Urban Sociology Glossary

The combination of social cohesion and shared willingness among neighborhood residents to intervene for the common good.

A collective process in which residents mobilize to build power and address shared neighborhood concerns.

The clustering of very poor populations in specific neighborhoods, producing compounding social and economic disadvantages.

Ernest Burgess's model describing urban growth as outward expansion in rings from a central business district.

The decline of manufacturing employment in cities due to globalization, automation, and capital relocation.

The involuntary relocation of residents from their neighborhoods due to rising costs, redevelopment, or policy changes.

The equitable distribution of environmental benefits and burdens across racial and socioeconomic groups.

An urban area where residents have limited access to affordable, nutritious food, often due to the absence of grocery stores.

Neighborhood transformation driven by the influx of higher-income residents, raising property values and often displacing lower-income populations.

A city that serves as a major node in the global economy, concentrating financial and producer services.

A metropolitan area with a total population exceeding ten million people.

A planning and design movement advocating walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods as alternatives to suburban sprawl.

Not In My Backyard: opposition by local residents to nearby development projects they may support in principle elsewhere.

The discriminatory practice of denying financial services to residents of certain neighborhoods based on racial or ethnic composition.

The spatial separation of different racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic groups into distinct neighborhoods.

Henri Lefebvre's concept that all urban inhabitants have a right to participate in shaping the city and accessing its resources.

The breakdown of community institutions and social bonds in neighborhoods marked by poverty, instability, and heterogeneity.

The geographic disconnect between where low-income residents live and where employment opportunities are located.

The movement of population and economic activity from city centers to surrounding suburban areas.

An approach that applies ecological concepts like competition, invasion, and succession to the study of social groups in cities.

Government programs that cleared and redeveloped designated urban areas, often displacing minority and low-income residents.

Low-density, car-dependent expansion of development into areas surrounding a city.

The way of life characteristic of city dwellers, shaped by density, heterogeneity, and the scale of urban populations.

The process of population concentration in cities and the transformation of rural areas into urban ones.

Government regulations that designate specific areas of a city for particular land uses such as residential, commercial, or industrial.