Introduction
In The Tragedy of the Commons, Garrit Harding argues “freedom in a commons brings ruin to all” (Hardin, 1968, p.1244). The possibility that Hardin’s words can be used to represent whether or not the self will be lost due to capitalism will be presented in this paper. By looking at fourteen different sociological articles—spanning the last century—there exists a trend relating to the role of the individual being a key driver in communities, and their development. Although the individual is of primary importance under the blanket of capitalism, this essay will question the validity of this. I will attempt to decipher what actually drives change within cities, in relation to development, subcultures, and social capital. I argue that within communities people do not act out of their own interests, but instead go along with the decisions made by growth machine motivated elites, and global development machines.
Background
In order to analyze whether or not individuals are motivated within communities to comply with the elites, or to establish their own identity, we must look at the relevant foundational articles that are critical to understanding the role of the individual within communities. Tönnies sets the stage with a dialectical discussion about the differences between natural and rational will (1887). Wirth, in Urbanism as a Way of Life, addresses the notion that people become alienated and isolated once living in cities (1938). In contrast, Fischer argues that cities do not create disorganization and alienation, but instead critical masses and subcultures (1975). Hardin believes that people opt for self-interest, which, in turn, leads to a social dilemma (1968). Lastly, Molotch argues that land is devel...
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Phillips, E. Barbara. City Lights: Urban-Suburban Life in the Global Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
In the book The Great Inversion, author Alan Ehrenhalt reveals the changes that are happing in urban and suburban areas. Alan Ehrenhalt the former editor of Governing Magazine leads us to acknowledge that there is a shift in urban and suburban areas. This revelation comes as the poorer, diverse, city dwellers opt for the cookie cutter, shanty towns at the periphery of American cities known as the suburbs. In similar fashion the suburbanites, whom are socioeconomic advantaged, are looking to migrate into the concrete jungles, of America, to live an urban lifestyle. Also, there is a comparison drawn that recognizes the similarities of cities and their newer, more affluent, residents, and those cities of Europe a century ago and their residents. In essence this book is about the demographic shifts in Urban and Suburban areas and how these changes are occurring.
Several works we have read thus far have criticized the prosperity of American suburbia. Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums, Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus, and an excerpt from Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem "A Coney Island of the Mind" all pass judgement on the denizens of the middle-class and the materialism in which they surround themselves. However, each work does not make the same analysis, as the stories are told from different viewpoints.
Social historians in recent years have started to look at the people who made up most of the population in cities, people who are usually ignored when looking at society,
Christopher Phelps’ Introduction states, “As a metaphor, ‘jungle’ denoted the ferocity of dog-eat-dog competition, the barbarity of exploitative work, the wilderness of urban life, the savagery of poverty, the crudity of political corruption, and the primitiveness of the doctrine of survival of the fittest, which led people to the slaughter as surely as cattle.”(1), this is the foundation to Sinclair’s arguments that capitalism promotes competition between the working-class for mere survival all the while destroying human rights and crushing the American dream.
As a result, these small communities could, at their best, seem based solely on a desire to profit and leave rather than community at their best and, at their worst, be seen as infected buboes being fed by the arteries and diseased heart of a much more maligned system. Veblen himself does not make these distinctions, but rather attempts to present the country town for what it is, rather than what it could or should be. Indeed, the picture that Veblen (1964, 154) paints of the flow of income in the country town – from bankers, to merchants, to farmers – is a familiar microcosm of how the economy writ large appears to work. Of course, it could be assumed that, due to its aforementioned birth in subsistence farming and the presence of the now defunct independent merchant, that the country town was once different. Veblen (1964, 154) refers to this state of things as the “masterless country town,” conjuring a very American image of manifest destiny and the like; however, change is constant and Veblen posits that the country town has morphed into something more aligned with the desires of Big Business than that of its
Ferdinand Tönnies is best known for his publication Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft, originally published in 1887 and was considered his greatest work (Samples, 1987). In this book, he introduced two new terms into the sociologist’s lexicon - Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. Having done so, he established the concepts of “community” and “society” and examined them in terms of their opposition to the each other (Samples, 1987). According to Inglis, Gemeinschaft is a term that identifies a social structure defined by “tightly-bound, affectively-based groups” while Gesellschaft is represents a society where “rationally-calculating, selfish individuals occupied center stage” (2009, p. 817). Tönnies’ primary area of research was in the movement of societies from societies based upon strong community to those that were (as he saw it) simply extensions of individual’s wills over others. Adair-Toteff states that Tönnies’ work “convinced [Tönnies] that the natural and organic Gemeinscha...
