Urban anthropology
Encyclopedia
Urban anthropology is a subset of anthropology
concerned with issues of urbanization
, poverty
, and neoliberalism
. It is a relatively new and developing field, which became consolidated in the 1960s and 1970s.
Ulf Hannerz
quotes a 1960s remark that traditional anthropologists were "a notoriously agoraphobic lot, anti-urban by definition". Various social processes in the Western World
as well as in the "Third World
" (the latter being the habitual focus of attention of anthropologists) brought the attention of "specialists in 'other cultures'" closer to their homes.
. The traditional difference between sociology and anthropology was that the former was traditionally conceived as the study of civilized populations, whilst anthropology was approached as the study of primitive populations. There were, in addition, methodological differences between these two disciplines—sociologists would normally study a large population sample while anthropologists relied on fewer informants with deeper relations.
As interest in urban societies increased, methodology between these two fields and subject matters began to blend, leading some to question the differences between urban sociology
and urban anthropology. The lines between the two fields have blurred with the interchange of ideas and methodology, to the advantage and advancement of both disciplines.
While urban anthropology is a newly acknowledged field, anthropologists have been conducting work in the area for a long time. For instance, numerous early scholars have attempted to define exactly what the city is and pinpoint the ways in which urbanism
sets apart modern city lifestyles from what used to be regarded as the "primitive society". It is increasingly acknowledged in urban anthropology that, although there are significant differences in the characteristics and forms of organization of urban and non-urban communities, there are also important similarities, insofar as the city can also be conceived in anthropological studies as a form of community
. Urban anthropology is an expansive and continuously evolving area of research. With a different playing field, anthropologists have had to modify their methods and even readdress traditional ethics
in order to adjust to different obstacles and expectations.
Several for-profit and non-profit organization
s now do work in the field of urban anthropology. Perhaps the best known of these is the non-profit organization called Urban Anthropology. Numerous universities now teach urban anthropology.
and primitive
. The attitude of ethnographers
towards the subject of study was one of supposed scientific detachment, as they undertook the – self-serving and Eurocentric – mission of identifying, classifying and arranging cultural groups worldwide into clearly defined socio-cultural evolutionist stages of human development.
During the 20th century, several factors began leading more anthropologists away from the bipolar notions of foreign savagery versus Western civilization
and more towards the study of urban culture
s in general. A strong influence in this direction was the discovery of vast regions of the world thanks to a significant increase in human mobility
, which had been brought about, among other factors, by the fast expansion of the rail network and the popularisation of travel
in the late Victorian era
. This meant that, by the mid 20th century, it was generally perceived that there were relatively few undiscovered “exotic” cultures left to study through “first contact
” encounters.
Moreover, after World War I
, a number of developing nations
began to emerge. Some anthropologists were attracted to the study of these “peasant
societies”, which were essentially different from the “folk
societies” that ethnographers had traditionally researched. Robert Redfield
was a prominent anthropologist who studied both folk and peasant societies. While researching peasant societies of developing nations, such as India
, he discovered that these communities were dissimilar to folk societies in that they were not self-contained. For example, peasant societies were economically
linked to forces outside of their own community. In other words, they were part of a bigger society — the city.
This realisation opened the door to more anthropologists focusing their study of societies (regardless of whether they were Western or non-Western) from the perspective of the city (conceived as a structuring element). This crossover was instrumental in the development of urban anthropology as an independent field. Clearly, this was not the first occasion on which the social sciences
had expressed an interest in the study of the city. Archaeology
, for instance, already placed a strong emphasis on the exploration of the origins of urbanism
, and anthropology itself had adopted the notion of the city as a referent in the study of what was referred to as pre-industrial society
. Their efforts, however, were largely unrelated.
A significant development in the anthropological study of the city was the research conducted by the Chicago School of Urban Ecology
. As early as the 1920s, the school defined the city, in terms of urban ecology, as “made up of adjacent ecological niches accompanied by human groups in... rings surrounding the core.” The Chicago School became a main referent in urban anthropology, setting theoretical trends that have influenced the discipline until the present day.
