From urban ecology to public culture

1. The birth of urban sociology: Chicago School
1.1. Robert Park and Lewis Wirth (The early 20th century)
1.2. Migrants and cities (Chicago, New York, ... ...)
1.3. Urbanization: social differentiation and integration
1.4. Park: Communities, as natural areas, are living in the urban ecology perpetuated by market economy
1.5. Wirth: Urbanism as a way of life
1.5.1. Number
1.5.2. Density
1.5.3. Heterogeneity
1.5.4. Social disorganization
1.5.5. Social (re-)integration: A particular way of life emerges to integrate people together.

2. Marxist approaches
2.1. Manuel Castells
2.1.1. Cities are the integral components of capitalism (class and production system) rather than a nature-like ecology
2.1.2. The crisis of capitalism: class conflict
2.1.3. Class conflicts are caused by over-accumulation of capital and under-investment of labor reproduction (housing, education, ... ...)
2.1.4. State intervention: providing collective consumption
2.1.5. Communities are class-based and urban conflicts are extension of class struggles
2.2. David Harvey
2.3. City as a transformed site of power struggles

3. Politics of urban culture/ urbanism
3.1. Background I: The rise of symbolic economy and cultural institution
Examples: Times Square I, II, III
3.2. Background II: Class politics is replaced by identity politics
3.3. Culture is no longer social cement; instead, it is a contested terrain of representation.
3.4. Public place becomes the stage of new struggles.
3.5. Example: West Kowloon Cultural District

Loft Living Culture and Capital in Urban Change

References
Saunders, Peter. 1981. Social Theory and Urban Question. NY: Holmes & Meier.
Urban Sociology theories
作為一種政治生活的都市文化： 文化研究、城市與香港