Rashid's Blog: A Place for Inquisitive Souls

The right to the city is an idea and a slogan first proposed by Henri Lefebvre in his 1968 book Le Droit à la Ville. This idea has been taken up more recently by social movements, thinkers, and certain progressive local authorities as a call to action to reclaim the city as a co-created space: a place for life detached from the growing effects that commodification and capitalism are proposed to have had over social interaction and the rise of posited spatial inequalities in worldwide cities throughout the last two centuries.

According to Lefebvre (1978; 341) space is not independent from the power relations. It is political and ideological, and it is a product filled with ideologies.”

Weber, considers the city as an analogous subject of transformation from feudalism to capitalism. While focusing on economic and political organization in the conceptualization of city, he also underlines commerce as economic activity and relative characteristics of city as politics (Saunders: 1981).

Durkheim,explains city as an advanced level of labour division, solidarity among people and roles of these people. According to Marx, on the other hand, city is an arena of class division and struggle. Like Weber, Marx argues that city has crucial role for capitalist development. Like Marx, Engels considers city as an indicator of the capitalist class structure and relationship (Katznelson: 1992).

 Urban Space becomes the Shaper for thoughts and ideologies. Activities and the ideological and concepts of social processes are related to space. To assess the effects of ideologies within urban space, there is a need for analyzing the urbanization in terms of social thinking. In order to understand social phenomena, it is also important to consider their spatial determinations, and their reflection in the urban.

Read More Here, here and here

According to Brittanica crime is the intentional commission of an act usually deemed socially harmful or dangerous and specifically defined, prohibited, and punishable under criminal law.

The crimes in rural and urban areas are of different genre. Different Theories of Urban Systems Explain the relationship.

One can see it as social problem arising out of Social Processes.

Concentric Zone Theory and Urban Crime

Ernest Burgess of the University of Chicago, sought to explain clear divisions of socioeconomic status within and immediately outside of cities.  The disparities from one city block to the next were extremely apparent and Burgess created a tool that has proven to be extremely helpful to future crime study.  Working with the city of Chicago, Burgess examined and identified  city zones, each with its own particular attributes.  Though Ernest’s original publication from 1928 on concentric circles very blatantly divided these zones by concentration of African Americans within the inner zones (Burgess, 1928), the general make-up of these areas today is predominantly comprised of minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status. 

Ernest Burgess’s concentric zone theory is a theory of urban development that helps explain crime and social structure. It’s one of the most used theories in criminal justice today. 

How it works

• Burgess mapped different zones of Chicago to understand how social problems like crime and vice were distributed. 
• He identified five zones, each with its own characteristics. 
• He found that areas near heavy industry, with transient residents, and in physical decline had higher crime rates. 
• He concluded that areas with higher mobility would also have higher social disorganization. 

Why it’s important

• The theory has helped develop many strategies in the criminal justice field. 
• It has been used to study crime in other cities. 
• It has helped explain how socioeconomic status varies within and around cities. 
• It has helped explain how social disorganization contributes to crime. 

SocialDisorganization Theory and Urban Crime

The social disorganization theory is a theory developed by the Chicago School, related to ecological theories. The theory directly links crime rates to neighbourhood ecological characteristics; a core principle of social disorganization theory that states location matters. In other words, a person’s residential location is a substantial factor shaping the likelihood that that person will become involved in illegal activities. The theory suggests that, among determinants of a person’s later illegal activity, residential location is as significant as or more significant than the person’s individual characteristics (e.g., age, gender, or race). For example, the theory suggests that youths from disadvantaged neighbourhoods participate in a subculture which approves of delinquency, and that these youths thus acquire criminality in this social and cultural setting

Social Inequality

Social Inequality may also be a trigger of crime.

Social inequality results from a society organised on hierarchies of class, race, and gender that unequally distributes access to resources and rights.

It can be expressed in a variety of ways, like income and wealth inequality, unequal access to education and cultural resources, and differential treatment by the police and judicial system, among others. Social inequality goes hand in hand with social stratification.

It can be expressed in a variety of ways, like income and wealth inequality, unequal access to education and cultural resources, and differential treatment by the police and judicial system, among others. Social inequality goes hand in hand with social stratification.

Social Exclusion

Social Exclusion may also be a trigger. It sometimes lead to frustration and frustration may lead to violence and crime.

Poverty

It can be a result as well as magnet of social exclusion. Its manifestations can be seen in Slums.

The process of social exclusion is dragging away certain people or group of people to drag away from the core of the society.There are different magnets of social exclusion which drag people  away from the core of the society to the fringes of society.

• Poverty Magnet
• Ill health Magnet
• Discrimination magnet

Links to Read Further

Concentric Zone Theory and Urban Crime

 Social Disorganization Theory and Urban Crime

Social Disorganization Leads to Urban Crime?