Among the various individual scholars who contributed to lay the foundations for what urban anthropology has become today (i.e. the study of the city conceived as a community) was the sociologist Louis Wirth
. His essay “Urbanism as a Way of Life” proved to be essential in distinguishing urbanism
as a unique form of society that could be studied from three perspectives: “a physical structure, as a system of social organization, and as a set of attitudes and ideas.” Another notable academic in the field of urban anthropology, Lloyd Warner, led the “Community Study
” approach and was one of the first anthropologists to unequivocally transition from the exploration of primitive cultures (the aborigines
in his case) to studying urban cities using similar anthropological methods. The Community Study approach was an important influence leading to the study of the city as a community
. William Whyte
later expanded Warner’s methods for small urban centers in his study of larger neighborhoods.
, where defined independent and dependent variables
are used. Anthropologists, however, prefer the ethnographic
method, which is broader and does not oversimplify a case. With urban anthropology, the subject is exactingly broad as it is, there needs to be a degree and channel of control. For this reason, urban anthropologists find it easier to incorporate research design in their methods and usually define the city as either the independent variable or the dependent variable. So, the study would be conducted on either the city as the factor on some measure, such as immigration
, or the city as something that is responding to some measure.
A common technique used by anthropologists is “myth debunking.” In this process, anthropologists present a specific question and conduct a study to either verify or negate its validity. Research design is actually an important part of this process, allowing anthropologists to present a specific question and answer it. Being able to hone into such a broad subject specifically while remaining holistic is largely the reason why this technique is popular among anthropologists.
Another technique is based on how anthropologists conduct their studies; they either use single case studies or controlled comparisons. By using case studies, they present and analyze a single urban society. The more sophisticated method is using controlled comparisons, where different societies are compared with controlled variables, so that the associations are more valid and not merely correlations. In order to conduct either type of study, the anthropologist must define a basic unit, which is the ethnographic target population. The target population can be central to the research question, but not necessarily; for example, when studying migrant immigrations, the people are being studied, not the neighborhoods. Common ways to define target populations that are central to the research design are by spatial boundaries, common cultures, or common work.
Ethics
largely remain the same for all anthropologists. Still, working in an urban setting and a more complex society raises new issues. The societies that anthropologists are now studying are more similar to their own, and the familiarity raises issues concerning objectivity. The best idea is for an anthropologist to identify his or her own values explicitly and adapt to the society based on what he or she is studying. With primitive societies
, it would have been acceptable for an anthropologist to enter the society and explain at the beginning their intentions of studying the society. In urban cultures, however, they are not in what are considered alien cultures. Therefore, an anthropologist finds that a more detailed explanation of their intentions is needed and often find that their intent must be explained multiple times throughout the study.
There are four central approaches to the anthropological study of cities. The first is the urban ecology
model in which the community and family network are central. The second is based on power and knowledge, specifically of how the city is planned. The third approach is studying local and supralocal and the link between the two degrees of units in the city. The last approach focuses on cities where political economy
is central to the city’s infrastructure
. Low uses several prominent studies from urban anthropologists to compile a list of the different types of cities that do not fall into only one category, and what factors individualize them. These types of cities include those focused on religious, economic, and social processes. An example of the religious city is what Low calls the “sacred city” in which religion is central to the daily life processes of the city. An example of an economic centered city image is the “Deindustrialized city” . In America, this type of city is usually found in areas where coal mining
was the main industry in the city, and once coal mines were shut down, the city became a ghost city
rampant with unemployment
and displaced workers. Globalization
has been studied as a force that severely affects these areas, and anthropological studies have greatly increased the knowledge of the implications.
