美国新郊区史研究及其对芝加哥学派的超越

Beyond the Chicago School: The Rise of New Suburban History in the US

诞生于20世纪20年代的芝加哥学派城市社会学,对美国城市政策的制定和城市史学的发展产生了巨大影响。在其影响下,联邦住房管理局的购买、维修住房贷款向郊区纯白人居住区倾斜;城市研究则形成了郊区富裕、城市贫困、郊区化主要是白人中产阶级在交通技术进步的带动下来到郊区的叙事模式,并将这一叙事上溯至郊区诞生之初。20世纪90年代以来的新郊区史研究,认为之前的郊区史叙事忽略了第二次世界大战前郊区化中的下层群体及与之相关的工业分散、郊区下层住房市场、工人在郊区的生活及政治诉求等方面,同心圆理论不能准确反映芝加哥自身的历史。城市史和芝加哥学派城市社会学的关系经历了深受其影响到与之渐行渐远、再到彻底反思的过程。

Appearing in the 1920 s,the Chicago School in urban sociology has impacted American urban policy as well as the writing of urban history. For instance,the School's Concentric Zone Theory influenced the FHA's urban policy,which tended to favor the establishment of homogenous white middle class community in thesuburbs. Urban historians also constructed the narrative on suburbanization,explaining that the urban impoverishment was resulted from the advancement in modern transportation,enabling the white middle class to exit from the cities and relocate to the suburbs. Yet from the 1990 s,new studies in urban history challenged the previous suburbanization narrative,especially the Concentric Zone Theory,for it neglected many aspects related to early suburbanization before World War II,such as the formation of lower social groups,the sprawling of industrial development,the situation of housing market,the life of the working class and their political demands. New urban history also believes that the Concentric Zone Theory has wrongly portrayed the history of Chicago. In a word,having reflected critically on its impact,it seems that the new studies in urban history have come out of the shadow of the Chicago School.