ABSTRACT
Most of the work which has been done in the name of urban sociology is about urbanization—that is change, disorganization, and adaptation. It is as if sociologists cannot define urban without a rural contrast: when they lose the peasant they lose the city too. The author arguing in this short ethnography of urban sociology that the field exists, if only because a number of individuals style themselves urban sociologists and have a common language and culture. Much of the best work in the field, has, however, been accomplished by those who simply call themselves sociologists, and who have applied the concepts developed by the discipline as a whole in this particular field. One danger of few sociologists willingly accepting the adjective urban as part of their title would be that areas of investigation are likely to be suggested from outside rather than from within the discipline.
