Based on urbanization and the growth of cities, describe the conflict perspective as it relates to the political economy models

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Conflict theorists argue that cities do not grow or decline by chance. Rather, they are the product of specific decisions made by members of the capitalist class and political elites. According to sociologists Joe R. Feagin and Robert Parker, three major themes prevail in political economy models of urban growth. First, both economic and political factors affect patterns of urban growth and decline. Second, urban space has both an exchange value and a use value. Third, both structure and agency are important in understanding how urban development takes place. According to political economy models, urban growth is influenced by capital investment decisions, power and resource inequality, class and class conflict, and government subsidy programs. Members of the capitalist class choose corporate locations, decide on sites for shopping centers and factories, and spread the population that can afford to purchase homes into sprawling suburbs located exactly where the capitalists think they should be located. One of the major results of these urban development practices is uneven development—the tendency of some neighborhoods, cities, or regions to grow and prosper whereas others stagnate and decline. The growth of gated communities— subdivisions or neighborhoods surrounded by barriers such as walls, fences, gates, or earth banks, along with a secured entrance—is an example to many people of how developers, builders, and municipalities have encouraged an increasing division between public and private property in capitalist societies. From this perspective, urbanization reflects the workings o f not only the political economy but also of patriarchy.

According to the sociologist Lynn M. Appleton, different kinds of cities have different gender regimes—prevailing ideologies of how women and men should think, feel, and act; how access to social positions and control of resources should be managed; and how relationships between men and women should be conducted. As a result both private patriarchy and public patriarchy develop.