Discover
urban culture
sociology
Also known as: urban society
urban culture, any of the behavioral patterns of the various types of cities and urban areas, both past and present. Research on urban cultures naturally focuses on their defining institution, the city, and the lifeways, or cultural forms, that grow up within cities. Urban scholarship has steadily progressed toward a conception of cities and urban cultures that is free of ethnocentrism, with broad cross-cultural and historical validity. Well into the 20th century conceptions of the city often proceeded as if there were only one authentic or typical form. From his research on the city in Europe’s Middle Ages, Henri Pirenne, ...(100 of 6360 words)