In sociology and, later, criminology, the Chicago
School (sometimes described as the Ecological School) refers to the first major body of works emerging during the
1920s and 1930s specialising in urban sociology, and the research into the urban
environment by combining theory and ethnographic fieldwork in Chicago, now applied elsewhere. While
involving scholars at several Chicago area universities, the term is often used interchangeably to refer to the
University of Chicago's sociology department—one of the oldest and one of
the most prestigious. Following World War II, a "Second Chicago School" arose whose members
used symbolic interactionism combined with methods of field research, to create
a new body of works.
The major researchers in the first Chicago School included Ernest Burgess, Ruth Shonle
Cavan, Edward Franklin Frazier, Everett
Hughes, Roderick D. McKenzie, George Herbert
Mead, Robert E. Park, Walter C. Reckless, Edwin
Sutherland, W. I. Thomas [1], Frederic Thrasher,
Louis Wirth, Florian Znaniecki.
Discussion
The Chicago School is a Positivist School, applying scientific techniques to the
collection and deductive analysis of data to explain different types of individual
and social phenomena. It has focused on human behaviour as determined by social structures and physical environmental factors,
rather than genetic and personal characteristics. Biologists and anthropologists have accepted the theory of evolution as demonstrating
that animals adapt to their environments. As applied to humans who are considered responsible for their own destinies, the School
believed that the natural environment which the community inhabits is a major
factor in shaping human behaviour, and that the city functions as a microcosm:
"In these great cities, where all the passions, all the energies of mankind are released, we are in a position to
investigate the process of civilization, as it were, under a microscope." [1]
The work of Frederic E. Clements (1916) was particularly influential. He proposed that a community of vegetation is a
superorganism and that communities develop in a fixed pattern of successional stages from inception through to some single climax
state or to a self-regulating state of equilibrium. By analogy, an individual is born, grows, matures, and dies, but the
community which the individual inhabited continues to grow and exhibit properties which are greater than the sum of the
properties of the parts.
Members of the School have concentrated on the city of Chicago as the object of their study, seeking evidence whether
urbanisation (Wirth: 1938) and increasing social mobility have been the causes of the contemporary social problems. Originally,
Chicago was a clean slate, an empty physical environment. By 1860, Chicago was a small town with a population of 10,000. There
was great growth after the fire of 1871. By 1910, the population exceeded two million. The rapidity of the increase was due to an
influx of immigrants and it produced homelessness
(Anderson: 1923), poor housing conditions, and bad working conditions based on low wages and long hours. But equally, Thomas and
Znaniecki (1918) stress that the sudden freedom of immigrants released from the controls of Europe to the unrestrained competition of the new city was a dynamic for growth.
"Ecological studies consisted of making spot maps of Chicago for the place of occurrence of specific behaviors, including
alcoholism, homicides, suicides, psychoses, and poverty, and then
computing rates based on census data. A visual comparison of the maps could identify the concentration of certain types of
behavior in some areas. Correlations of rates by areas were not made until later." [2]
For Thomas, the groups themselves had to reinscribe and reconstruct themselves to prosper. Burgess studied the history of
development and concluded that the city had not grown at the edges. Although the presence of Lake
Michigan prevented the complete encirclement, he postulated that all major cities would be formed by radial expanion from
the centre in concentric rings which he described as zones, i.e. the business area in the centre, the slum area (called the zone in transition and studied by Wirth: 1928, Zorbaugh: 1929, and Suttles: 1968) around the
central area, the zone of workingmen's homes farther out, the residential area beyond this zone, and then the bungalow section and the commuter's zone on the periphery. Under the
influence of Albion Small, the research at the School mined the mass of official data including census reports, housing/welfare
records and crime figures, and related the data spatially to different geographical areas of the
city. Shaw and McKay created maps:
- spot maps to demonstrate the location of a range of social problems with a primary focus on juvenile delinquency;
- rate maps which divided the city into block of one square mile and showed the population by age, gender, ethnicity, etc.;
- zone maps which demonstrated that the major problems were clustered in the city centre.
