XI. THE STUDY OF THE CITY
Attempts to understand the city and city life have resulted in two types of studies. On the one hand there are the investigations into special phases of the subject, and on the other are a number of systematic, generally co-operative, scientific approaches to the city as a whole. The increased attention which the city has been receiving at the hands of various types of experts has brought into existence a number of organizations and institutions which regularly occupy themselves with the collection of information relating to the city. This has given rise to a number of technical journals which are of great importance to the student of the city.
1. There are available at the present time a number of fairly exhaustive systematic studies of various cities. In most instances they represent the combined efforts of many students, extending over a period of years, to explore the realms of urban life in diverse parts of the world, generally with a definite objective in view. Only a few of such studies have been listed under this category.
Booth, Charles. Life and Labor of the People of London (16 vols.; London, 1892).
Attempts to describe the people of London “as they exist in London under the influence of education, religion, and administration.” Required seventeen years for its completion. Contains a wealth of information about the city and city life.
Gamble, Sidney D. Peking: A Social Survey (New York, 1921).
Harrison, Shelby M. Social Conditions in an American City: A Summary of the Findings of the Springfield Survey (New York, 1920).
Johnson, Clarence Richard. Constantinople Today, or the Pathfinder Survey of Constantinople: A Study in Oriental Social Life (New York and London, 1923).
Kellogg, Paul U. (editor). The Pittsburgh Survey (6 vols.; New York, 1914).
Kenngott, George F. The Record of a City: A Social Survey of Lowell, Massachusetts (New York, 1912).
Ostwald, Hans O. A. “Grossstadt Dokumente,” (Berlin, 1905).
A series of fifty volumes by various authors giving accounts of personal experience and investigation in the local communities and among various groupings and personality types in the city of Berlin and in some other large cities of Europe.
Rowntree, B. Seebohm. Poverty: A Study of Town Life (London, 1901).
Rowntree, B. S., and Lasker, Bruno. Unemployment: A Social Study (London, 1911).
2. The social survey is not only a technique which has been employed to study the urban community, but has grown into a movement of considerable proportions. From another standpoint the social survey may also be regarded as a means of control. Many of the “surveys” are merely single investigations of administration, housing, justice, education, recreation, in urban and rural communities, carried on by the group itself or by some outside experts called in for the purpose. Others are highly integrated studies of the community in all its phases. There is a tendency at the present time for systematic social research to take the place of the social survey in the study of community life. The latter emphasizes diagnosis and treatment, while the former strives to develop methods of disinterested research into various aspects of city life.
Aronovici, Carol. The Social Survey (New York, 1916).
Burns, Allen T. “Organization of Community Forces,” Proceedings of Nat. Con. Charities and Corrections, 1916, pp. 62–78.
Elmer, Manuel C. “Social Surveys of Urban Communities,” Ph.D. Thesis, University of Chicago (Menasha, Wisconsin, 1914).
Considers the social survey up to 1914 and outlines the scope and methods of the urban community survey. Also his “Technique of the Social Surveys” (Lawrence, Kansas, 1917).
Kellogg, P. U., Harrison, S. M., and Palmer, George T. The Social Survey Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York, Vol. II (July, 1912), 475–544.
“The Social Survey and Its Further Development,” Publ. Amer. Statist. Assoc., 1915.
3. While there are many periodicals which contain departments devoted to the urban community, such as the Survey, the Journal of Social Forces, and a number of others, the following are listed as typical of periodicals exclusively concerned with various phases of the study of the city.
The American City (monthly), New York. Now in its thirty-second volume.
American Municipalities (monthly), Marshalltown, Iowa. Now in its forty-ninth volume.
Municipal and County Engineering (monthly), since 1890. Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Municipal Journal and Public Works Engineer (weekly). Now in its thirty-fourth year. London.
The National Municipal Review (monthly), published by the National Municipal League. Now in its fourteenth volume. New York.
Die Städte-Zeit. In its fourteenth volume in 1917.
Der Städtebau. Monatsschrift für die künstlerische Ausgestaltung der Städte nach ihren wirtschaftlichen, gesundheitlichen, und sozialen Grundsätzen (monthly), since 1904. Berlin.
The Town-Planning Review. The journal of the department of civic design of the school of Architecture. University of Liverpool. Now in its eleventh volume. Liverpool.
La Vie Urbaine. Volume VII in 1924.
Louis Wirth