Student Web Activites

Chapter 17: Social Change and Collective Behavior

"Urbanism"

Introduction
In this chapter you learned about the processes for social change and the causes and types of collective behavior. Each of the theoretical perspectives interprets the causes of social change differently. Symbolic interaction identifies decreasingly shared values as a source of social instability, and considers urbanization—the shift from agricultural to urban societies—as one cause of society's increasing impersonality and fragmentation. In recent years, however, a trend has emerged to develop functional, human-scale communities in the United States . The trend is called the New Urbanism, and in this activity you will learn more about it.

Web sites
New Urban News
Visit the New Urban News Web site to learn more about the movement to make communities more workable, functional, and sustainable places for people to live.

Learn About New Urbanism
Take an interactive tour through the history of the New Urbanism Movement. Learn about the principles, current projects, and the future of the movement.

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Activity
Use what you have learned about the principles and goals of New Urbanism to design a city. Use a large poster board to lay out your city, or build a three-dimensional model of your city. Indicate where streets, parks, schools, houses, buildings, and stores will be located. Use a variety of textures and colors to add interest and clarity to your model. Share your model with the class, and explain why you chose to lay out your city the way you did.