The Chicago School
I: Park & Burgess
"Social Ecology"
SOCIAL ECOLOGY
Studies the relationship between people and their social environment.
"People must be studied in their natural habitat."
Park & Burgess' Concentric Model...
Distinguishes 5 "Natural Urban Areas" of Chicago.
Areas are characterized in terms of ethnic groupings, income levels, types of commerce/industry.
Residents of one zone "migrate" to outer zones as their economic positions improve. . . . . . and new residents take their place.
Theorists of the later Chicago School applied the concentric zone model to studies of juvenile delinquency.
Click here to discover how Shaw and McKay used it to argue against constitutional theories!
For more information, see. . .
Park, Robert E., Ernest W. Burgess, and R. D. McKenzie. The City. Chicago, University of Chicago Press: 1925.
Thomas, W. I., Florian Znaniecki. The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. Boston, Gorham: 1920.
. . .or Other Works of the Early Chicago School