Urban Way of Life Essay

An urban center or a city can be simply defined as a large area with a high population which is a permanent settlement. People move from villages to the urban areas just in search for jobs, to start up business and others in search of entertainment. In such cases, these movements lead to the stream expansion of these cities over the years leading to their growth. As always, every place has its own way of life and the main aim of this paper is to discuss different features of the urban areas lifestyles as discussed below.

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One of the feature of the urban centre way of life is that people stay in highly populated areas. They settle in rental houses as most of these people are intruders of the areas. They pay rents on these houses including purchasing of their daily food. This is as a result of the small size of farms and as a result food is transported from the rural areas and sold to them living in cities. This result in a high cost of living as one of the cities ways of life compared to the rural areas. Most of the services in the urban areas are commercial as they are usually transported.

People living in cities stay in white color jobs rather than the casual works. These are due to a large number of educated people. There are high chances of job opportunities in cities and these make those who are educated to run to town centre for the search of employment. Another way of life in cities is that people have a different way of clothing. These are due since people come from a different background as well as societies which mixes peoples cultures. When people mix up, they tend to keep their cultures away and develop up their own city culture and these leads to a change of their dressing codes.

Another way of living on bases of urban centres is that they have different way of speaking and they tend to use a national language and forget about their native community languages. These are due to interactions of people from different social tribes which differs in languages and as a result they have to use a common language in order to understand each other and for there to exist respect among them all. This creates oneness among them living in cities and to the extent that their children do not learn about their own homeland languages. People living in urban areas also experience a high risk of insecurity as there exist a large number of people who are unemployed. These people need a way of survival and as a result, some of them become a threat to the other members of the urban community where they usually rob them their properties and money.

In conclusion, it is evidently clear that urban areas, as well as the rural areas, have their different way of life characterized by the features discussed above, that is, the high cost of living, white color jobs, different modes of dressing, insecurity, different languages and many others. As a result, any person willing to move to urban centers for permanent settlement should be fully prepared for the cities way of life.

Failure of American City Building

Every urban growth in any nation has its positive and negative effects on the society as well as the nation as a whole. Most effects of the urban way of life tend to be more negative rather than being positive to the development of the nation as discussed in this paper. Due to the high standard of living for people living in cities, most of their finances are used to cater for their different basic needs like paying for their houses, paying for food, buying clothes and many other of their basic needs. As a result, very less of their incomes is used for the development of the nation at large. These leads to a high dependency on the government for development which in return leads to a slow growth rate of the economy. Of concern also, people living in towns mostly originates from the rural areas and escape to towns. Most of these people usually the young aged people that leave the rural areas full of the old people as the larger population. These aged people have got less energy left and as a result, they cannot be able to exploit the resources in the rural areas to develop their own areas. These lead to the rural lagging behind in development and hence these areas to grow into cities it becomes difficult.

People living in urban centers highly depend on each other. As a result of high dependency, most finances that could have been used for the development of the cities is used on catering to other people's need. The issue of insecurity due to theft and other bad activities in the cities due to lack of enough security leads to the low growth rates of the cities. These can be attributed to by the damage and theft of public properties like the public light and other facilities. Insecurity also instills fear among the inhabitants of the cities and in turn, they can not get home due to fear of their lives. These hours they use at home in the presence of adequate security could have been used in the development of the cities.

Another way of life in urban centers that tend to take most of the social wealth away is the fact that people living in urban centers tend to have much of their money invested in entertainment activities. These activities involve discos, swimming, outs and many other activities that involve a heavy investment of their money. This money instead could have been used to invest on these that earn the cities income that would intern lead to their development and growth.

In conclusion, urban way of life can be cited as one source of failure for the American city growth. These are evident as seen in the already discussed effects of the above ways of living. As a result, the government and the society at large should look for ways to improve the way of living for the people living in urban areas in order to minimize the finances absorbed into the ways of life and instead these finances be used for the development and growth of the cities.

Interpretation of Cities and Communities

Max Weber was a sociologist who had a great impact on understanding the sociology of a community and cities. According to the max, community and cities interpretation on people's mind depends on the relationship that exists between people themselves and the environment they are in as well. In this case, the interpretation is supposed to answer the question how both personal lives and the social context affected and manipulates people's interpretation of a city and a community.

Social context or social environment refers to the immediate settings in which people live in or interact with on their day to day life. Personal life was differently affected in urban areas far from how it is affected from how it is affected in the rural areas. According to a person's life experience, an urban area is an area characterized by some of the features like hardships in life. These results from the expensive cost of living as well as high level of entertainment events associated with the towns. From personal life experiences according to Max, urban centers are associated with better social amenities like hospitals, schools, roads, and other services like good communication facilities, good housing, press and most of the government offices and those of non-governmental organizations are as well located in towns. This makes their access easier and therefore, time wasted in their reach is reduced.

A community refers to a group of people living in a common land sharing a common language. In urban centers, people come up with a common language used to communicate with each other. Mostly this language is a national language. In a community, people will share common schools, hospitals as well as every public facility. The administration of a community shall be from one point. As a result, people will respond to the same authority despite the origin of a person.

In conclusion, personal life experiences and the social context affects the interpretation of a community and an urban centre differently. Life in rural areas is totally different from life in urban areas and therefore, the different definitions in accordance with a person's interpretations.

Economics and Politics in Relation to Urban Centres

Urban scholars have concentrated in asking the question about economics and politics rather than the urban cultures since politics and economics are the main keys to the urban center's growth or failures. In this paper, the answer is concerned in answering the question why politics and economics and not urban culture.

Politics is a key issue to the development of an urban center. These are as a result of the support the area gets from electing a certain party or person. A good city leadership will lead to the smooth development of the city. On the other hand, if the city is full of politics in its leadership, the development rates will be low as most of its time will be used in politicizing the development matters. The city management should ensure it is free of politics to ensure stable growth of the city. If politics are done on their specific time, much of the time will be used for discussing of development projects rather than the fight resulting from the poor leadership of the city.

When the cities are out of political matters also there exists a peaceful environment free of insecurity issue. As a result of stable politics in the city, the goons formed by the politicians will not get a place in the cities as well as any insecurity threat will have ample time to be dealt with as the management in the city will be in guard. Also, people will be able to coexist in peace as there will be no division among them resulting from the political differences background and these will in return result to a productive urban community that will result to proper growth and expansion of the cities.

The economy of a city also is of great importance when it comes to an urban center development. When the people living in a certain city are entrepreneurial in culture, this implies that the development of the city will be high. If the growth rate of the economy is high and stable upward, these imply that the growth of the city will constantly have an upward trend as there will be enough finances to cater for all development projects. If the projects of a city are well taken care of, these measures the society of a good social amenities hence improving their standards of living, and when the standards of living are good, then it gives a guarantee that the development of the city shall be in a positive way.

In conclusion, it is evident, politics and economics are the most important key thing in consideration to the growth of an urban centre and as a result, urban scholars should give more weight on the two factors in order to make proper guidelines on to what steps should be taken to ensure there exist a continuous urban growth in the cities and an improved living standards for their inhabitants.