Residential to Urban Culture Shock

The chapters discussed in lecture touch base on how and why today’s cities are among us.  Millions of people around the world currently dwell in urban living, whether for better job prospects or family tradition being set in a particular urban place.  What ever the case may be, cities around the world have a way of luring people towards it.  As someone who grew up in a small yet flourishing suburban area, my thoughts on urban places tend to be a bit naïve.  When I think “urban”, I automatically visualize big cities such as Chicago, where there is always something entertaining to do a block or two away, where everything is livelier and all around better than my hometown could ever be.  Each time I visit the city of Chicago, I am reminded of the certain aspects one can only find in the city such as having to align my schedule to fit with public transportation, being bombarded with so many things happening at once, and high expenses.  After having read the first few chapters of The New Urban Sociology, I realize that city dwellers have their own culture of daily life apart from rural residents like myself.  

Chicago is undoubtedly one of the best tourist spots in the world for as long as you are in the right place at the right time.  Having a good sense of direction is essential to getting anywhere in the city, and time management is important especially if you are running on train times or CTA schedules.  Time disappears when you have to walk to your preferred destination, and since I grew up in the suburbs, walking a few blocks is enough walking for me.  That isn’t the case for those who grew up in the hustle and bustle of the city.  This is in relation to Georg Simmel’s concept of having to adjust to the city’s clockwork.  In the suburbs, I think that people have the freedom of arranging their own time and scheduling their day as they see fit.  For those who live in big cities like Chicago, unless they are also car owners, it seems that people’s schedules revolve around the city’s prearranged intervals of its means of transportation.

      

When I visit back home, what I am used to seeing is large open spaces with single family homes evenly dispersed in well kept subdivisions, and a few cornfields here and there if you really want to venture that far out.  Chicago, on the other hand, is certainly beautiful but is also quite polluted with varying degrees of noise coming from one corner to the next.  Though there are skyscrapers and eye-catching architecture all around this city, what you will most definitely find are scraps of garbage just about anywhere, and there is even this sort of unbearable stench when passing by alleyways.  Walking past street beggars is another feature of Chicago that is rarely experienced in the suburbs of which I am familiar with.  I noticed the way that others around me would pay no attention to any of these factors, so I learned to do the same.  This form of defensive response is explained by Georg Simmel as an attitude that develops among those in the urban community.  

What strikes me about visiting downtown Chicago is the amount of shopping that takes place.  Tourist attractions usually display a wide range of shops that all seem to feature the same products, and one can easily find the same store in just a few blocks in either direction.  Along with stores selling clothing products among other things, there are numerous restaurants scattered within the city, from fast food joints to fine dining and anything in between.  Though the amount of restaurants and stores found in Chicago equate to the population intended to consume their goods, it seems that this arrangement also has a way of persuading people to buy things they do not necessarily need, and to purchase food mainly for its readiness in terms of location rather than for hunger.  Urban areas are structured in a way that is strategic to gaining monetary exchange, this being consistent with Simmel’s characteristics of urbanism.  The city is an expensive place, and most things need to be paid for in order to get around.  This costly characteristic displayed in Chicago, which is also seen in many other cities in the world, is another quality of urbanism explained by Georg Simmel.  In order for urbanization to continue to run its course in today’s modern cities, the defensive responses to the urban area mentioned above are only a few of many vital tactics essential for those who intend on surviving inside city limits.     

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REFERENCES: 

Gottdiener, Mark, Ray Hutchison, and Michael T. Ryan. 2015. The New Urban Sociology. 5th ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.