The ghost of Patrick Geddes:civics as applied sociology

In 1904 and 1905 Patrick Geddes (1905, 1906) read his famed, but today little-read, two-part paper, 'Civics: as Applied Sociology', to the first meetings of the British Sociological Society. Geddes is often thought of as a 'pioneer of sociology' (Mairet, 1957;Meller, 1990) and for some (egDevine, 1999: 296) as 'a seminal influence on sociology'. However, little of substance has been written to critically assess Geddes's intellectual legacy as a sociologist. His work is largely forgotten by sociologists in Britain (Abrams, 1968;Halliday, 1968;Evans, 1986). Few have been prepared to follow Geddes's ambition to bridge the chasm between nature and culture, environment and society, geography, biology and sociology. His conception of 'sociology', oriented towards social action from a standpoint explicitly informed by evolutionary theory. A re-appraisal of the contemporary relevance of Geddes's thinking on civics as applied sociology has to venture into the knotted problem of evolutionary sociology. It also requires giving some cogency to Geddes's often fragmentary and inconsistent mode of address. Although part of a post-positivist, 'larger modernism' Geddes remained mired in nineteenth century evolutionary thought and fought shy of dealing with larger issues of social class or the breakthrough work of early twentieth century sociology of Simmel, Weber and Durkheim. His apolitical notion of 'civics' limits its relevance to academic sociology today

Wokół sporów o przestrzeń miejską

The five sociological papers in this volume have one common feature – they all concern urban issues. Each of them is an attempt to assess the condition of a post-socialist and a post-industrial town. This condition is associated with the current status and the transformations of urban space. Hence, on the one hand, urban space appears to be extremely resident-friendly and supportive of civic activities and initiatives, but on the other hand, it shows to be affected by controversial consequences caused by the growing number of revitalising projects (including, in particular, gentrification of the revitalised urban areas). Many of the programmes aimed to activate urban residents fail, and even access to ‘tourist attractions’ (e.g. cultural institutions) proves unfair in practice. All the five papers aim to identify the main reasons (social, cultural, economic) that have rendered the attempts to democratise and improve the quality of urban space ineffective. They also seek to provide an answer to the question what needs to be done to avoid similar failures in the future.

The civic survey of Greater London: social mapping, planners and urban space in the early twentieth century

This paper examines work conducted between 1915 and 1919 by a group of architects and planners based at the Royal Institute of British Architects. The project, called the Civic Survey of Greater London, and the substantial collection of maps and diagrams that resulted from it are currently unknown in histories of mapping and planning, thus this paper offers a preliminary account and analysis of the work. The paper begins by assessing the development of surveying and mapping techniques in the nineteenth century with the aim of situating the Survey within broader historical trajectories. The following section of the paper examines the immediate context for the Survey, in particular the place of Patrick Geddes and his ideas. The third part of the paper focuses on the work of the Survey itself. The fourth part draws out key analytical threads in dialogue with a number of the maps of the Survey. The emphasis placed here is on exploring lines of continuity between the Civic Survey of Greater London and earlier techniques of representation and governmentality. The concluding section reflects briefly on the reasons for the Survey's subsequent relative obscurity and the importance of the project for later traditions of surveying

The Ghost of Patrick Geddes: Civics As Applied Sociology

In 1904 and 1905 Patrick Geddes (1905, 1906) read his famed, but today little-read, two-part paper, \'Civics: as Applied Sociology\', to the first meetings of the British Sociological Society. Geddes is often thought of as a \'pioneer of sociology\' (Mairet, 1957; Meller, 1990) and for some (eg Devine, 1999: 296) as \'a seminal influence on sociology\'. However, little of substance has been written to critically assess Geddes\'s intellectual legacy as a sociologist. His work is largely forgotten by sociologists in Britain (Abrams, 1968; Halliday, 1968; Evans, 1986). Few have been prepared to follow Geddes\'s ambition to bridge the chasm between nature and culture, environment and society, geography, biology and sociology. His conception of \'sociology\', oriented towards social action from a standpoint explicitly informed by evolutionary theory. A re-appraisal of the contemporary relevance of Geddes\'s thinking on civics as applied sociology has to venture into the knotted problem of evolutionary sociology. It also requires giving some cogency to Geddes\'s often fragmentary and inconsistent mode of address. Although part of a post-positivist, \'larger modernism\' Geddes remained mired in nineteenth century evolutionary thought and fought shy of dealing with larger issues of social class or the breakthrough work of early twentieth century sociology of Simmel, Weber and Durkheim. His apolitical notion of \'civics\' limits its relevance to academic sociology today.History of Sociology, Civics, Patrick Geddes, Scottish Generalism, Urban Sociology

