Changes in U.S. Cities - Early Urban Growth and Social Problems - Contemporary Urban Growth - Edge city - Middle – to upper middle-class area that has complete living, working, shopping, and Leisure activities so that it is not dependent on the central city or other. - Megalopolis - A continuous concentration of two or more cities and their suburbs that have grown Until they form an interconnected urban area Urban Problems in the United States - Fiscal crises in cities - Housing problems - The shortage of affordable housing - Gentrification - Process by which people renovate or restore properties in cities - The housing meltdown of the twenty-first century - Homelessness - Racial and ethnic segregation Problems in Global Cities - Care nations - Dominant capitalist centers characterized by high levels of industrialization and Urbanization - Peripheral nations - Depend on core nations for capital, have little or no industrialization, and have uneven Patterns of urbanization - Semi peripheral nations - Which are more developed than peripheral nations but less developed than core Nations Sociological Perspectives and Solutions to Urban Problems - The functionalist perspective - Mechanical solidarity – social bonds based on shared religious beliefs and a simple Division of labor - Organic solidarity – social bonds based on interdependence and an elaborate division Of labor - The conflict perspective - The symbolic interactionist perspective - Subculture is a group who share a distinctive set of cultural beliefs and behaviors that Set them apart from the larger society