Abstract
Prior to the period 1940-54, to which this bibliography is restricted, various types of surveys of some sociological interest had, for a hundred years or so, been carried out in a number of French towns. But despite the large number of individual studies inspired by France's increasing urbanization, no real urban sociology had been built up. This is now gradually coming into existence through an accumulation of recent or current studies, some directed towards theoretical research, others guided by more immediate practical considerations (such as the problems of town-planning).
In actual fact, urban sociology seems unlikely to develop, in France, into a specialized branch of sociology. The position is, rather, that town-dwellers offer a common field of investigation to experts in many different subjects. These experts progress thanks to mutual support and—what chiefly interests us—in proportion to the extent that adopt a sociological viewpoint.
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