Experiencing Cities Essay

The text Experiencing Cities by Mark Hutter deals with little sociology and symbolic fundamental interaction theory. This content the way people experience the urban world in relationship to their e rattlingday lives. This would include the interaction with differents that would create meaning for them from the physical and human environment of the city. The exercise was to pick up certain aspects of micro sociology and use my life experiences as characters to show my understanding of this theory. The text uses perspectives from other social science disciplines in studying the city.Some of these included urban history, art, architectural history, urban geography and environmental psychology. Global urbanization is discussed in the last chapter, which to me helped me to understand where I am in the context of the world. I am a twenty-one year old, female student. I at fly the coop college full- clip, work full-time and live with my p atomic number 18nts in novel York City. I am single and pay off no children and hope to obtain my degree in cordial Sciences. First I would manage to discuss symbolic interactionism and the self in fellowship.Functionalism, conflict theory and evolutionism tend to be macrotheories that direct the sociologist toward large-scale phenomena, their relationships and changes in them. To use an example from my life would be the terrorist acts that happen on 911. This is a macrosocial phenomenon but at the micro take aim it affected me and my family, the family members of the victims and New York City. On the Macro level it affected the United States, and on a wider picture it also affected the globe. Symbolic interactionism, like transform theory, is a micro orientation.It is a theoretical map that directs the sociologist in quests to understand how individuals interact in depend to face relationships, relationships that are the foundation of social life. Unlike exchange theory, symbolic interactionism does not stress concept s of rewards and costs. instead it is an emphasis on the human self, symbolic communications and interaction between individuals based upon symbolic communication. The self is the process that is made up of the interaction of two self-aspects. These are I and Me. This is the knowing of self, the self enquire and revising questions in the present or the I.Then there is the self-aspect composed of past experiences and conscious identity, the Me. The I is the self-aspect that exists in the present, which notes the world or so it, that questions, that is voluntary, and that suggests my behavior. The me is based on past experience and is judgmental of my impulses. The I is my creative self the me is my social self. For example I am basically a night several(prenominal)one I am working on this exercise at midnight. Being a night person I believe that the best way to be sure to have a good morn is to quietus through most of it.Because of this I have always tried to have my classe s scheduled for afternoon or evenings, when possible. But last quarter I found to my horror, that due to a series of circumstances, I was forced to take a course that met on Mondays at 8 a. m. This is a time of day I have rarely seen and when I have seen it, it was not because I was up very early, but because I was up very late. When the alarm clock rang at 615, the immediate impulsive action of my self arising in my I was to pull the plug on the alarm and go lynchpin to sleep.I would have done so, had not the me aspect of my self reminded me that would be a bad idea. As the socially aware, judgmental self-aspect, it reinforced me of the need to get up, shower, and eat so I could meet my responsibilities as a student and my goals. But I was still very tired and my I suggested that I sleep another half hour. My judgmental me aspect suggested twenty minutes more was the maximum time I could sleep if I was to meet my responsibilities. I proceeded to go back to sleep for twenty minute s and at 800 a. m. I went to my economics class ready to absorb the knowledge.Society is created by interactions between persons starting line with their selves that allow them to plan and coordinate their deliver behaviors. But social interaction first requires more than selves and it depends on symbolic communication through language. A verbal symbol is a sound which indicates some object. The utter word say for example chair means something to sit on. mickle who are born in the same society learn more or less the same symbols. For example, I went to Ohio once to call up a friend I asked for a soda and was told that she didnt have soda but she had Pepsi. Thats what I wanted, but in Ohio they ask for a pop.People born in the same society that pick up the same symbols helps conversations between persons in which joint plans are made and expired. So the existence of the self and symbolic communication makes group interaction possible. Because I have self and can communicate sy mbolically I can form groups such as my family, my college and my religion. These are the foundation of social life. People will think of the world in terms of symbols that represent objects and these objects can be physical like chairs and books, social like teachers or sisters, and abstract such as truth, liberty, or evil.To understand cities and the development of cities I thought of looking at urbanization first. Urbanization refers to masses of people moving to cities and to these cities having a festering influence on society. Urbanization is worldwide. To understand the citys attraction the first thing to rent is the pull of urban life. New York City offers an incredible variety of social events such as unison ranging from rock to classic, architectural history, and cultural diversity. It also offers anonymity, which I find so much better than the interrogatory and restriction my friend had in her small town in Ohio.But probably the most significant factor would be the o pportunities in theorises. There are three types that life in cities by excerpt the cosmopolites, which I fall into, are students, intellectuals, professionals, artists, and entertainers. We are pulled to the city because of the conveniences and cultural beliefs. The single, another group I can associate with, are young unmarried people that are staying in the city because of the job and entertainment. Staying in the city reflects a stage in my life course, because after I marry and have children I have thought of moving to the suburbs.Then there are the ethnic villagers that are coupled by race-ethnicity and social class. These people live in tightly knit neighborhoods that resemble villages and small towns around New York City. Moving within a close circle of family and friends trying to isolate them from what they view as the harmful effects of city life. There are two groups that have little choice nearly where they live they are the deprived and the trapped. Symbolic intera ctionism focuses on society as an outcome of persons with self-identities interacting with one another.An example of how symbolic interactionism can be applied to me by how I view myself as say a drinker I have been taught about drinking through interaction with my friends. The learning requires interaction in a number of steps. This process is often accompanied by learning to explain away some unpleasant sensations caused by drinking in excess. Once drinking begins individuals will change their self-concept and thoughts of themselves as an daily or to regular use of alcohol.So major changes made by alcohol were not caused by the alcohol but by learned changes in self identity. So in addition to other theories critical theory, phenomenology and ehtnomehtodology are also important to experiencing cities. Critical theory focuses on alienation and social contradictions and how they are overcome. Phenomenology focuses on how claims to knowledge about society are constructed. Ethnometho dology looks at how social actors make sense of their own actions and all of these are used to understand society.