urban ecology model

Examples of urban ecology model in the following topics:

• Social Interaction in Urban Areas

  • The first is an urban ecology model in which the social scientist considers how individuals interact with others in their urban community.
  • Simmel argues that urban life irreversibly transforms one's mind.
  • The first set asks how social interactions are shaped by urban environments and how social interactions in urban environments are distinct from social interactions in other contexts.
  • These are the types of questions asked by Simmel and urban anthropologists.
  • This changes one's orientation to the urban community.

• The Structure of Cities

  • Urban structure is the arrangement of land use, explained using different models.
  • Urban residents naturally sort themselves into appropriate rings, or ecological niches, depending on class and cultural assimilation.
  • This model includes blocks with no fixed order; urban structure is not related to an urban center or CBD.
  • Urban open spaces provide citizens with recreational, ecological, aesthetic value.
  • Analyze, using human ecology theory, the similarities and differences between the various urban structure models, such as grid model, sectoral model and concentric ring model, among others

• Sociological Perspectives on Urban Life

  • Urban sociology is the study of social life and interactions in urban areas, using methods ranging from statistical analysis to ethnography.
  • This is one of the earliest examples of a subcultural study that explained the organization of urban subgroups as opposed to strictly highlighting the disorganization that accompanied urbanization.
  • Urban ecology refers to an idea that emerged out of the Chicago School that likens urban organization to biological organisms.
  • Urban ecology has remained an influential theory in both urban sociology and urban anthropology over time.
  • Explain urbanization in terms of functionalism and what the Chicago School understood to be some of the causes of urban social problems at that time

• Models of Urban Growth

  • Models of urban growth try to balance the advantages and disadvantages of cities' large sizes.
  • The growth machine theory of urban growth says urban growth is driven by a coalition of interest groups who all benefit from continuous growth and expansion.
  • Such preferences echo a common strain of criticism of urban life, which tends to focus on urban decay.
  • Cities have responded to urban decay and urban sprawl by launching urban renewal programs.
  • Smart growth programs draw urban growth boundaries to keep urban development dense and compact.

• The Interactionist Perspective

  • Evolving out of the mid-20th century "Chicago School" of urban sociology, Park created the term human ecology, which borrowed the concepts of symbiosis, invasion, succession, and dominance from the science of natural ecology.
  • Competition was created by groups fighting for urban resources, like land, which led to a division of urban space into ecological niches.
  • Within these niches people shared similar social characteristics because they were subject to the same ecological pressure.

• Urban Gentrification

  • To meet the demand, urban areas had to be "recycled," or gentrified.
  • These policies enabled black families to move out of urban centers and into the suburbs, thus decreasing the availability of suburban land, while integrationist policies encouraged white movement into traditionally black urban areas.
  • It may be the result of fluctuating relationships between capital investments and the production of urban space.
  • Developers were able to see that they could purchase the devalued urban land, redevelop the properties, and turn a profit.
  • Discuss the process of gentrification based on three models - demographic, sociocultural and political/economy

• Lenski's Sociological Evolution Approach

  • Most nineteenth century and some twentieth century approaches aimed to provide models for the evolution of humankind as a whole, argue that different societies are at different stages of social development.
  • Gerhard Lenski is an American sociologist known for contributions to the sociology of religion, social inequality, and ecological-evolutionary social theory.

• Change in Household Size

  • Household models include the single family and blended family home, shared housing, and group homes for people with special needs.
  • Household models in Anglophone culture include the single family and varieties of blended families, shared housing, and group homes for people with support needs.
  • Other models of living situations that may meet definitions of a household include boarding houses, a house in multiple occupations in Great Britain, and a single room occupancy in the United States.
  • In both developed and developing countries, shared housing is an increasingly popular household model.
  • As the value of urban land has increased, many of these properties have been renovated and made available at higher prices.

• Population Growth and Overpopulation

  • Overpopulation indicates a scenario in which the population of a living species exceeds the carrying capacity of its ecological niche.
  • Resources to be taken into account when estimating if an ecological niche is overpopulated include clean water, food, shelter, warmth, etc.
  • David Pimentel, a Cornell University professor of ecology and agricultural sciences, sees several possible scenarios for the 22nd century:

• The Working Class

  • Working classes are mainly found in industrialized economies and in the urban areas of non-industrialized economies.
  • Since many members of the working class, as defined by academic models, are often identified in the vernacular as being middle class, there is considerable ambiguity over the term's meaning.
  • In the class models devised by sociologists, the working class comprises between 30 percent and 35 percent of the population, roughly the same percentage as the lower middle class.