ABSTRACT
The metropolitan regions of the United States contain an incredible array of people. Since the 1970s, urban scholars have paid increasing attention to the relationship between capitalism and the metropolis. The study of culture and the role of objects as signs constitute a significant part of the new urban sociology. Sociologists have studied metropolitan life as culturally meaningful for some time. Typical urban sociology textbooks present several alternative ways of understanding sociospatial phenomena, or they present none at all and simply describe a succession of topics. The sociospatial perspective connects the dual relationship between people and space with the social factors that are the bases of individual behavior. The real estate sector includes corporations and banks, as well as land developers and construction companies that invest in the development of land use and housing, including the land and the built environment themselves.
