ABSTRACT
Throughout this century urbanization and the frequently accompanying process of industrialization have been problems of major interest to sociologists. This chapter presents a selection from the work done by sociologists using two different approaches. It considers the basic set of assumptions pervading much of the work of sociologists concerned with urbanization. The chapter deals with three more restricted topics – the impact of urbanization upon ethnic relations, social stratification and primary relationships. It includes descriptive material from the author's recent study of a neighbourhood in Hamilton, Ontario. While the discipline as a whole has largely emphasized the profound and extensive effects of urbanization – or rather that package of urbanization and industrialization now frequently called "modernity" – some of the historically simultaneous events in our society may have been either accidents or the effects of diffusion of custom from the first societies to become "modern".
