The Blackwell Companion to Sociology Read Online Free PDF Page B

cities are centers of social pathology. Overall Durkheim presented a thesis of modernization in which local geographical loyalties will be gradually undermined by the growth of new occupationally based divisions of labor. In Elemen-
    tary Forms Durkheim also presents a social theory of space. This has two
    elements: first, since everyone within a society represents space in the same
    way, this implies that the cause of such notions is essentially ``social''; second, in some cases at least the spatial representations will literally mirror its dominant patterns of social organization.
    Max Weber made very few references to space, although his brother, Alfred
    Weber, was a seminal contributor to the theory of industrial location. Max
    The Sociology of Space and Place
    5
    Weber was relatively critical of attempts to use spatial notions in his analysis of the city. He rejected analysis in terms of size and density and mainly concentrated on how the emergence of the medieval city constituted a challenge to the
    surrounding feudal system. The city was characterized by autonomy and it was
    there for the first time that people came together as individual citizens (Weber, 1921).
    The most important classical contributor to a sociology of space and place is
    Simmel (Frisby, 1992a, b; Frisby and Featherstone, 1997). He analyzed five basic qualities of spatial forms found in those social interactions that turn an empty space into something meaningful. These qualities are the exclusive or unique
    character of a space; the ways in which a space may be divided into pieces and
    activities spatially ``framed''; the degree to which social interactions may be
    localized in space; the degree of proximity/distance, especially in the city, and the role of the sense of sight; and the possibility of changing locations, and the consequences especially of the arrival of thè`stranger.'' Overall Simmel sees space as becoming less significant as social organization becomes detached from space.
    In ``Metropolis and the City'' (in Frisby and Featherstone, 1997), Simmel
    develops more specific arguments about space and the city. First, because of
    the richness and diverse sets of stimuli in the metropolis, people have to develop an attitude of reserve and insensitivity to feeling. Without the development of
    such an attitude people would not be able to cope with such experiences caused
    by a high density of population. The urban personality is reserved, detached and blaseÂ. Second, at the same time the city assures individuals of a distinctive type of personal freedom. Compared with the small-scale community, the modern city
    gives room to individuals and to the peculiarities of their inner and outer
    development. It is the spatial form of the large city that permits the unique
    development of individuals who are placed within an exceptionally wide range
    of contacts. Third, the city is based on the money economy, which is the source
    and expression of the rationality and intellectualism of the city. Both money and the intellect share a matter-of-fact attitude toward people and things. It is money that produces a leveling of feeling and attitude. Fourth, the money economy
    generates a concern for precision and punctuality, since it makes people more
    calculating about their activities and relationships. Simmel does not so much
    explain urban life in terms of the spatial form of the city as provide an early
    examination of the effects of ``modern'' patterns of mobility on social life
    wherever it is located. He shows that motion, the diversity of stimuli, and the
    visual appropriations of places are centrally important features of the modern
    experience.
    These analyses were not much developed by thèùrban sociology'' established
    in the interwar period at the University of Chicago. This work involved the
    attempt to develop ecological approaches to the study of the city, such as the
    concentric ring theory. Theoretically important was Wirth's `Ùrbanism as