ABSTRACT
It is often said nowadays that there is no special urban sociology. What goes on in the city, it is claimed, is merely an expression of general processes at work in a national industrial society. An adequate theory of this society would therefore comprehend within itself the sociology of the city. I believe there is some truth in this view, but I also believe that there are particular processes at work in the concrete urban situation. I propose to illustrate this by OUt1ill~ ing a theoretical model which explains something at least of the community structure of what Burgess called 'the zone of transition'. This model includes three elements: (1) a general theory of housing classes in the city, (2) a theory of ethnic group relations and rural-urban culture change and (3) a theory of conflict and conflict resolution as between associations in the urban zone of transition.