Other types of cities include, but are certainly not limited to the contested city, in which urban resistance is a key image; the gendered city, dominant in urbanizing areas such as Africa where women find themselves newly employed in low-wage labor; postmodern city, that is centered around capitalism; and fortress city, where different populations within the city are separated, usually based on socioeconomic
factors. The main reasons for the current studies focusing on types on cities are to understand the patterns in which cities are now developing in, to study theoretical cities that may come about in the future based on these current trends, and to increase the implications of anthropological studies. Anthropological studies have serious implications on the understanding of urban society: with the rapid rate of globalization, many peasant societies are quickly attempting to modernize their cities and populations, but at an expense of the interests of the people within the cities. Studies can illustrate these negative effects and project how the overall city will fare poorly in the future.
The other method of studying urban anthropology is by studying various factors, such as social, economic, and political processes, within the general city. Focuses on these factors include studies on rural-urban migration, kinship in the city, problems that arise from urbanism, and social stratification. These studies are largely comparative between how these relations function in an urban setting versus how they function in a rural setting. When studying kinship, anthropologists have been focusing on the importance of extended family for urban natives versus migrant
s. Studies have shown, generally, that the more “native” one becomes with the urban city, the less importance is placed on maintaining familial relations. Another important and commonly studied aspect of the urban society is poverty
, which is believed to be a problem that arises out of urbanism. Urban anthropologists study several aspects individually, and attempt to tie different aspects together, such as the relationship between poverty and social stratification
.
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
concerned with issues of urbanization
Urbanization
Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....
, poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, and neoliberalism
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
. It is a relatively new and developing field, which became consolidated in the 1960s and 1970s.
Ulf Hannerz
Ulf Hannerz
Ulf Hannerz, born June 9, 1942 in Malmö, is an emeritus professor of social anthropology at Stockholm University. His research includes urban societies, local media cultures, transnational cultural processes, and globalization....
quotes a 1960s remark that traditional anthropologists were "a notoriously agoraphobic lot, anti-urban by definition". Various social processes in the Western World
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
as well as in the "Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
" (the latter being the habitual focus of attention of anthropologists) brought the attention of "specialists in 'other cultures'" closer to their homes.
Overview
Urban anthropology is heavily influenced by sociologySociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
. The traditional difference between sociology and anthropology was that the former was traditionally conceived as the study of civilized populations, whilst anthropology was approached as the study of primitive populations. There were, in addition, methodological differences between these two disciplines—sociologists would normally study a large population sample while anthropologists relied on fewer informants with deeper relations.
As interest in urban societies increased, methodology between these two fields and subject matters began to blend, leading some to question the differences between urban sociology
Urban sociology
Urban sociology is the sociological study of social life and human interaction in metropolitan areas. It is a normative discipline of sociology seeking to study the structures, processes, changes and problems of an urban area and by doing so providing inputs for planning and policy making. Like...
and urban anthropology. The lines between the two fields have blurred with the interchange of ideas and methodology, to the advantage and advancement of both disciplines.
While urban anthropology is a newly acknowledged field, anthropologists have been conducting work in the area for a long time. For instance, numerous early scholars have attempted to define exactly what the city is and pinpoint the ways in which urbanism
Urbanism
Broadly, urbanism is a focus on cities and urban areas, their geography, economies, politics, social characteristics, as well as the effects on, and caused by, the built environment.-Philosophy:...
sets apart modern city lifestyles from what used to be regarded as the "primitive society". It is increasingly acknowledged in urban anthropology that, although there are significant differences in the characteristics and forms of organization of urban and non-urban communities, there are also important similarities, insofar as the city can also be conceived in anthropological studies as a form of community
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
. Urban anthropology is an expansive and continuously evolving area of research. With a different playing field, anthropologists have had to modify their methods and even readdress traditional ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
in order to adjust to different obstacles and expectations.
Several for-profit and non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
s now do work in the field of urban anthropology. Perhaps the best known of these is the non-profit organization called Urban Anthropology. Numerous universities now teach urban anthropology.
