New Urban Sociology

Abstract

Abstract The concept of a “new urban sociology” refers to a paradigm shift in urban sociology that began in the 1970s and established a dominant approach. This approach emphasizes Marxist and post‐Marxist urban political economy (class, race, gender, agenda‐setting major businesses in commerce, banking, and real estate, and the involvement of government officials at all levels in influencing, if not determining, the outcomes of social activities in settlement space), the independent role of organized and constructed space itself, as first articulated by Henri Lefebvre, and the role of culture, symbols, signs, themes, and processes of signification in settlement space activities. This entry covers the content of the new paradigm, its applications, its differences from the previous paradigm in sociology, and the ways in which important new work applies the dominant paradigm to current and future conditions in urbanized settlement space.