The Sociology of the Inner City--*Functionality for Practice

Authors

Ivor J. Echols, University of Connecticut

Abstract

Many aspects of the future seem imponderable, in the sense that they are impossible of reckoning, and into this category falls the plight of cities. That portion of the cities which is marked by physical blight, continuing property and human deterioration, and myriads of problems of survival-the so-called "inner city" is even more elusive of future prediction and remedy. Theoretician and practitioner alike appear to be enmeshed in an endless web of conceptual gossamer, and palliative ministrations to a relative few targets within their purview.

The intent of this paper, however, is not to castigate but rather to challenge the energies of thought and action once more towards potential cure rather than endless remedies for symptoms. To accept the underlying assumptions of a cure, is to affirm the possibility that man has the intellectual ability and the will to make substantial and la lasting improvements in the human condition, and that social structuring can exist not primarily to regulate man but to fulfill him.

Further, by way of introduction, the fact that a word has been coined as part of the title for this paper, is a means of elaborating the notion that from a practitioner view, knowledge must be functional or designed for operation. Hence, *functionality means a design for operation.

Recommended Citation

Echols, Ivor J. (1974) "The Sociology of the Inner City--*Functionality for Practice," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 6.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.1064
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol2/iss1/6