How Three Sociological Concepts Connect to Dallas - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages The concepts to be analyzed are Urbanism by Robert E. Park, Cosmopolitan Canopy by Elijah Anderson, and Broken Windows by Wilson and Keeling.
Urbanism as a concept emerged from the Chicago school, which was headed by Robert E. Park. According to Chicago school, urban as a way of life can be characterized by aspects of large size in terms of population, density with regard to crowding, and overstimulation and heterogeneity in terms of insecurity, sophistication, and also the idea of multiple group identities (Rao, 2009). On the other hand, urban as a mode of life exhibits unique characteristics such as persistence of secondary contacts as opposed to primary contacts, weakening kinship bond and rise of individualism, the loss of the significance of the family as a social entity, the lose of the neighborhood, and the overall undermining of tradition basis or conceptualization of social solidarity (Rao, 2009).
In a more sieved manner, Robert Park views the concept of urbanism to be associated with rampant urban social inequality, a situation the author likened to Darwinian evolution (Lin and Mele, 2005). According to the author, urbanism brings about competition, which in turn affects the existing social natural systems; there is a tendency for urban cities to be highly populated (concentration), people moving away from the city to suburban areas (dispersion), and the scarce resources leading to ‘zoning’ of the city (Rao, 2009). Moreover, as zones become prosperous, they attract outsiders as value escalates, and this leads to ‘succession’, a situation that results in the city being re-organized profoundly.
As can be observed, urbanism is largely associated with cultural, social, and economic changes that result in the re-organization of urban communities. The city of Dallas can be said to have undergone tremendous social, economic, and cultural changes as a result of urbanism. For example, Dallas is today one of the few cities in the USA with modern sophisticated infrastructures that support communication and transport. The city has DFW International Airport, which has been identified as the world’s third busiest airport (Dallas Convection and Visitors Bureau, 1996-2012). As a result, the airport is the major avenue for commerce, social interaction, and all other activities that define urbanism’s way of life. Moreover, the city has become one of the tourist destinations, housing some of the magnificent tourists’ hotels and restaurants (Dallas Convection and Visitors Bureau, 1996-2012).  ...Download file to see next pagesRead More