Since the 1960s scholars have more carefully considered the manner in which public and private choices affect urban and technological history. From the late 1970s they have often treated politics and public policy as crucial in shaping the urban and technological scene. Not only railroad brings about urbanization but urbanization itself changes choice of technology through policies.
The authors recognize four major fields:
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transportation and other city- building infrastructure
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urban policy
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effect of change in technology, e.g. communication and/or energy on the built environment
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case- studies of infrastructure
The first round of studies focused on transportation and other city-building infrastructure. Between 1915-40the sociologists at the University of Chicago launched the first systematic study of the consequences of technological change for the city. Louis Wirth, Burgess and Park studied changes in spatial form and social and economic phenomenon according to developments in transportation. But they were not interested in technological development per se. They treated it as an exogenous factor and took for granted the development of technology and its acceptance by society.
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