SOC205: 4. Theory + Method

Question 1

Analyzing and Interpreting the City: Theory

and Method

Answer 1

Show what makes urban life particularly different
from life elsewhere
• Present five different theoretical approaches for
interpreting urban life
• To understand the importance of the Chicago
School in the development of urban sociology
theory and methods
• To describe a variety of methods- from census
data to interviews to participant observationsociologists
use to study urban life.

Question 2

Analyzing and Interpreting the City: Theory

and Method

Answer 2

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Question 3

Analyzing and Interpreting the City: Theory

and Method

Answer 3

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Question 4

Analyzing and Interpreting the City: Theory

and Method

Answer 4

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Question 5

Analyzing and Interpreting the City: Theory

and Method

Answer 5

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Question 6

Repeated Theme: Three main divisions in urban

sociology

Answer 6

1) Culturalist orientation versus Structuralist
orientation
2) spatial versus associational emphasis
3) realist versus constructionist
interpretation

Question 7

Repeated Theme: Three main divisions in urban

sociology

Answer 7

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Question 8

Repeated Theme: Three main divisions in urban

sociology

Answer 8

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Question 9

Repeated Theme: Three main divisions in urban

sociology

Answer 9

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Question 10

Fig 3.1 Key Approaches to the Sociological Study of Cities

Answer 10

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Question 11

Fig 3.1 Key Approaches to the Sociological Study of Cities

Answer 11

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Question 12

Fig 3.1 Key Approaches to the Sociological Study of Cities

Answer 12

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Question 13

Fig 3.1 Key Approaches to the Sociological Study of Cities

Answer 13

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Question 14

Fig 3.1 Key Approaches to the Sociological Study of Cities

Answer 14

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Question 15

Fig 3.1 Key Approaches to the Sociological Study of Cities

Answer 15

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Question 16

Chicago School of Urban Sociology

Answer 16

Source of first major body of work in urban sociology
beginning in the 1920s and 1930s.
• Focused on forms of cities, their development, and
the outcomes of people competing for unequal spaces
• Emphasized how human behavior was determined more by
social structure and physical environments, rather than genetic
or personal characteristics
• City functions as a microcosm –the natural environment in
which the community inhabits & shapes human behavior
– “In these great cities, where all the passions, all the energies of
mankind are released, we are in a position to investigate the
process of civilization, as it were, under a microscope.“ Robert
Park (1928)
• Some major researchers include Robert E. Park, Roderick D.
McKenzie, Ernest Burgess, Louis Wirth, among others

Question 17

Chicago School of Urban Sociology

Answer 17

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Question 18

Chicago School of Urban Sociology

Answer 18

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Question 19

Chicago School of Urban Sociology

Answer 19

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Question 20

Chicago School of Urban Sociology

Answer 20

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Question 21

Chicago School of Urban Sociology

Answer 21

Combined theory and ethnographic fieldwork
in studying Chicago
• Originated the symbolic interactionist
approach, social disorganization theory,
subcultural theory, and the methods for
ecological analysis
• Ecological studies
– E.g. making spot maps of place of occurrence of specific
behaviors,including alcoholism, homicides, suicides, psychoses,
and poverty, and then computing rates based on census data. A
visual comparison of the maps could identify the concentration of
certain types of behavior in some areas. Correlations of rates by
areas were not made until later.

Question 22

Chicago School of Urban Sociology

Answer 22

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Question 23

Chicago School of Urban Sociology

Answer 23

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Question 24

Chicago School of Urban Sociology

Answer 24

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Question 25

Chicago School of Urban Sociology

Answer 25

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