The Community in Urban Society

Download or read book The Community in Urban Society written by Larry Lyon and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The community is one of the most important and interesting fields in social science, yet in some ways it is a field that doesn't exist. It is difficult to say exactly where community research and theory merge into urban sociology, local politics, rural development, regional studies, formal organizations, or any number of other related fields of inquiry. It's even difficult to say precisely what a community is. Yet no field was more instrumental than community studies in influencing the early development of sociology. When Robert Park and his colleagues at the University of Chicago established the academic legitimacy of sociology, the community was their primary unit of analysis. Accordingly, few fields cover more important philosophical, epistemological, or practical concerns than community sociology. The community is that special place where theory and the "real" world come together. And further, I believe than no field holds greater promise for those with a reformist bent. You can't save the world, but you can improve a community! I try to communicate these exceptional aspects of community sociology in this book."--