The inner-city problem is one of both growth and decline. Discuss.

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The inner-city problem is one of both growth and decline. Discuss.

        The city is undeniably the centre of much of our social action. It is the arena in which most of our economic, political and commercial activity tends to occur, and it has become the most popular place to socialise, and to experience the cultural aspects of the modern world. Its evolution has involved a number of changing processes, and each of these has brought its own challenges and problems.

        This discussion will address the evolution of the city in terms of the processes of growth and decline. Firstly, I will explain how this debate is in fact firmly rooted in the classical sociological theories on modernity and industrialization, and this will reflect the explosive growth of Western cities. Contemporary theory also has much to offer on the issue of urban sociology, and in particular can address the more recent problem of urban decline. I will address the specific inner city problems that have occurred throughout the Western world, and through detailed analysis of the Irish experience I will examine the impact of these problems on the urban environment.  

        The process of industrialization has always been central to sociology from the nineteenth century ‘founding fathers’ right through to the present. The term refers to the mechanization of production of goods, and is considered essential to economic development and growth. Initially a development within capitalist economies, following the Industrial Revolution, industrialization now transcends any single economic system. Compared with pre-industrial organization it took the form of factory production, involving a division of labour tasks among workers.

        A prominent feature of industrialization, and the one that is most relevant to this discussion, is the geographical concentration of industry and population. Industrialization is considered to be largely responsible for the growth of cities, and is closely linked to the process of urbanization. Nineteenth century industrial practices were limited, geographically speaking, to specific locations, usually areas possessing valuable raw materials such as coal, or areas that facilitated the transport of inputs or end products, such as port locations. The concentration of industry in particular areas led to the emergence of many of today’s cities, and the depopulation and decline of rural areas. Urbanization was perhaps the most visible of the changes that modernity brought to society. While industrialization undoubtedly had many positive implications for the future of economic growth and prosperity, urbanization has been seen to have had negative implications, and the rapid development and expansion of urban areas has been met by the concern and disapproval of many sociologists, who saw it as regress rather than progress. Ferdinand Tonnies, for example, mourned the passing of ‘traditional’ rural society, and all that was lost with its passing. He argued that urban industrial society was characterised by a loss of community, and that industrialization demolishes the close personal relationships of pre-industrial local societies, replacing them with impersonal, calculative relationships in which people are only interested in their own personal gain. In fact, many sociologists have used this supposed absence of community spirit from urban life to explain the high rates of crime and other social problems that seem to be a prominent feature of urbanized society.

        While the nineteenth century founders of sociology generally regarded ‘modern’ society as an industrial society, contemporary sociology suggests that we have in fact moved beyond this, into an era referred to as post-modernity. “It is most common to understand post-modernity as a historical period that comes after modernity. Thus, if we are now post-modern, it is because we have moved into an era characterised by new social, economic, political and intellectual conditions.” (Tovey & Share, 2000:21) In particular, the new economic condition has had huge implications for the changing structure of the city. Modern society, as we discussed previously, is characterised by industrialization. It is dominated by what came to be known as the Fordist methods of production. The Italian Marxist, Gramsci, apparently coined the phrase ‘Fordism’ referring to the mechanised, mass-production methods developed by Henry Ford, involving semi-skilled labour, and assembly lines. This very much depended on industrialization, and as mentioned previously, it saw the concentration of work in factories, all located in one or a few regions. Post-modernity however, is dominated by post-industrialization and by post-Fordism. The central idea of post-industrial theory has been that as economies develop, so the work force moves from employment in manufacturing industry to what are known as the ‘service occupations’ and that therefore being ‘industrial’ no longer characterises the societies in which we live. Many sociologists, including Bell (1974) and Touraine (1971) predicted the decline of manual workers in manufacturing industry, and their replacement by a more skilled, considerably better educated scientific workforce. These changes were also facilitated by the Second Industrial Revolution in the twentieth century. This refers largely to the improvements in transport, communications and technology. New forms of industry emerged, particularly in what has come to be known as the Information Technology sector. The most notable differences are to be found firstly in the type of worker required by these new industries, in terms of skills and qualifications, and secondly in the footloose nature of these industries. The improved transport and communications infrastructures have facilitated the decentralisation of industry away from the overcrowded and overpriced city centre locations, out to the spacious and peripheral greenfield locations. This has resulted in widespread inner city decline, with some of the classic symptoms being: “falling population numbers; the loss of industrial employment upon which it had traditionally depended; a poorly skilled workforce; high rates of unemployment; and a built environment characterised by vacant buildings and widespread dereliction.” (MacLaren, 1993:210) As we will see later on in this discussion, these symptoms and the overall experience of growth and decline have been common to many cities in the developed world.

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        While the theories of industrialization and modernity have offered an insight into the possible evolutionary patterns of cities, there is in fact a separate branch of theory dedicated to urban sociology. The Chicago School played a particularly important role in the establishment of urban sociology. The School is often best known for Burgess’ model of the urban form, based on patterns of land use in 1920’s Chicago. His concentric zone model showed the existence of a central business district in the heart of the city, and then just outside of this a ‘zone of transition.’ As economic activity ...

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