The Chicago school is best known for its urban sociology and for the development of the symbolic interactionist approach , notably through the work of Herbert Blumer . It has focused on human behavior as shaped by social structures and physical environmental factors , rather than genetic and personal characteristics . Biologists and anthropologists had accepted the theory of evolution as demonstrating that animals adapt to their environments . As applied to humans who are considered responsible for their own destinies , members of the school believed that the natural environment , which the community inhabits , is a major factor in shaping human behavior , and that the city functions as a microcosm : " In these great cities , where all the passions , all the energies of mankind are released , we are in a position to investigate the process of civilization , as it were , under a microscope . " Members of the school have concentrated on the city of Chicago as the object of their study , seeking evidence whether urbanization ( Wirth : 1938 ) and increasing social mobility have been the causes of the contemporary social problems . Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 , established at the location of what had once been a village of the Miami . The Miami were one of the Illinois tribes that had been displaced by the Potawatomi tribe , who then ceded the land to the U.S. after a disastrous alliance with the Brits and a large influx of settlers . Although in 1860 , Chicago was a small settler town with a population of 10,000 , by the time of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 , the population had grown to 300,000 , one third of whom were homeless due to the fire . The aftermath of the Great Fire led to the " Great Rebuilding , " an effort to reconstruct Chicago as a vibrant urban center . By 1910 , the population exceeded two million , many of whom had moved to Chicago as new immigrants to the U.S. . With a shortage in housing and a lack of regulation in the burgeoning factories , the city 's residents experienced homelessness ( Anderson : 1923 ) and poor housing , living , and working conditions with low wages , long hours , and excessive pollution . In their analysis of the situation , Thomas and Znaniecki ( 1918 ) argued that these immigrants , released from the controls of Europe to the unrestrained competition of the new city , contributed to the city 's dynamic growth . See also the broken windows thesis
Great Chicago Fire of 1871
Great Chicago Fire
Chicago school (sociology)