Final Take-Home ExamUNST 220C: Understanding CommunitiesSpring 2005

Dr. Martha J. Bianco

Final Take-Home Exam

Instructions: Select one question from each section (see next page) to write about. If you would like to propose your own question(s) on a given topic, let me know. Please follow these writing and style guidelines:

The take-home exam is not a SECRET. Please approach it as you would an ordinary university-level essay exam.

Double space and type your essays.

Please type the question as well as your response (you can just copy and paste it).

MLA style is not required. However, please number your pages and make sure they are in the correct order.

I will not grade your final exam using the Writing and Grading Checklist. However, I will deduct approximately ½ point for each “serious” grammar, spelling, punctuation, or typographical error. Examples of such “serious” errors include

  • fused or run-on sentences
  • comma splices
  • sentence fragments
  • misspellings of any kind
  • apostrophe errors
  • homonym errors
  • proofreading/typographical errors
  • ambiguous pronoun reference, especially along the lines of “This caused a lot of upheaval during the Industrial Revolution” (This what? Be specific!) or “It resulted in people having to live and work in separate places” (It what? Be specific!).

If you make reference to someone, paraphrase or quote, you must include a citation and a separate Works Cited page. Citations and the Works Cited page must adhere to MLA format.

There is no page limit. Please focus on answering each question as thoroughly as you can, but keep in mind that this is an essay exam, not a term paper . I am expecting 5-10 pages (typed) from each person (total).

You may ask me questions while you are writing your exam, but please do not ask me to preview your answers.

Please endeavor to provide sophisticated answers; draw on your experience learning about analytical/argumentative writing. While you do not need to write a thesis or introduction or even a conclusion, I would appreciate reading an essay that goes beyond regurgitating material in a purely descriptive manner.

Remember, your essay is due in class on Thursday, June 9. You may also send it to me by e-mail if you are unable to make it to class on June 9. However, you may not send it to me after June 9.

Section I:Community and Urban Development (choose one from this section)

  1. Choose a preindustrial city of any time and place and describe its development and basic social, economic, and geographical structure, with an emphasis on how “community” was experienced and expressed. Include in your description an analysis of the city from the perspective of at least two urban or community theorists we’ve discussed this term (Childe, Tönnies, Sjoberg, Marx, Weber, Wirth, Durkheim, Gans, etc.).
  2. Describe the factors and values that affected early American settlement patterns and the subsequent development of cities, suburbs, edge cities, and, finally, global and/or networked cities. Discuss the evolution and metamorphosis of “community” in America from the colonial era to the present day. Include in your description an analysis of this evolution from the perspective of at least two urban, community, or global/networked-city theorists (Childe, Tönnies, Sjoberg, Marx, Weber, Wirth, Durkheim, Gans, Garreau, Sassen, Geddes, Putman, etc.).
  3. Discuss the evolution and metamorphosis of the experience of community through the four major “revolutions”: agricultural, urban, industrial, and technological. Do not limit yourself to a discussion of western civilization only (particularly Western Europe and North America). Include in your description an analysis of this evolution from the perspective of at least two urban, community, or global/networked-city theorists (Childe, Tönnies, Sjoberg, Marx, Weber, Wirth, Durkheim, Gans, Garreau, Sassen, Geddes, Putman, etc.).

Section II:Community and Class (choose one from this section)

  1. Discuss the impact of the Industrial Revolution on social and economic class and the subsequent effect, if any, on the experience of community. Which element(s) of the Industrial Revolution do you think had the most significant effects on both class and community, and why? Be sure to consider both the positive and negative effects of the Industrial Revolution (or, if you can identify only positive or negative effects, explain why).
  2. Discuss the shifting demographic and economic patterns in the U.S. from approximately 1900 to the present. What factors are responsible for these shifts? Identify how these changes have affected the experience of community over time.
  3. Discuss the relationship between community and class, after considering why we have spent so much time on this topic this term. Include in your discussion reference to theorists and thinkers such as Tönnies, Marx, Weber, Wirth, Durkheim, Gans, Putman, Burtless, and Lemann, as well as artists and authors such as Jacob Riis, Upton Sinclair, Fritz Lang, George Lucas, and Spike Lee.

Section III:Community, Identity, Power, and Space versus Place (choose one from this section)

  1. Discuss the four basic city-systems models presented this term (Burgess’s Concentric Zone Theory, Hoyt’s Sectoral Model, Harris and Ullman’s Multiple Nuclei Model, and Christaller’s Central Place Theory. Be sure to include a discussion of the social and academic environment in which these theories emerged. Discuss the extent to which these models have adequately applied or failed to apply to U.S. cities during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Explain why understanding city-systems models can be useful in understanding communities.
  2. Describe and discuss the experience of community in the postindustrial era of the networked, global city. Theorize about how technology and globalization might affect future settlement patterns and the ethnic, racial, religious, and cultural differences among subcommunities.
  3. Explain and critique the threats to traditional community present in the theories of Louis Wirth, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber. Include in your discussion a definition of the concepts of alienation, anomie, and compartmentalization. Identify and describe any ameliorating forces present in the modern era that may serve somehow to counteract the destructive effects to traditional community that these theorists might not have been aware of because of their limited historical perspective.
  4. Is America a “great melting pot” or a stew pot, always on the verge of boiling over? Do the concepts of the “browning of America” and the “global community” contribute to the hopeful view inherent in the “great melting pot” theory, or do they provide fuel to the stove that heats the stew pot? In either case, how is the concept of “community” affected? Are we a nation of polarized ethnic enclaves, of clashing classes and turf gang warfare? Or are we a “community of communities,” bound together somehow by some essential commonality? Or both?

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