Social Organization in the Slums
1943; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 8; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/2085446
ISSN1939-8271
Autores Tópico(s)Urbanization and City Planning
ResumoF OR MANY decades sociologists have been studying the slums in terms of social disorganization. It is my purpose to make a critical examination of some of the literature in this field and to suggest a different approach to the analysis of slum social life. Interest in the slums seems to have stemmed from two sources: (i) an urge to bring about social reforms, and (2) an effort to reach an understanding of the process of urbanization. The studies of Charles Booth' and B. Seebohm Rowntree' are representative of the reform interest. Being preoccupied with poverty and related problems, these men provided a mass of valuable data upon working class standards of living, but they had little to say about the social life of slum dwellers. The urbanization studies provide a closer approach to the analysis of social behavior in this area. The contrast between primitive or peasant society and the urban community has prompted many eminent social scientists to formulate theories upon the nature of social relations in the two environments. Henry Maine3 put the contrast in terms of status and contract, Ferdinand T6nnies4 used the concepts of Gemeinschaft and Geselischaft, and mile Durkheim5 talked of mechanical and organic solidarity. While
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