities (Lon-

don, New York, and to a lesser degree Tokyo)

command the global economy and are supported

by worldwide hierarchies of decentralized special-

ized cities (Sassen 1991). International networks

of cities sometimes provide opportunities for mul-

tinational corporations from less developed re-

gions to penetrate more developed regions (Lo

and Yeoung 1998, p. 2).

Feagan and Smith (1987, pp. 3–33) describe

economic restructuring in U.S. cities in the 1980’s

as including plant closures and start-ups, the devel-

opment and expansion of corporate centers, and

corporate movement to outlying areas, all of which

impact different groupings of cities. They portray

economic restructuring as a product of interac-

tions between governmental components of na-

tion-states; multinational, national, and local cor-

porations and businesses; and nongovernment