Thinking about the Chicago School, 100 years on
Abstract
Reflecting on the centennial of Park and Burgess's The City and building on Uitermark's timely analysis, I concur that while the Chicago School's original ontological assumptions are flawed, its epistemological approach and core insights remain remarkably generative for contemporary urban research. I explore both the enduring legacy of the Chicago School and new directions in three domains: the embeddedness of neighborhoods in higher-order social structures; the potential of “big data” and computational methods in urban studies; and emerging frameworks for understanding urban social change.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Urban Planning and Governance
Urban Design and Spatial Analysis
Geographic Information Systems Studies
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Dialogues in Urban Research
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 46–50
- Publication date
- 27 January 2026
- Language
- EN