Week 4: What the hell did we cover in class?

            In Tuesday’s lecture, we discussed the superior employment/ wage opportunities the city offers, and the concept of Social Stratification. Social stratification, as defined by Professor Sanchez, is “a process by which resources and opportunities are distributed through social players.” These players are represented by individuals from different classes and social statuses, placed into a hierarchical-like set-up. Also, he told us “opportunities [for jobs] have re-aligned, not necessarily gone over seas. We have found more productive ways to produce greater amounts.”  This article is an in-depth analysis of social stratification. It is so in-depth I literally could not read all of it because it was ridiculously meticulous http://what-when-how.com/sociology/social-stratification/. Also, this review of the novel EDUCATION AND STRATIFICATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A Review of Theories is incredibly informative http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-78901923/education-and-stratification-developing.html.

In Thursday’s lecture, we discussed the urban divide and social/economic health. Many different things effect urban divide such of lack of education, location, shifts in family structure, economic shifts and racial/gender discrimination. While lack of education is broadly accepted as an effect of urban divide, some people will not so easily accept the effect of racial/gender discrimination. Even if that should be behind us, that fact is, is that at the end of the day a business wants to make money the most efficient way, so hiring a woman who may have to leave to have a child might not be their prime employer. 

Urban divide can be expressed in many ways, in many ways, one of which being graphically, as discussed in class. We see that by graphing the % income to % households, we can obtain an index between the line of complete equality and the line of actually measured values. The size of this index, or area, tells us how big the urban divide is becoming. The bigger the difference (bigger the area), the more a society is moving toward complete inequality.

It is interesting to look at specific cities’ or countries’ urban divide. For example this essay (http://www.scribd.com/doc/7849672/The-RuralUrban-Divide-in-India) speaks of the rural-urban divide in India. The majority of their population lives in rural areas, yet those areas are not equipped with the technology nor sanitation that the cities are. It is good for us to read and be aware of these types of situations, because fortunately most of the worst situations in the US are nowhere near those in other countries. People need to be educated in what is happening to those that are not included in the urban areas, or even some of the health risks of poor urban areas, so we can help fix the urban divide.

This article talks about different aspects of cities and city development http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/simcity/manual/history.html. Religion was one aspect not mentioned in class, but I found it interesting. One point made was many cities in medieval times were built near cathedrals and monasteries. Another interesting point made was how open space in cities can be looked at as "leftover" but really is a necessity. Open spaces such as parks and gardens allow space for people to get away from the harsh conditions of the urban city.