Community: the Chicago School

Social Darwinism Popular intellectual fashion in late C19th early C20th USA Treated social and economic competition as “natural” Connected to eugenics: preserving the race

Social Darwinism Suggested that those groups which dominated society, economy somehow deserved it

Chicago School University of Chicago emerging in the 1890s as an innovative research centre Chicago a new kind of city Application of new ideas

Chicago School UofC Philosophy programme: John Dewey as leading influence Strong on pragmatism Influenced by Darwin’s ideas on evolution

Chicago School University Settlement House Jane Addams and Ellen Starr lead Hull House programme to aid the poor immigrant

Chicago School of Human Ecology Ernest W Burgess Robert Ezra Park Roderick D McKenzie

"The human community may be considered as an ecological product" -- Roderick Mckenzie 1923

Park on Community Community results from competition with other social groups for living space Size, resources, location, internal organization Internal workings and institutions

Park, Burgess, and McKenzie (1925) The City

Burgess concentric ring model

Traffic jam 1910

Old Park triangle

Chicago Astor St

Michigan Ave 1910

1910

1920 Chicago River

23rd St Tracks 1907

Chicago 1934

Maxwell & Jefferson 1905

12th & Jefferson 1905

Stockyards district 1904

1912

31st St 1910

Tenement 1910

Stockyard strike 1904

Kenilworth Ave 1925

Lakeshore Dr 1905

Lincoln Park 1907

Oak Park

Social Ecology Competition people compete for living space in the city, like plants and animals in a jungle

Social Ecology Ecological dominance some groups, and land uses achieve dominance over others analogous to ecological dominance

Social Ecology Invasion & succession social groups can colonize new areas, and create the conditions for other groups to invade like plant communities

Critique Developed for early C20th Chicago, but does not apply in other places/times. 1920s Chicago a city of the streetcar and the El

The El 1915

Homer Hoyt 1930s Expert on real-estate and land economics Designed shopping plazas By 1930s arterial highways beginning to distort rings into sectors and wedges Sector model

Harris & Ullman 1945 Ullman 1940s freeways in LA lead to the Multiple nuclei model

Harris & Ullman 1945

Critique Competition represented as a process of “natural”. Makes capitalism seem “natural” Makes racism seem “natural”

Critique Race, ethnicity etc., treated as “natural” categories, not social constructions.

Critique Residential areas treated as if they have uniform social character actually more diverse Shows ignorance of subsequent critics Park, Burgess, McKenzie knew the city to be diverse

1910

Critique Implied moral judgements Valentine plays the same game too Burgess et al viewed middle-class white heterosexual households as normal, everyone else as deviant Valentine plays the same game too

Critique Humans do not behave like plant communities

Critique Represents power as a product of “natural” competitive processes Discourages more serious consideration of power in the urban landscape

Legacy Classic urban models (Burgess concentric ring etc.,) Continue to fascinate

Mike Davis (1992) Ecology of fear

Legacy The term “ecological” in sociology Schools of Social Ecology ecological correlation ecological fallacy Schools of Social Ecology

Social Ecology grads at a California university