To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In deve

I feel that the statement presented in the issue above would apply more strongly to societies (or countries) which have a major part of their population residing in cities. For example, in many developed countries, the statement supplied in the issue above would generally hold true, since the major demographic of the country would be residents of cities, and hence, would be the major participants in shaping the character of society as a whole.

However, in many developing and third-world countries, this is not the case. The major part of the population still resides in villages or rural areas. Hence, if one considers the characteristics of major cities in such countries to reflect those of society as a whole, it would not result in an accurate description of the society in question. As an example, let us consider a major city A and a village B in a developing country. Residents of city A will have access to basic human facilities such as food, shelter, water, sanitation, education, health services and so on. Furthermore, it would be reasonable to assume that the residents will have access to modern technology including mobile phones, computers, internet services et al. All this will generally result in the residents having global, political and social awareness, which will reflect in their conduct in their day-to-day lives. Most people will either be gainfully employed, or will have suitable pension plans in place. In all, if the characteristics of the entire society were to be based on the characteristics of this particular city, then this will paint quite a rosy picture of the society.

Now, let's move to village B. Residents here do not have access to potable water, food or basic sanitation facilities. Health services are inadequate, and education remains a luxury. Access to modern technology is available to only a few residents, if available at all. It is quite easy to gauge the social, political and global awareness of people residing in this part of the society. So, if we were to only consider the characteristics of villages as being an accurate indicator of the characteristics of the society on the whole, it would result in a very gloomy depiction of the society in concern.

So, I think it would suffice to say that in countries having widespread economic disparity, the true picture of society can neither be obtained by only considering the cities, nor can it be obtained by only focussing on the villages. A balance between the two would need to be established, to establish an accurate understanding of the nature of society as a whole.