History of the discipline
In its early stages during the 19th century, anthropology was principally concerned with the comparative study of foreign (i.e. non-Western) cultures, which were frequently regarded as exoticExotic
Exotic can mean:*In mathematics:**Exotic R4 - differentiable manifold homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to the Euclidean space R4**Exotic sphere - differentiable manifold homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to the ordinary sphere*In physics:...
and primitive
Primitive
Primitive may refer to:* Anarcho-primitivism, an anarchist critique of the origins and progress of civilization* Primitive culture, one that lacks major signs of economic development or modernity...
. The attitude of ethnographers
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
towards the subject of study was one of supposed scientific detachment, as they undertook the – self-serving and Eurocentric – mission of identifying, classifying and arranging cultural groups worldwide into clearly defined socio-cultural evolutionist stages of human development.
During the 20th century, several factors began leading more anthropologists away from the bipolar notions of foreign savagery versus Western civilization
Civilization
Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...
and more towards the study of urban culture
Urban culture
Urban culture is the culture of towns and cities. In the United States, Urban culture may also sometimes be used as a euphemistic reference to contemporary African American culture.- African American culture :...
s in general. A strong influence in this direction was the discovery of vast regions of the world thanks to a significant increase in human mobility
Population mobility
Population mobility, geographic mobility or more simply mobility is a statistic that measures migration within a population. It is most commonly used in demography and human geography, it may also be used to describe the movement of animals between populations.Mobility estimates in the Current...
, which had been brought about, among other factors, by the fast expansion of the rail network and the popularisation of travel
Travel
Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...
in the late Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
. This meant that, by the mid 20th century, it was generally perceived that there were relatively few undiscovered “exotic” cultures left to study through “first contact
First contact (anthropology)
First contact is a term describing the first meeting of two cultures previously unaware of one another. One notable example of first contact is that between the Spanish and the Arawak in 1492....
” encounters.
Moreover, after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, a number of developing nations
Developing country
A developing country, also known as a less-developed country, is a nation with a low level of material well-being. Since no single definition of the term developing country is recognized internationally, the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries...
began to emerge. Some anthropologists were attracted to the study of these “peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
societies”, which were essentially different from the “folk
Folk
The English word Folk is derived from a Germanic noun, *fulka meaning "people" or "army"...
societies” that ethnographers had traditionally researched. Robert Redfield
Robert Redfield
Robert Redfield was an American anthropologist and ethnolinguist. Redfield graduated from the University of Chicago, eventually with a J.D. from its law school and then a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology, which he began to teach in 1927...
was a prominent anthropologist who studied both folk and peasant societies. While researching peasant societies of developing nations, such as India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, he discovered that these communities were dissimilar to folk societies in that they were not self-contained. For example, peasant societies were economically
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
linked to forces outside of their own community. In other words, they were part of a bigger society — the city.
This realisation opened the door to more anthropologists focusing their study of societies (regardless of whether they were Western or non-Western) from the perspective of the city (conceived as a structuring element). This crossover was instrumental in the development of urban anthropology as an independent field. Clearly, this was not the first occasion on which the social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
had expressed an interest in the study of the city. Archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, for instance, already placed a strong emphasis on the exploration of the origins of urbanism
Urbanism
Broadly, urbanism is a focus on cities and urban areas, their geography, economies, politics, social characteristics, as well as the effects on, and caused by, the built environment.-Philosophy:...
, and anthropology itself had adopted the notion of the city as a referent in the study of what was referred to as pre-industrial society
Pre-industrial society
Pre-industrial society refers to specific social attributes and forms of political and cultural organization that were prevalent before the advent of the Industrial Revolution. It is followed by the industrial society....
. Their efforts, however, were largely unrelated.
A significant development in the anthropological study of the city was the research conducted by the Chicago School of Urban Ecology
Chicago school (sociology)
In sociology and later criminology, the Chicago School was the first major body of works emerging during the 1920s and 1930s specialising in urban sociology, and the research into the urban environment by combining theory and ethnographic fieldwork in Chicago, now applied elsewhere...
