Cities, Real and Ideal: Categories for an Urban Ontology Contributor(s): Weissman, David (Author) |
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ISBN: 3110321629 ISBN-13: 9783110321623 Publisher: de Gruyter OUR PRICE: $228.00 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: July 2010 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Sociology - General - Philosophy | History & Surveys - General - Philosophy | Political |
Series: Categories |
Physical Information: 0.94" H x 6" W x 9" (1.51 lbs) 278 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Cities are conspicuous among settlements because of their bulk and pace: Venice, Paris, or New York. Each is distinctive, but all share a social structure that mixes systems (families, businesses, and schools), their members, and a public regulator. Cities alter this structure in ways specific to themselves: orchestras play music too elaborate for a quartet; city densities promote collaborations unachievable in simpler towns. Cities, Real and Ideal avers with von Bertalanffy, Parsons, Simmel, and Wirth that a theory of social structure is empirically testable and confirmed. It proposes a version of social justice appropriate to this structure, thereby updating Marx's claim that justice is realizable without the intervention of factors additional to society's material conditions. |