The Urban Process: cities in industrial societies

The urban process author, Leonard Reissman (1921-1975), was a professor of sociology and human relations at Tulane University from 1967. A director of Tulane urban studies center and receipt of several professional awards and honors like the fellow, center of advanced study in behavioral science (1963-64). In 1970, he became professor and chairman of the department of sociology at Cornell University. He also served from time to time as visiting professor or fellow at Columbia University, the London School of Economics, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. During his years at Tulane, he was engaged in a number of cooperative projects based on studies of the local community and its institutions. In 1975, Cornell University issued a memorial statement after his death from a heart attack.

This publication serves various audiences. Students, graduates, and researchers from social science fields like geography who are interested in the sociology of cities, the study of social life, and urban dynamics of the urban process. Practitioners like planners would benefit from the introduction as he says the piecemeal solutions to the urban problems and why most solutions are temporary not original. Politicians who are involved in defining the urban problems and failures who want to go further to find permanent solutions for these failures. Urban designers who want to stand on the main forces that affect the city’s development and transformation. Researchers researching the urban theory and the subject of typologies of change in urbanization. Architects may benefit from understanding the urban process in detail to know how it affects their work and the cause of the invention of new urban concepts like the garden city.

The book theme is centered on the new typology of studying the urban process of industrial cities and urbanization. How this human being affected and created the industrial city through the urban process. The author starts by defining four specializations that study the city visionary, empiricist, ecologist, and theorist. What are these four concerned while studying the city in terms of collecting data quantitative or qualitative, how they work, and what forces they should balance? The visionaries are Ebenezer Howard (the garden city) and his desire to make development under government control, and he says that his assumptions concerning human nature and human motivations were primitive and naïve. Frank Lloyd Wright (Broadacre City) believes that the city became an environment of false democracy, false individualism, and false capitalism. Wright defined the decline of social values by industrialization as land rent, Money, profit, and government and bureaucracy. He is the inventor of the architecture of democracy where his plan of physical settings and social order were comprehensive. The third is Lewis Mumford who believed that the city must be designed for all society and all its components must be within the reach of all people regardless of their income, gender, religion, and race.

The empiricist is the classifier of cities who seeks the definition of the requirements of a good index. The author introduces the discrepancies and failures of traditional index buildings in conducting research and city study. Indexes include population size, economic function, occupational distribution, moral integration, and social area analysis. One of these indexes shows serious disadvantages of classification like Lack of relevance to urban society, none of the indices functions properly, unclear and uncertain purpose, and statistics not being realistic over the long period. The ecologist believes that humans are part of the ecological process that generates itself in patterns. The author presents the ecology of the city through Burgess’s urban model based on the ecological map, Hoyt’s model based on land rent, and Harris’s model based on economic activities. These ecologists say that the city in its form – Business center, and industrial complexes- is a result of the ecological process such as competition. The theoretician is the developer of urban concepts. Leonard introduces the types of theories studying the city. Theories of contrast like rural-urban comparison, and the theory of deduction like urbanism the way of life. He concludes that these theories had the most useful influence on the urban theory and understanding of cities.

In the second stage, Leonard discusses urbanization and social change and the differences and similarities in defining the urban theory scope. The study of underdeveloped societies and the four elements of the urban theory are urban growth, industrialization, the emergence of the middle class into political power, and the rise of nationalism as a political ideology. He shows that studying industrial cities must pass and examine the urban dynamics role to understand a city. Introducing his four elements of the new typology to study the industrial cities based on the elements of urban theory. Developing four indexes of urban status- population about 100,000-, industrial status- characters of industrial societies-, Prevalence of middle class- based on occupation-, the prevalence of nationalism- index related to education and literacy. Then this typology is developed to study the level of urbanization (procedure to measure urbanization) of various countries in the world. Then classifying the countries as underdeveloped socialites, transitional societies, urbanized societies, and metropolitan societies. The study of these countries within the society classification is based on the four indices he developed at the beginning of the new typology.

Finally, he concludes that societies and cities are one part, understanding the urban dynamics of the urban process we could control the urban future.

Within the covers of his book the author in his introduction gives a clear message that urbanization can be viewed as social change .there must be a better understanding of urban change rather than costly trial and error to patch up some problems. Comparative urban analysis has become multidisciplinary as it expanded national borders so that sociologists, planners, geographers, politicians, and economists speak one another language. He declares that he finds little change that can be called positive, the intensity of urban problems has continued to increase, and the search for short-range solutions has become ever more frenetic. Leonard introduces a new typology to study industrial cities and their development.

The book may serve as a reference for social science research and studies as it includes many theories of urban process and development within the discussion of the content. Moreover, many areas of the book include realistic studies of societies in several areas in the world as it serves in professional practice for planners and policymakers.

Leonard has connected the main theme of the book and its content brilliantly. Starting from what has been achieved in urban studies, followed by defining the four main players in creating our urban world and their characteristics and roles, what is the scope of urban theory before one should proceed to study the societies and cities, and finally the industrial cities and the four elements to study it before introducing his new typology of study and how he developed it to study the urbanization of cities. Every chapter of this book carries to date relevant ideas and concepts that a researcher could apply and use in research and as a practitioner in his daily work. The author made the book very interesting to read as every page includes a name, a study, and research that a reader can go further from it for detailed knowledge about the subject of discussion.

This book is one of the high-quality books in terms of an exact match between the content and title name. The reader can find in many areas of the book discussion of the industrial city, and urban process. The book index is an exact match of the book content and chapters, as the reader will catch immediately a quick idea about the chapter content from reading the index.

The author made the book very interesting to read as every page includes a name, a study, and research that a reader can go further from it for detailed knowledge about the subject of discussion.

When someone reads the title, think of the urban design and planning process. The reader thinks of city transformation, development, and who are the key players within them. I thought it was a complex process that shapes our urban environment and city; there are many players in the creation, transformation, and development of cities. However, I realized that the human being within the natural system is the creator of our world, its shape, form, and development. Human interaction with his environment creates many demands at the same time these demands when they are fulfilled they create problems that need to be resolved. In addition, this continues until our world moves from one form to another.

if you want more details about the various failures in the city my article series Urban Planning: Local development plan- defects discuss the various failures in the planning system and introduces a new approach for plan making.