OBE #1 "Thoughts on Urbanism"
I enjoyed reading Louis Wirth’s piece on urbanism. It was interesting to me due to the fact that my major is Sociology and I am studying views like Wirth’s in my other classes. All of the things Wirth mentioned about the city made sense to me. But an issue did come up while I was reading; let me explain. I am from what I would call a ‘town’ while others may consider it a ‘city.’ This begs the question: what would Wirth use to differentiate a ‘town’ from a ‘city’?
Wirth defines a city as, “…a relatively large, dense, and permanent settlement of socially heterogeneous individuals.” But, to one who is from a place that is let’s say 5,000 people, may think a place of 75,000 people is ‘relatively large.’ While one who is from a place where the population is 75,000 may think of that as a relatively small amount of people. I do understand that it does not have everything to do with the numbers. I agree with Wirth on the point he makes about the contact between people in the city, about the autonomy, competitiveness, impersonal, and concepts of that degree. This leads me into my next point.
While I was reading what Wirth was saying about the impersonality and such of cities, the reading from last week immediately came to my mind. Friedrich Engels wrote about the condition of the working class in Manchester, England in “The Great Towns.” He spoke about how there is so much competition between those of the working class because the workers never know if tomorrow there will be money to put food on the table and to provide for their families. Competition can create employment or unemployment. Unemployment can create illness, which will most likely eventually lead to death. Unemployment can also lead to crime (street crime as well as violent crime) which creates tension and fear. Tension and fear create an atmosphere not conducive to that of a community. This lack of community goes back to what Wirth says about urban living: there is a low amount of community in an urban area compared to that of a rural area. As I stated previously the competition between workers can lead to crime, this is a great way to bring up my final point.
As most people know and as Wirth states in his article, crime rate in an urban area is much greater than that of a rural area. Why does this happen? And, what can we do about it? In a few of my other classes I am learning about the “Broken Window Theory,” which states if one window is broken in a house or building and it does not get fixed it will entice other people to break the remaining windows of that specific house or building. What this basically means is it is easier for people to commit crimes in a place where it seems as if the residents of that neighborhood do not care. I feel as if one were to walk through a small town there would not be as many ‘broken windows’ as there would be in a large city. One way to overcome this trend of crime in large cities is to perhaps create a group within these ‘broken window’ communities that is made up of members, of all ages, from the community. If they work together to fix the physical problems in their neighborhoods maybe the sociological problems will decrease as well. Another thing these groups may add to the neighborhood is the sense of an actual community.
I really enjoy how things are coming together in this class and from my other classes. I have given a brief overview of some the thoughts I had while reading the article, along with a few ideas that may be new to the reader of this blog entry.
--Kate