Thomas also developed techniques of self-reporting life histories to provide subjective balance to the analysis. Park,
Burgess, and McKenzie are credited with institutionalising, if not establishing, sociology as a science. They are also criticised
for their overly empiricist and idealised approach to the study of society but, in the inter-war years, their attitudes and
prejudices were normative. Three broad themes characterised this dynamic period of Chicago studies:
- culture contact and conflict. This arises from Thomas and Znaniecki (1918) and studies how ethnic groups interact and compete
in a process of community succession and institutional transformation (Hughes and Hughes: 1952). An important part of this work
concerned African Americans; works including E. Franklin Frazier (1932) and Drake and Cayton (1945) shaped white America's
perception of black communities for decades.
- succession in community institutions as stakeholders and actors in the ebb and flow of ethnic groups. Cressey (1932) studied
the dance hall and commercialised entertainment services, Kincheloe (1938) studied church succession, Janowitz (1952) studied the
community press, and Hughes (1979) studied the real-estate board.
- city politics. Merriam's commitment to practical reform politics was matched by Gosnell who researched voting and other forms
of participation. Gosnell (1935), Wilson (1960), Grimshaw (1992) considered African American politics, and Banfield and Wilson
(1963) placed Chicago city politics in a broader context.
The School is perhaps best known for the Subculture Theories of Thrasher, Frazier, and Sutherland, and for applying the
principles of ecology to develop the Social Disorganisation Theory which refers to consequences
of the failure of:
- social institutions or social organisations including the family, schools, church, political institutions, policing, business, etc. in identified
communities and/or neighbourhoods, or in society at large; and
- social relationships that traditionally encourage co-operation between people.
Thomas defined social disorganisation as "the inability of a neighbourhood to solve its problems together" which suggested a
level of social pathology and personal disorganisation, so the term, "differential social organisation" was preferred by many,
and may have been the source of Sutherland's (1947) Differential Association
Theory. The researchers have provided a clear analysis that the city is a place where life is superficial, where people
are anonymous, where relationships are transitory and friendship and family bonds are weak. They have observed the weakening of
primary social relationships and relate this to a process of social disorganisation (comparison with the concept of
anomie and the Strain Theories is
instructive).
- For a complete discussion, see Social Disorganisation Theory and
Subcultural Theory.
Ecology and social theories
Vasishth and Sloane (2000) argue that while it is tempting to draw analogies between organisms in nature and the human
condition, the problem lies in reductionism, i.e. that the science of biology is
oversimplified into rules that are then applied mechanically to explain the growth and dynamics of human communities. The most
fundamental difficulties are definitional. If a community is a group of individuals who inhabit the same place, is the community
merely the sum of individuals and their activities, or is it something more that an aggregation of individuals? This is critical
in planning research into group interactions. Will research be effective if it focuses on the individuals comprising a group, or
is the community itself a proper subject of research independently of the individuals who comprise it? If the former, then data
on individuals will explain the community, but if the community either directly or indirectly affects the behaviour of its
members, then research must consider the patterns and processes of community as distinct from patterns and processes in
populations of individuals. But this requires a definition and distinction between "pattern" and "process". The structures,
forms, and patterns are relatively easy to observe and measure, but they are nothing more than evidence of underlying processes
and functions which are the real constitutive forces in nature and society. The Chicago School wanted to develop tools by which
to research and then change society by directing urban planning and social intervention agencies. It recognised that urban
expansion was not haphazard but quite strongly controlled by community-level forces such as land values, zoning ordinances,
landscape features, circulation corridors, and historical contingency. This was characterised as ecological because the external
factors were neither chance nor intended, but rather arose from the natural forces in the environment which limit the adaptive
spatial and temporal relationships between individuals. The School sought to derive patterns from a study of processes, rather
than to ascribe processes to observed patterns and the patterns they saw emerge, are strongly reminiscent of Clements' ideas of
community development.
