Analysis of Early Urban Societies - Assignment Example

Analysis of Early Urban Societies After the world war two, American cities changed significantly. The previous setting where most of cities were singular adapted a more broad formation. This had a great impact on social, economic, and political systems that were available. Their geographies were forever altered by a number of social, political, and economic forces. Some citizens benefitted, while others were left behind. Those citizens who were already living in cities at the time experienced minimum changes as opposed to those who came afterwards. Those who were living in the cities originally were predominantly professionals while those who came after were mostly people who were not learned in any particular job. According to (Wilsons, 14) most people moved to cities in seeking jobs. The majority of those who moved to cities were from smaller communities considered minority. The migrants came from within America and from other surrounding continents such as Africa and Asia. Those from Africa were mainly from western and northern African countries. On the contrary, those living in the cities from majority groups found a reason to move back to the suburbs because of the introduction of new methods of farming. The new farming methods included the use of machines that enabled them to plough large sections of land over a short period of time, the use of fertilizers that increased productivity and the implementation of new farming techniques that ensured the conservation of land. The use of machines however had a negative impact in the employment of the African Americans who were working in the in the farms since they were replaced by the machines. Technology was introduced in farming and this made it a very lucrative (Henderson & Thisse, 65).It led to the rapid development of both the urban cities and the rural towns which were now growing due to the farming. This movement of the opposites had a big impact on the social, political and economic aspects of the society. The government has a very limited base for its revenues because majority of people in the cities who were better financially had moved to suburbs. The city was hence left with a large a population that was less qualified and less productive. This left those in cities jobless because majority depended on majorly on those who left for low paying jobs. The people who were their employers and had professional qualifications had left for the suburbs. Poverty and desperation among the unemployed youth led to an increase in criminal activity in the cities (Wilsons, 23) (Hirsch, 34-35) examines the levels of education at the time. Since number of poor families had increased significantly, education system experienced a crisis. There were no enough competent teachers for the growing poor urban population; the available schools were overpopulating with students who were too many compared to the number of teachers. The conditions under which people were living significantly went down. There were fewer schools in the poor neighborhoods with arrogant and incompetent teachers. These schools were usually in bad conditions. The government decided to build some schools with better conditions in order to attract children from well of families in order to intervene in the crisis in the education system. It was reasoned out that well of families paid better and so this would help in the payment of the teachers (Boyce, 17-18). The attendance of the schools by students from well off families would also improve the image of the schools. There was international demand for qualified professionals in several areas of business and development. The schools were hence designed to produce qualified students well versed in their fields of studies who could fill the demand for professionals; these schools were meant to transform the education standards in urban areas. The transformation would be in terms of quality of the education offered, the professional courses and the manner in which these services were offered. In response to this, there was also increased demand for low paying laborers; this led to mass movement from Africa, India and Asia (Bennet, 6-7). There was a huge migration of African Americans from the south which was rural to the north which was more industrialized. This migration caused a rapid increase in population and also in cheap labor. The movement however aggravated further the issue of color. Incidences of racial discrimination in the job environments and harassment by police officers increased significantly. Cases of African American being beaten and left for the dead were reported. The animosity between the two races was further fueled by the poor working conditions and the fact that most of the African Americans held low positions of influence. The racial gap increased and isolation of some races in some institutions (Hirsch, 56). During this time however, there was the economy was growing in all areas. There was significant improvement in the housing conditions which led also attracted more settlement. The betterment and provision of amenities such as swimming pools, stadiums and shopping malls attracted the middle income and the high earning end settlers. This betterment of cities in the suburbs led to more influx of immigrants. On the other hand, there more advancements in the cities industries. With the introduction of technology, many more jobs were lost because major tasks were run by machines and computers (Maubach, 34). The majority of those who lost their jobs were immigrants since many of them did not have any particular professional qualifications. The manufacturing companies had preferred mechanization since it was more efficient and less costly (Boyce, 45). Most citizens from minority backgrounds were not qualified enough to be integrated into these industries and remained jobless. Works Cited Boyce , M.The Lasting Influence of the War on Postwar British film.SUNY Press, 2012. Print Bennet, L.Chicago and American Urbnis . Oxford, Oxford publishers. 2012.Print Hirsch, A. Making the Second Ghetto:Race and Housing in Chicago in 1940-1960. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.2009.Print Henderson, J V, and Jacques-François Thisse. Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics: Volume 4. Amsterdam: Elsevier North Holland, 2004. Internet resource. Juani, D, and Zyberk, E. Neighborhoods and Surburbs. Cambridge, MA, Walter Art Center.1995.Internet source Maubauch, F, Gassert, P and Junker, D. The United States and Germany in Post War Era. , Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.2004 Wilson, W. When work disappears. The World of the new urban poor. Amsterdam: Elsevier North Holland.1996. Read More