Is Urban Sociology Dying?

Abstract

Urban sociology in America is dying. The signs of this slow death are as follows: membership in the Community section of the American Sociological Association has fallen during the past year by over 30 percent; certain sociology departments granting PhDs no longer offer a specialization in sociology; some sociology departments have discontinued undergraduate courses in sociology; mainstream sociology journals rarely publish articles concerning sociology; and courses in introductory sociology and social problems often skip the section. More recently, the new editors of Contemporary Sociology removed urban as a specific review category. When sociology is taught, it can be exciting, challenging, and stimulating, but it often ranks on a par with statistics as the most unappealing sociology course offered to undergraduates. Why? Part of the reason rests in sociology textbooks, which have all the flavor of a flat Coke; these books are failures because they are unable to describe a comprehensive sociological approach to understanding cities. The Sociology of Cities is representative of this unfortunate trend in textbooks purporting to be sociological analyses of the city. It is neither the best nor the worst of these textbooks currently on the market.1 The book