Conclusions
The Chicago Area Project (CAP) was a practical attempt by sociologists to apply their theories in a city laboratory.
Subsequent research showed that the youth athletic leagues, recreation programs, and summer camp worked best along with urban
planning and alternatives to incarceration as crime control policy. Such programs are non-entrepreneurial and
non-self-sustaining, and they fail when local or central government does not make a sustained financial commitment to them.
Although with hindsight, the School's attempts to map crime may have produced some distortions, the work was valuable in that it
moved away from a study of pattern and place toward a study of function and scale. To that extent, this was work of high quality
that represented the best science available to the researchers at the time.
The Social Disorganisation Theory itself was a landmark and, since it focuses on the absence or breakdown of social control
mechanisms, there are obvious links with social control theory. In Causes of
Delinquency (1969) Travis Hirschi argued that variations in delinquent behaviour among youth could be explained by variations
in the dimensions of the social bond, namely attachment to others, commitments to conventional goals, acceptance of conventional
moral standards or beliefs, and involvement in conventional
activities. The greater the social bonds between a youth and society, the lower the odds of involvement in delinquency. When
social bonds to conventional role models, values and institutions are aggregated for youth in a particular setting, they measure
much the same phenomena as captured by concepts such as network ties or social integration. But the fact that these theories
focus on the absence of control or the barriers to progress, means that they are ignoring the societal pressures and cultural
values that drive the system Merton identified in the Strain Theory or the motivational
forces Cohen proposed were generating crime and delinquency. More modern theorists like Empey (1967) argue that the system of
values, norms and beliefs can be disorganised in the sense that there are conflicts among values, norms and beliefs within a
widely shared, dominant culture. While condemning crime in general, law-abiding citizens may nevertheless respect and admire the
criminal who takes risks and successfully engages in exciting, dangerous activities. The depiction of a society as a collection
of socially differentiated groups with distinct subcultural perspectives that lead some of these groups into conflict with the
law is another form of cultural disorganisation, is typically called cultural conflict.
Modern versions of the theory sometimes use different terminology to refer to the same ecological causal processes. For
example, Crutchfield, Geerken and Gove (1982: 467-482) hypothesise that the social integration of communities is inhibited by
population turnover and report supporting evidence in the explanation of variation in crime rates among cities. The greater the
mobility of the population in a city, the higher the crime rates. These arguments are identical to those proposed by social
disorganisation theorists and the evidence in support of it is as indirect as the evidence cited by social disorganisation
theorists. But, by referring to social integration rather than disintegration, this research has not generated the same degree of
criticism as social disorganisation theory.
- ^ Robert E. Park, “Human Migration and the Marginal Man,” AJS 33:6 (May
1928), p.890
- ^ Ruth Shonle Cavan, “The Chicago School of Sociology,” 1983, p.415
External links
- For an overview of the history of the Chicago School, see the web version of an article by Howard S. Becker, himself a member
of the "Second Chicago School". [2]
References
For a comprehensive history of the Chicago School, see Martin Bulmer (1984) and Lester Kurtz (1984).
Other references
- Anderson, Nels, and Council of Social Agencies of Chicago. (1923). The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man.
- Banfield, Edward C. & Wilson, James Q. (1963). City Politics.
- Bulmer, Martin. (1984). The Chicago School of Sociology: Institutionalization, Diversity, and the Rise of Sociological
Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Burgess, Ernest & Bogue, Donald J. (eds.).(1964). Contributions to Urban Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press. ISBN 0-226-08055-2
- Burgess, Ernest & Bogue, Donald J. (eds.) (1967). Urban Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN
0-226-08056-0
- Bursik, Robert J. (1984). "Urban Dynamics and Ecological Studies of Delinquency". Social Forces 63: 393-413.