. As early as the 1920s, the school defined the city, in terms of urban ecology, as “made up of adjacent ecological niches accompanied by human groups in... rings surrounding the core.” The Chicago School became a main referent in urban anthropology, setting theoretical trends that have influenced the discipline until the present day.
Among the various individual scholars who contributed to lay the foundations for what urban anthropology has become today (i.e. the study of the city conceived as a community) was the sociologist Louis Wirth
Louis Wirth
Louis Wirth was an American sociologist and member of the Chicago school of sociology.-Life:Louis Wirth was born in the small village of Gemünden in the Hunsrück, Germany. He was one of seven children born to Rosalie Lorig and Joseph Wirth. Gemünden was a pastoral community, and Joseph Wirth...
. His essay “Urbanism as a Way of Life” proved to be essential in distinguishing urbanism
Urbanism
Broadly, urbanism is a focus on cities and urban areas, their geography, economies, politics, social characteristics, as well as the effects on, and caused by, the built environment.-Philosophy:...
as a unique form of society that could be studied from three perspectives: “a physical structure, as a system of social organization, and as a set of attitudes and ideas.” Another notable academic in the field of urban anthropology, Lloyd Warner, led the “Community Study
Community studies
Community studies is an academic field drawing on both sociology and anthropology and the social research methods of ethnography and participant observation in the study of community. In academic settings around the world, community studies is variously a sub-discipline of anthropology or...
” approach and was one of the first anthropologists to unequivocally transition from the exploration of primitive cultures (the aborigines
Australian Aborigines
Australian Aborigines , also called Aboriginal Australians, from the latin ab originem , are people who are indigenous to most of the Australian continentthat is, to mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania...
in his case) to studying urban cities using similar anthropological methods. The Community Study approach was an important influence leading to the study of the city as a community
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
. William Whyte
William Foote Whyte
William Foote Whyte was a sociologist chiefly known for his ethnological study in urban sociology, Street Corner Society...
later expanded Warner’s methods for small urban centers in his study of larger neighborhoods.
Methods, techniques and ethics
Anthropologists typically have one significant difference from their affiliated field of science: their method of gathering information. Scientists prefer research designResearch design
Research designs are concerned with turning the research question into a testing project. The best design depends on your research questions. Every design has its positive and negative sides...
, where defined independent and dependent variables
Dependent and independent variables
The terms "dependent variable" and "independent variable" are used in similar but subtly different ways in mathematics and statistics as part of the standard terminology in those subjects...
are used. Anthropologists, however, prefer the ethnographic
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
method, which is broader and does not oversimplify a case. With urban anthropology, the subject is exactingly broad as it is, there needs to be a degree and channel of control. For this reason, urban anthropologists find it easier to incorporate research design in their methods and usually define the city as either the independent variable or the dependent variable. So, the study would be conducted on either the city as the factor on some measure, such as immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
, or the city as something that is responding to some measure.
A common technique used by anthropologists is “myth debunking.” In this process, anthropologists present a specific question and conduct a study to either verify or negate its validity. Research design is actually an important part of this process, allowing anthropologists to present a specific question and answer it. Being able to hone into such a broad subject specifically while remaining holistic is largely the reason why this technique is popular among anthropologists.
Another technique is based on how anthropologists conduct their studies; they either use single case studies or controlled comparisons. By using case studies, they present and analyze a single urban society. The more sophisticated method is using controlled comparisons, where different societies are compared with controlled variables, so that the associations are more valid and not merely correlations. In order to conduct either type of study, the anthropologist must define a basic unit, which is the ethnographic target population. The target population can be central to the research question, but not necessarily; for example, when studying migrant immigrations, the people are being studied, not the neighborhoods. Common ways to define target populations that are central to the research design are by spatial boundaries, common cultures, or common work.
Ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
largely remain the same for all anthropologists. Still, working in an urban setting and a more complex society raises new issues. The societies that anthropologists are now studying are more similar to their own, and the familiarity raises issues concerning objectivity. The best idea is for an anthropologist to identify his or her own values explicitly and adapt to the society based on what he or she is studying. With primitive societies
Primitive culture
In older anthropology texts and discussions, the term "primitive culture" is used to refer to a society that is believed to lack cultural, technological, or economic sophistication/development...
