Written by Patrick Sharkey (Princeton University) and Jody Vallejo (University of Southern California) as part of A Sociology Experiment. To read this chapter, add it to your cart, complete the checkout process, return to this page, and select “Read Now” to open the Bookshelf reader.

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to: contrast the advantages and limitations of various approaches sociologists use to learn about how cities work and how they change; explain how urbanization affects social life; identify the forces that affect patterns of migration; discuss the consequences of concentrated poverty; and consider the possible ways that cities will evolve as urbanization continues.