- Clements, Frederic E. (1916). Plant Succession: An Analysis of the Development of Vegetation. Carnegie Institute of
Washington Publication, No. 242. Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution.
- Crutchfield, R.D., M. Geerken and W.R. Gove, (1982). "Crime Rates and Social Integration: The Impact of Metropolitan
Mobility" Criminology, Vol. 20, Nos. 3 and 4, November, 1982, 467-478
- Cressey, Paul Goalby. (1932). The Taxi-Dance Hall: A Sociological Study in Commercialized Recreation and City
Life.
- Drake, St. Clair & Cayton, Horace. (1945). Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City.
- Empey L. T. (1967) "Delinquency Theory and Recent Research". Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 4.
- Frazier, Edward Franklin. (1932). The Free Negro Family: A Study of Family Origins before the Civil War.
- Frazier, Edward Franklin. (1932). The Negro Family in Chicago.
- Gosnell, Harold Foote. (1927). Getting Out the Vote: An Experiment in the Stimulation of Voting.
- Gosnell, Harold Foote. (1935). Negro Politicians: The Rise of Negro Politics in Chicago.
- Gosnell, Harold Foote. (1937). Machine Politics: Chicago Model.
- Grimshaw, William J. (1992). Bitter Fruit: Black Politics and the Chicago Machine, 1931–1991.
- Hawley, Amos H. (1943). "Ecology and Human Ecology". Social Forces 22: 398-405.
- Hawley, Amos H. (1950). Human Ecology: A Theory of Community Structure. New York: Ronald Press.
- Hirschi, T. (1969). Causes of Delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press. (2001) Transaction Publishers.
ISBN 0-7658-0900-1
- Hughes, Everett Cherrington. (1979). The Chicago Real Estate Board: The Growth of an Institution.
- Hughes, Everett Cherrington & Hughes, Helen MacGill. (1952). Where Peoples Meet: Racial and Ethnic Frontiers.
- Janowitz, Morris. (1952). The Community Press in an Urban Setting.
- Kincheloe, Samuel C. (1938). The American City and Its Church.
- Kurtz, Lester R. (1984). Evaluating Chicago Sociology: A Guide to the Literature, with an Annotated Bibliography.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-46477-6
- McKenzie, R. D. "The Ecological Approach to the Study of the Human Community". American Journal of Sociology 30
(1924): 287-301.
- Merriam, Charles Edward. (1903). A History of American Political Theories.
- Merriam, Charles Edward. (1908). Primary Elections: A Study of the History and Tendencies of Primary Election
Legislation.
- Merriam, Charles Edward. (1929). Chicago: A More Intimate View of Urban Politics.
- Park, Robert E. (1915). "The City: Suggestions for the Investigation of Behavior in the City Environment", American
Journal of Sociology 20:579-83.
- Park, Robert E., Ernest Burgess, Roderic McKenzie (1925). The City, University of Chicago Press.
- Stark et al., "Beyond Durkheim" Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 22(1983):120-131
- Sutherland, Edwin. (1924, 34. 39). "Principles of Criminology.
- Suttles, Gerald D. (1968) The Social Order of the Slum: Ethnicity and Territory in the Inner City.
- Thomas, William Isaac & Znaniecki, Florian. (1918). The Polish Peasant in Europe and America: Monograph of an
Immigrant Group.
- Thrasher, Frederick (1927) The Gang. University of Chicago Press.
- Vasishth, Ashwani & Sloane, David. (2000) Returning to Ecology: An Ecosystem Approach. [3]
- Wilson, James Q. (1960). Negro Politics: The Search for Leadership.
- Wirth, Louis (1928) The Ghetto. University of Chicago Press.
- Wirth, Louis. (1938). “Urbanism as a Way of Life: The City and Contemporary Civilization”. American Journal of
Sociology 44:1–24.
- Zorbaugh, Harvey Warren. (1929). Gold Coast and Slum: A Sociological Study of Chicago's Near North Side.
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