, it would have been acceptable for an anthropologist to enter the society and explain at the beginning their intentions of studying the society. In urban cultures, however, they are not in what are considered alien cultures. Therefore, an anthropologist finds that a more detailed explanation of their intentions is needed and often find that their intent must be explained multiple times throughout the study.
Main areas of study
There are two main ways to go about researching urban anthropology: by examining the types of cities or examining the social issues within the cities. These two methods are overlapping and dependent of each other. By defining different types of cities, one would use social factors as well as economic and political factors to categorize the cities. By directly looking at the different social issues, one would also be studying how they affect the dynamic of the city.There are four central approaches to the anthropological study of cities. The first is the urban ecology
Urban ecology
Urban ecology is a subfield of ecology which deals with the interaction between organisms in an urban or urbanized community, and their interaction with that community. Urban ecologists study the trees, rivers, wildlife and open spaces found in cities to understand the extent of those resources and...
model in which the community and family network are central. The second is based on power and knowledge, specifically of how the city is planned. The third approach is studying local and supralocal and the link between the two degrees of units in the city. The last approach focuses on cities where political economy
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
is central to the city’s infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
. Low uses several prominent studies from urban anthropologists to compile a list of the different types of cities that do not fall into only one category, and what factors individualize them. These types of cities include those focused on religious, economic, and social processes. An example of the religious city is what Low calls the “sacred city” in which religion is central to the daily life processes of the city. An example of an economic centered city image is the “Deindustrialized city” . In America, this type of city is usually found in areas where coal mining
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
was the main industry in the city, and once coal mines were shut down, the city became a ghost city
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
rampant with unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
and displaced workers. Globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
has been studied as a force that severely affects these areas, and anthropological studies have greatly increased the knowledge of the implications.
Other types of cities include, but are certainly not limited to the contested city, in which urban resistance is a key image; the gendered city, dominant in urbanizing areas such as Africa where women find themselves newly employed in low-wage labor; postmodern city, that is centered around capitalism; and fortress city, where different populations within the city are separated, usually based on socioeconomic
Socioeconomics
Socioeconomics or socio-economics or social economics is an umbrella term with different usages. 'Social economics' may refer broadly to the "use of economics in the study of society." More narrowly, contemporary practice considers behavioral interactions of individuals and groups through social...
factors. The main reasons for the current studies focusing on types on cities are to understand the patterns in which cities are now developing in, to study theoretical cities that may come about in the future based on these current trends, and to increase the implications of anthropological studies. Anthropological studies have serious implications on the understanding of urban society: with the rapid rate of globalization, many peasant societies are quickly attempting to modernize their cities and populations, but at an expense of the interests of the people within the cities. Studies can illustrate these negative effects and project how the overall city will fare poorly in the future.
The other method of studying urban anthropology is by studying various factors, such as social, economic, and political processes, within the general city. Focuses on these factors include studies on rural-urban migration, kinship in the city, problems that arise from urbanism, and social stratification. These studies are largely comparative between how these relations function in an urban setting versus how they function in a rural setting. When studying kinship, anthropologists have been focusing on the importance of extended family for urban natives versus migrant
Migrant
Migrant may refer to:*Immigration and emigration, the migration of humans*Bird migration*Migrant worker*Migrant literature...
s. Studies have shown, generally, that the more “native” one becomes with the urban city, the less importance is placed on maintaining familial relations. Another important and commonly studied aspect of the urban society is poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, which is believed to be a problem that arises out of urbanism. Urban anthropologists study several aspects individually, and attempt to tie different aspects together, such as the relationship between poverty and social stratification
Social stratification
In sociology the social stratification is a concept of class, involving the "classification of persons into groups based on shared socio-economic conditions ... a relational set of inequalities with economic, social, political and ideological dimensions."...
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