研究人或空間―臺灣都市社會研究的成立與變化

本文分析歷年出版的專書及期刊論文，指出臺灣都市社會研究的主題，約略於1987年前後出現認識論性的轉折，並再細分爲四個時期來討論。前述所指之認識論性的轉折，意指由原本偏重研究都市中「人的活動結果」，轉向偏重研究都市的「空間意義」。四個時期的區分則意指：(1) 1960年代龍冠海等人以「社區調查」的實用特質來保證學科的正當化；(2)而後至1970年引進芝加哥學派的人類生態學理論，開啟人口學取向的區位學研究；(3)再至1987年左右臺灣政治氣氛轉變，促生新都市社會學的風潮，而出現第三期以政治經濟學批判爲主題的都市不平衡研究；(4)及至1990年代中期以後則再出現第四期以文化研究與符號消費爲主題的都市研究。本文指出，前兩個時期的都市社會研究，預設空間爲人類活動的自然背景，致使都市社會偏向人的研究，並以人口區位爲展現方法；1987年後的後兩期，則轉向重視「空間」自身的人爲性及支配性，不再討論。這種趨勢，造成原本獨佔都市社會研究的社會學，在全球化流動氛圍下遭受其他空間相關學科的跨界挑戰，其邊界也逐漸模糊而難以圈定。

關鍵字

都市社會學；芝加哥學派；新都市社會學；空間轉向

並列摘要

The author of the present study explores the paradigm shifts in the studies of urban society in Taiwan from the 1960s to 2000s. By using thematic content analysis of academic publications, this paper indicates that such a shift took place in 1987, when the focus turned from the studies of ”concerns about human actors” to those dealing with ”concerns about spaces”. In post-war Taiwan, urban society was the exclusive studying domain of sociology, and tended to be strongly ”practical” in orienation. Dr. Lung Kuan-Hai introduced the survey method and the human ecology theory of the Chicago School to found the first paradigm of urban sociology in Taiwan. The author argues that the theoretical presupposition of this paradigm from the 1960s and 1970s was to treat space as the ”natural” background of human activities, thereby placing emphasis on the latter. Around 1987, the political climate in Taiwan changed, bringing Marxist theories into urban sociology to foster a new trend. The presupposition of space as the ”natural” environment was replaced by a recognition of space as ”man-made”. From the early 1990s on, followed by the wave of the New Urban Sociology and Cultural Studies, topics about the inequality of urban affairs and the symbolic reconstruction of spaces returned to the mainstream.