Sociology

Many cities have experienced urban regeneration and revival. One way in which this occurs is through cultural restructuring, the increasing emphasis on a city’s image, tourism and opportunities for consumption. Zukin (1995) said that the contemporary city operates through a symbolic economy, exchanging images and ideas rather than material goods. Whether or not a city thrives will therefore depend on the amount of tourism it can generate through its public image, and so we see the architecture of the city being redesigned with visitors in mind. 525

The transformation of the British state during the 1980s was largely in response to what is known as the ‘economic crisis of the 1970s’. This occurred when the profitability of British industry declined, manufacturing industries collapsed and many companies went bankrupt. This led to high levels of unemployment, which in turn meant higher levels of expenditure from the welfare state, and so the crisis moved from economy to state. 599

Peter Townsend conducted a study of poverty in London in the 1980s, using a relative rather than absolute measure of deprivation. It is striking to note that he estimated a similar percentage of the population to be living in poverty as Booth has a century before. Townsend identified twelve indicators of relative deprivation, including going without a week’s holiday within the past year, going without a cooked meal in the past week, living in housing with serious structural defects, and lacking exclusive access to a toilet, bath or shower. 751-753

While industrialized countries have undergone a demographic transition, with falling birth and death rates, poorer countries are facing rapid population growth, much of which is concentrated in large urban centres. Urbanization in Africa, Asia and Latin America is occurring at a much faster pace than elsewhere in the world, and the cities in these countries are said to be parasitic: they drain resources from more rural areas. 643

The functionalist theory of inequality, popularized by David & Moore, suggests that all of the social positions in a society demand different skills and abilities, and so it is important to recruit and train the most suitable people for each position. High rewards for those jobs requiring the highest level of skill will motivate such people to take them, whereas this is not necessary for the lower skilled jobs because there will be a greater number of people who will apply for them. In this way, all of the important positions in society are filled, at every level of the hierarchy. 733

Social mobility, or the ability to move up or down the hierarchy of strata in a society, can be measured in two ways. Intergenerational mobility refers to movement between generations, and is measured by comparing one person’s occupational position with that of his or her parent(s). Intragenerational mobility refers to an individual’s movement within his or her lifetime, and is measured by comparing the person’s current income with that of their first job. 742

In 1963, Sheila Patterson conducted a study of Brixton, a traditionally working class area of London that had seen increasing rates of immigration since the 1940s. She found that there was a great racial divide between African-Caribbean immigrants and the white population, based on unfamiliarity and lack of contact. Black and white residents competed for jobs and economic resources, and there was a great deal of conflict and resentment. In particular, the immigrants tended to be offered the worst quality, most expensive housing, making it harder for them to break out of their conditions. 217-219

Whereas theorists like Becker and Young described illegal drug use as a hedonistic pastime of youth subcultures, more recent analyses suggest that it has become widespread, particularly in economically deprived inner city areas with mass unemployment. Drug use is arguably a normalized part of youth culture, and illegal drugs are increasingly easy to obtain. 258-259

Marx was highly critical of the industrial capitalist factory, as he said that it had removed the creative element of work and left workers feeling ‘alienated’. His definition of alienation referred to four components. Workers were alienated from the product, as they would perform fragmented tasks with little awareness of the final product. They were alienated from the production process, as they had no control over which tools or machines they used to make the goods, or how they might structure their working day. They were alienated from each other, as the competed for employment, and they were alienated from their own ‘species-being’, or human nature, because the production process was so meaningless. 673

Weber argued against the positivist idea of observing phenomena objectively, emphasizing the interests and bias we draw upon to make sense of the world. However, he did believe that once a sociologist had acknowledged their values, they could proceed to test out their theories in a scientific way. Thus Weber defined sociology as the scientific study of social action, which must be understood in terms of the meanings individuals give to their experiences. 39