Maximal-entropy random walk unifies centrality measures

In this paper analogies between different (dis)similarity matrices are derived. These matrices, which are connected to path enumeration and random walks, are used in community detection methods or in computation of centrality measures for complex networks. The focus is on a number of known centrality measures, which inherit the connections established for similarity matrices. These measures are based on the principal eigenvector of the adjacency matrix, path enumeration, as well as on the stationary state, stochastic matrix or mean first-passage times of a random walk. Particular attention is paid to the maximal-entropy random walk, which serves as a very distinct alternative to the ordinary random walk used in network analysis. The various importance measures, defined both with the use of ordinary random walk and the maximal-entropy random walk, are compared numerically on a set of benchmark graphs. It is shown that groups of centrality measures defined with the two random walks cluster into two separate families. In particular, the group of centralities for the maximal-entropy random walk, connected to the eigenvector centrality and path enumeration, is strongly distinct from all the other measures and produces largely equivalent results.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Match of the Day: The search for a suitable spouse

The institutions of family and marriage may seem beyond the remit of economics, involving complexities which the discipline could only ever assume away. There is, however, a significant body of research, which applies the adaptable economists’ toolbox to these areas of life, often yielding a significant degree of insight. Gary Becker’s seminal Treatise on the Family, one of the first studies to subject decisions about sex, marriage, childbearing and childrearing to economic analysis, employed concepts such as the maximisation of family, or household, utility functions to explain family collective choice, with later authors using game theoretic models to offer a different perspective on the intra-household distribution of goods. However, the well-documented phenomenon of urban areas having higher divorce rates than rural regions is not addressed by existing family economics literature, despite the importance of such trends to social policy planners. We develop a new model that provides a theoretical basis for the difference in rural and urban divorce rates, drawing on insights from labour economics and social psychology that have not previously been applied to family economics.Economics; Family; Divorce

Sociological knowledge and colonial power in Bombay around the First World War

By the turn of the twentieth century a distinct ‘social domain’ – along with its constituent parts, problems and internal dynamics – was turned into a political entity, and a concern for state bureaucracies existed across the industrializing world. Specific motivations for this trend may have varied from location to location, but included arguments for higher industrial productivity and less political discontent, often intertwined with a humanitarian impulse in calls for better housing, expanded public health or improved working conditions. As has been well documented, the politicization of the social domain in early twentieth-century Britain owes much to the consolidation of British sociology as a distinct discipline. Yet while the link between the rise of social politics and sociology has been established with regard to Britain, little has been said about the occurrence of this coupling elsewhere in the twentieth-century British Empire. This article aims to rectify that omission by showing the interplay between newly raised social concerns of the colonial administration in the Bombay Presidency, Western British India, and the establishing of sociological research within the borders of the Presidency around the time of the First World War. The article will explore how the colonial administration in Bombay planned to meet new demands for sociological knowledge in colonial state policy, how sociology was subsequently introduced into the Presidency as a research subject, and how new sociological methods were applied in actual colonial government

Income differentiation of households in various regions of the Czech Republic

The paper deals with income differentiation of households in different regions of the Czech Republic. Actual analysis are based on previous considerations about the origins and dynamics of income disparities in the Czech republic, about the method used to definethe group of respondents, the characteristics of a file with an emphasis on the income variable, the share of social transfers in disposable income, indicators of inequality and poverty assessment of vulnerable households. The primary data sourceare the survey results European Union – Statistics onIncome and Living Conditions in 2005 and 2008. This investigation has become obligatory for the Czech Republic after joining the European Union since 2005. The investigation provides long-term comparative data on income and social situation of households. According to common methodology applied within other EU countries results are compare even between EU member states. To achieve the objectives there will be used following methods: descriptive statistics on the characteristics of income (disposable income of households, the share of social transfers in household disposable income, net cash income of households, average income, revenue deficits). For monitoring the level of income inequality and deepness of poverty will be used Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve. Mentioned characteristics will be compared within the regions of the Czech Republic and the trend will be formulated for the period 2005 - 2008.Household income is one of the decisive factors determining the style of family life, their priorities, to meet their needs, and eisure-time activities. Differences between regions determine preferences and identify opportunities.poverty, poverty line, at-risk-of poverty, income situation of households, income situation of population