ABSTRACT
The city has been studied by writers and practitioners from many fields; and diverse points of view can be discerned within any field. Sociology is no exception: sociologists have discussed many features of urban life, utilizing a variety of approaches and stressing different elements. There is no universal agreement among sociologists on which features of the city are central, and which are of minor importance. Indeed, judgments of this nature can be made only as fully-fledged theories of city life are developed, tested and compared. The objective of this book, then, is not to argue that one particular conception of the city is the best; but to examine carefully one conception and one theory, that of Louis Wirth, and to judge its strengths and weaknesses as an aid to understanding urban life. If Wirth's theory is valuable, it will not only give new insights about familiar patterns of social be haviour; it will also raise questions to which no answer is yet avail able. Theory should be judged by the new questions it provokes, and not merely by the answers it supplies to existing questions.