“gentrification as an ugly product of greed. Yet these perspectives miss the point. Gentrification is a byproduct of mankind 's continuing interest in advancing the notion that one group is more superior to another and worthy of capitalistic consumption with little regard to social consciousness. It is elitism of the utmost and exclusionary politics to the core. This has been a constant theme of mankind to take or deplete a space for personal gain. In other words, it 's very similar to the "great advantage" of European powers over Native Americans and westward expansion”(Wharton).
Segrue, Thomas J. The Origins of the Urban Crisis. Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton University Press, 1996.
Very few people would want to live in a place where they don’t have security. Whether it be in cities or subdivisions, Jacobs, if alive, would ascertain that there needs to be a sense of connectedness to maintain communal safety. Public living “bring[s] together people who do not know each other in an intimate, private social fashion and in most cases do not care to know each other in that fashion” (Jacobs 55). Now that families typically center themselves around suburban lifestyles, residents should understand that the same connections that Jacobs says were to be made in cities need to now be made in subdivisions. Jacobs was scared that with houses being spread out in the suburbs, little interaction between neighbors would take place. In order to avoid this, neighborhoods need to promote a sidewalk lifestyle that they currently do not (Jacobs 70). With Kotkin stressing how urban areas are no longer preferable places to raise a family, saying only seven percent of their populations are children, he lacks compassion for the transients that now inhabit cities. Undoubtedly, those who now inhabit the city should also feel safe in their environments. Nowadays, members of a city isolate themselves from interactions with other citizens making it difficult to establish a social
Adrienne Rich once wrote an open letter titled “Politics of Location” that profoundly opened my eyes to a relevantly obvious concept of self-identity. More often than not, one fails to see the truth that sits right before his or her own eyes. However, it is still the responsibility of the individual to be accountable for that truth. The concept of politics of location is simply that one’s life experiences affects one’s perspective. Unintentionally, individuals make themselves the center of reality. When, in actuality, one is only the center of his or her own reality. Rich also goes on to explain that people are different; yet, individuals have an uncanny since of imagined community. That being, the feeling that
Zukin, Sharon. "Gentrification: Culture and Capital in the Urban Core." Annual Review of Sociology 13(1987): 129-147.
Miller, Byron. 1992. “Collective Action and Rational Choice: Place, Community, and the Limits to Individual Self-Interest.” Economic Geography 68:1, 22-42
Capitalism dominates the world today. Known as a system to create wealth, capitalism’s main purpose is to increase profits through land, labor and free market. It is a replacement of feudalism and slavery. It promises to provide equality and increases living standards through equal exchanges, technological innovations and mass productions. However, taking a look at the global economy today, one can clearly see the disparity between developed and developing countries, and the persistence of poverty throughout the world despite the existence of abundant wealth. This modern issue was predicted and explained a hundred and fifty years ago in Karl Marx’s Capital.
The world is home to many different types of communities. Each type is made of different people from various walks of life. A very popular type of community is an urban community. Generally the word urban is associated with large cities composed of vast transport systems, skyscrapers and heavy commerce that offers man different career opportunities. A key feature of urban environments is the diverse communities that it creates. This is brought about due to the dense population that large cities accumulate. Urban living is a lifestyle that starts from birth. Many people raised in an urban environment tend to spend their entire life there.