Modern and Contemporary Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives in Urban Sociology

Urban Sociology is considered an ancient and a newly specialized discipline at the same time. It is rooted in history since the 14^th century when the Arabic-Muslim thinker and philosopher, Ibn Khaldun, wrote his Muqaddimah in 1377. In this book, he laid the foundations of urban studies through his historical and comparative perspective in studying different Arab countries. In this era, urban studies were more about human inhabitation to earth. This was followed by a new perspective that focused more on “city studies” in Europe during World Wars I & II, starting in 1914 and beyond. Here, the academic focus was on the city’s main challenges and problems after the destruction caused by war and how people can rebuild their socio-cultural ways of life again through debris and ruins. Among the founding fathers during this era were: Walter Benjamin, Friedrich Engels, Max Weber, Georg Simmel, and W. E. B. Du Bois. The American need to understand its new human settlements and new urban cities derived an academic need to establish a rigorous school of “Urban Sociology” in one of its rooted universities in Chicago, Illinois under the name of “Chicago School of Sociology,” also known as Chicago School of Urban Sociology. Its main focus was directed to human ecology, urban ethnography, and conducting population surveys. On the U.S. West Coast appeared another counter school under the name of “Los Angeles School of Urbanism” under the work of Edward W. Soja, Michael Storper, Michael Dear, Mike Davis, and Allen J Scott. During the Post-modernism era, urban sociology shifted to a more “Interdisciplinary Urban Studies” that includes different disciplines in studying human settlements and urban spaces. Some of the pioneering fathers in this era are Edward W. Soja, John Urry, Ash Amin, Sharon Zukin, and Neil Brenner. Currently, urban studies are based on new trends and perspectives that deal with knowledge and information societies, smart and future cities, knowledge workers, and innovative urban planning based on technological inventions. Accordingly, Urban Sociology is considered an ancient and a newly specialized discipline at the same time.