Reading Response to SOJA Writing Assignment

Reading Response to SOJA
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Reading Response to SOJA
In the article titled Regional Urbanization and the End of the Metropolis Era by Edward Soja, several interesting issues are presented and discussed. Soja starts his article by presenting a certain dualism that appears to cloud the study of urbanization. He notes that “this often idealized and universalized view of the modern metropolis as the highest stage of the urban process has injected an encompassing dualism into urban studies.” Apparently, this view has led to the “division of the metropolis into separate and essentially different urban and suburban worlds or ways of life.” Soja then distinguishes these two noting that the urban world is characterized by heterogenous cultures as well as other notable attributes including crime, corruption, vice, drugs, as well as intrigue.[Soja, Edward. Regional urbanization And The End of The Metropolis Era. 2011] []
On the other hand, suburban life is characterized by a homogenous outlook where people do things in a certain way, and life is organized around certain routines and rhythms. Well, this notion is quite interesting, and Soja captures it quite well in this article. There is indeed a distinction between certain portions of the society which appear to approach life quite differently.
However, even as this dualism might exist or had existed, Soja notes that subscribing or adopting it at all times appears to cloud people’s judgments. The dualism in the study of urban studies did exist. However, this dualism has slowly been morphing or changing as new and modern forms of urbanization have been developing. To this, Soja notes that people maintain their thinking of a city “that even where its essential features have begun to disappear the changes often remains unnoticed or else reabsorbed into the same old divisions and binary discourses.” The point presented by Soja is quite crucial in deciphering his arguments with regards to the dualism in the study of urban studies. Often, the foundational ideas or concepts upon which society bases its understanding of the surrounding or the events taking place change or shift. However, while judging the change through the eyes of the previous or former perspective, any real progress may never be discovered, and Soja appears to present this idea to the reader. It is indeed valid because it explains why there had been stunted growth in urban studies.[]
One of the crucial points that Soja presents in his article is the idea that metropolitan urbanization grew or developed from a different phase which was centralized. Well, in the past as cities were developing, everything was found in one spot. People used to travel to the city for certain things or activities which could only be found in the city centers. This presented the first phase of urbanization. However, slowly, coupled with some factors including the presence of corporate monopolies, a mass exodus began from the city centers to the city periphery. Well, this was bound to happen because the concentration of millions of people in the same place led to the propagation of certain evils and more people found reasons to leave the city centers. Soja does capture t...