Urban Sociology Essay 3 Assignment
Due: Friday, April 29, 2005
You may choose any topic related to urban sociology.
I will make specific suggestions about topics, but you are not limited to these suggestions. Please clear all topics with me before you go to the trouble of working in the library and writing the essay.
I expect you to use the assigned reading as background sources and to supplement that with material from scholarly sources. You may also use non-scholarly sources, as long as the essay is not exclusively based on non-scholarly sources.
See the Essay Grading Rubric for more information about the actual writing of the essay.
This page is under construction. Check it later for more suggestions.
Housing Policy
Homes and Communities - U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
The Center for Housing Policy, University of York, United Kingdom
In addition to these sources, you would need articles from a library search on housing policy
Architecture for Humanity: Design like your give a damn
Section 8 Tenant-Based Housing Assistance: A Look Back After 30 Years
Housing Strategies for Houston
Traffic
Chicagoland Expressway Congestion Map
Traffic Congestion CQ Researcher
Texas Transportation Institute Urban Mobility Information
House Panel Approves Pared-Down Bill For Highways and Transit Project CQ Public Affairs Collection
Poverty and Working Poor
How the Census Bureau Measures Poverty
Characteristics of Minimun Wage Workers
Low-Wage America, an NPR Special Report
The "State" of Low-Wage Workers, The Brookings Institute
Wilson, William J., 1935- The bridge over the racial divide : rising inequality and coalition politics / William Julius Wilson. Berkeley : University of California Press, c1999. Upper Level E185.615 .W545 1999
Wilson, William J., 1935- When work disappears : the world of the new urban poor / William Julius Wilson. New York : Vintage Books, 1997. Upper Level HV4045 .W553 1997
The Urban underclass / Christopher Jencks, Paul E. Peterson, editors. Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution, c1991. Upper Level HV4045 .U73 1990
Wilson, William J., 1935- The truly disadvantaged : the inner city, the underclass, and public policy / William Julius Wilson. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1987. Upper Level HV4045 .W55 1987
Wilson, William J., 1935- The declining significance of race : Blacks and changing American institutions / William Julius Wilson. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1978. Upper Level E185 .W73
New Urban Agenda
A New Urban Agenda by Daniel Luria and Joel Rogers Boston Review
Gated Communities
The upper-middle and upper classes are moving behind security walls and fences with guarded gates. Why? What are the consequences of this phenomenon for metropolitan areas? Here is a recent article, you should look for others in the library.
Kevin Romig. 2005. "The Upper Sonoran Lifestyle: Gated Communities in Scottsdale, Arizona." City & Community 4(1):67-86.
Rape
- Brownmiller, Susan. Against our will : men, women, and rape / Susan Brownmiller. New York : Simon and Schuster, [1975] Upper Level HV6558 .B76
- Evolution, gender, and rape / edited by Cheryl Brown Travis. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2003. Upper Level HV6558 .E92 2003
- "Age of consent law and the making of modern childhood in New York City, 1886-192" by Stephen Robertson Journal of Social History; Summer 2002; 35, 4; Research Library pg. 781
- Lefkowitz, Bernard. Our guys : the Glen Ridge rape and the secret life of the perfect suburb / Bernard Lefkowitz. New York : Vintage Books, 1998. Upper Level HV6568.G54 L43 1998
- Elliot Regenstein reviews Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of a Perfect Suburb in "Book Notice: These are people in your neighborhood." Michigan Law Review; May 1999; 97, 6; Research Library pg. 1956
Gangs
Milne Library has many books on gangs. Do a GLOCAT search on gangs and find some sources.
Some books in Milne
- Burchard, Peter. Stranded, a story of New York in 1875. New York, Coward-McCann [1967] Upper Level PS3552.U55 S8 1967
- Thrasher, Frederic Milton, 1892-1962. The gang; a study of 1,313 gangs in Chicago, by Frederic M. Thrasher. Chicago, Ill. University of Chicago press [c1936] Upper Level HV6439.U7 C4 1936. This book was published almost 70 years ago and is a classic of Chicago School sociology.
- Suttles, Gerald D. The social order of the slum; ethnicity and territory in the inner city [by] Gerald D. Suttles. Pref. by Morris Janowitz. Chicago, University of Chicago Press [1968] Upper Level HN80.C5 S97. Here is another classic Chicago School study published almost 30 years ago. Suttles argues that gangs help provide social order in a slum. How does that compare with other ways of viewing gangs?
There are several novels and books about gangs. You may want to compare the social science findings with these cultural images of gangs and gang members
- West Side Story in Milne Library dvd PN1997 .W42 1998. The movie version of classical Broadway musical. What kind of image does it present of gangs and Puerto Ricans? How does that fit with social science views?
- Boyz N the Hood written and directed by John Singleton with actors Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding, Laurence Fishburne & others. Released in 1991. This is not available, but you can probably rent it easily.
- City of God written and directed by Fernando Meirelles. Released in 2003 it is about the youth gangs took over the slums of Rio de Janiero during the 1960s and didn't relinquish their stronghold until the mid-1980s. This is a very violent movie. If you are easily upset by bloody cruelty, do not watch it.
Race in Urban America
The two nations of black America [videorecording] / produced by June Cross ; correspondent: Henry Louis Gates, Jr. ; written by June Cross and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. ; WGBH Educational Foundation. [Alexandria, Va.] : PBS Video [distributor], c1998. Upper Level vrc E185.8 .T96 1998
How segregated are the races in the US? Are things getting better, or worse? Go to the Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research to find data and reports on segregation across US cities and regions. Go to the "In the News" link to find another link to a report from the Brookings Institute report "Racial Segregation in the 2000 Census: Promising News."
See the articles by Loic Wacquant in ERes "From Slavery to Mass Incarceration" in particular.
Urban Culture
Melting Pot?
See the articles in ERes
Richard Alba et al. 2000. "Beyond he Melting Pot 35 Years Later: On the Relevance of a Sociological Classic for the Immigration Metropolis of Today." International Migration Review. 34(1):243-79
Steven E. Schier. 2002. "From Melting Pot to Centrifuge: Immigrants and America." The Brookings Review 20(1):16-19.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
See the articles in ERes
T Bunnell and PA Barter. 2002. "City Profile: Kuala Lumpur metropolitan area." Cities. 19(5):357-370.
Tim Bunnell. 2002. "Kampung Rules: Landscape and the Contested Government of Urban(e) Malayness." Urban Studies 39(9):1685-1701.
Anjomani, Ardeshir and Faizah Binti Ahmad. 1992. "Squatter settlement in Kuala Lumpur: Evaluation and alternatives." Ekistics 59(354-355):159-65