Sociology

The city of Summit is one of the towns in the United States of America. After walking around my neighbourhood and from one street to the other, I made several observations which are better explained by different theories on urban ecology. However, before I bring out my observations regarding the city of Summit, it is imperative to state at the onset that population growth in this city has accelerated alarmingly because unlike the time when I came into this city 10 years ago, more houses, roads and other infrastructures have been constructed to accommodate the ever increasing number of people in this city and this agrees with the demographer Kingsley Davis (1955) who argued that cities are a recent phenomenon as compared to other aspects of human society and culture.

As one moves from one point of the city of Summit to the other, the definition of a city postulated by Lewis Mumford (1938) that a city is a point of maximum concentration for the power and culture of a community... the city is the symbol of an integrated social relationship... it is the seat of the temple, the market, the hall of justice, the academy of learning. The goods of civilization are multiplied and manifolded here, where human experience is transformed into viable signs, symbols, patterns of conduct, systems of order.  It is the place where issues of civilizations are focused all become clear in ones mind.

Furthermore, the social psychological effects that prevail in the city of Summit align with Robert Parks (1925-1966) theory that a city is a state of mind. This is because, one can easily note that the city of Summit is not actually a mere physical mechanism and an artificial construction, but it is involved in the vital processes of the people who compose it. In this connection, one can agree absolutely with Park that community organization in the city of Summit is broken due to the breakdown in human communication and interaction since every individual in the city goes about their businesses or activities without much interaction and communication with other people.

Further, Engels (1999), communist perspective of the city can also be noted in the city of Summit because it is populated by working or labouring classes of people whose hours of work are spread over a five day period and others over a six day period. Moving down the streets you encounter totally strange people which agree with Lyn Lofland (1973) argument that the city is the locus of a peculiar social situation, the people to be found in its boundaries at any given moment know nothing about the others with whom they share the space. Oldenburgs (1989) argument of third places is also quite evident in the city of Summit. For example, one notices a number of restaurants, drug stores, barber shops, coffee shops which are regarded by Oldenburg as core settings of informal public life which is vital for social life.

One occurrence in the city of Summit where a woman was snatched her handbag by criminals without any help from the passersby even after she screamed for help asserts the argument by social psychologists David A. Karp, Gregory P. Stone, and William C. Yoels (1991), that public privacy refer to the necessity for urbanites where people interact without interacting overtly. The occurrence above cements Bibb Latane and John Darley (1970) argument that in a crowded situation the individual assumes that someone else will intervene and thus a diffusion of responsibility.

After walking around the city of Summit, I decided to rest in one of the rest places. One motivation for me to enter into this park was the fact that there were other people and I therefore felt safe. My experience conquered with William Whytes (1988) argument that safety is not found in the absence of the people but in their presence and that what attracts other people most is other people. My experience in the City of Summit at night reminded me of Andersons (1990), argument that as one walks among the strangers particularly at night trust gives way to doubt and people see the streets as a juggle where every cat is gray and must be avoided since everybody appeared to be on special alert responding fast to even the slightest sound of moving feet. Closely looking at the City of Summit is quite evident that the citys space is connected to the state because the land patters and urban development can be seen in terms of who benefits and who loses (Castell, 1983) because the hands of the ruling power elites in the City of Summt benefits more. This agrees with Harvey (1973), that growth and development of cities is as result of the capitalists desire to maximize profits through land use patterns.

The city of Summit can also be described in the words of Edward Soja (1992) as being global in the fullest sense of the world because of the global current of the people, ideas and information that accompany trade. In the same perspective, the City of Summit can also be described in terms of Joel Garreaus (1991) words as being an edge city due to the dominating presence of accommodating roads, parking facilities, communication revolution and a large number of women in the labour force. In some parts of the city of Summit are gated communities or Privatopias which are regarded by Dear and Flusty (1998) as undemocratic and anti-community based on exclusion control and non-participation in the larger surrounding municipality.

Furthermore, as one move from one estate to another in the city of Summit, fortified gated residential developments and shopmalls are evident which agrees with Mike Davis (1992) argument that cities are fortified and people in the cities seek ways to protect themselves from the others which result into diminishing public space. In terms of population, the city of Summit has a total population of 11 million people and can be described in the words of Barbara Boyle Torre (2004) as an example of a megacity. Several objects in the City of Summit such as the Skyline building, the Gate Bridge are some of the identification symbols of the city which agrees with Wohl and Strauss (1958) argument that a city has meaning to its inhabitants.

Exploring social relationships in the City of Summit it is right to echo the words of Henry Sumner Maine (18621960) that kingship bonds are substituted by contract relations due to urbanisation. This is because the powers, privileges and duties which were traditionally vested in the family can no longer be seen to work among the people but they are rather undertaken by the ruling authorities. For example, schools have substituted the traditional father-to child teachings among many households in the city. In describing the reality of social relationships in the City of Summit reference to Ferdinand Tonnies (18551936) can be made that acute individualism is dominant in cities where individual seek friends and means and ends for self-interested gains.

Further, the City of Summit can be described as a fully urban community following the features postulated by Max Weber (1864-1920) regarding a fully urbanized community s including a fortification, a market, a court of its own, a related form of association and at least partial autonomy.  All the above features are evident in the City of Summit which makes the city qualify to be called a fully urbanized community. In connection to this definition, the city of Summit can also be described in the words of Richard Sennet (1969) that it is a cosmopolitan because it permits a variety of lifestyles and coexistence of different types of people.

Standing at the City of Summits streets and watch people move from one point to the other, it is quite clear that each one of them is seen to carry a stiff price of individualism and autonomy which is loneliness (Simmel, 1995) due to the diminished obligations that individuals have towards each other. Like many other cities, the City of Summit can be characterized by distinctive patterns of behaviour named by Louis Wirth (1897-1952) as urbanism characterized by absence of personal relationships, depersonalization and segmentation of human relations characterized by anonymity, superficiality and transitoriness and the breakdown of social structures  and increased mobility, insecurity and instability.

Last but not the least is the fact that the City of Summit can be described in Ernest Burgess (1886-1966) concentric zone hypothesis because the city is made up of the CBD with numerous commercial activities, the transition zone which has the oldest and less maintained structures and characterized by petty crimes and prostitution, zone of workingmens homes situated new factories and with better homes than in the transition zone, the residential zone which contains better residence and the commuter zone with many inhabitants commuting to the city for work.