In any study of urban sociology, one is bound to encounter few researchers who have contributed so much to our current understanding of the structure and evolution of the company that Ferdinand Tönnies. and Robert Park. Both born in the late 19th century and living into the first part of the 20th century, each had the opportunity to experience radical industrial growth, political and economic upheaval, and the first major international war. Despite these similarities, each theorist offered unique perspectives on the sociological changes they observed around them. In this article, I will attempt to explore the similarities and differences of these theories and apply each of them to the issue of social stratification and inequality in contemporary society. Ferdinand Tönnies is best known for his publication Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft, originally published in 1887 and which has been considered his greatest work (Samples, 1987). In this book, he introduces two new terms into the sociologist's lexicon: Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. In doing so, he established the concepts of “community” and “society” and examined them in terms of their opposition to each other (Samples, 1987). According to Inglis, Gemeinschaft is a term that identifies a social structure defined by "closely related and affectionate groups", while Gesellschaft represents a society in which "selfish and rational individuals take center stage" (2009, p 817). . Tönnies' main area of ​​research concerned the movement of societies from societies based on a strong community to those which were (in his view) mere extensions of the individual's will over others. Adair-Toteff states that Tönnies' work "convinced [Tönnies] that natural and biological Gemeinscha...... middle of paper...... Helmes-Hayes, RC (1987). “A dualist vision”: Robert Ezra Park and the classic ecological theory of social inequalities. The Sociological Quarterly, 28 (3, Conceptions of temporality in sociological theory), 387-409. Inglis, D. (2009). Cosmopolitan sociology and the classical canon: Ferdinand Tönnies and the emergence of a global gesellschaft. British Journal of Sociology, 60(4), 813-832. doi:10.1111/j.1468-4446.2009.01276.xTönnies, F. (1957). Community and society (C. Loomis, Trans.). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul (original work published in 1887) Samples, J. (1987). Ferdinand Toennies: Dark times for a liberal intellectual. Society, 24(6), 65-68. Smith, A. (1776). An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations [electronic resource]. Dublin: printed for MM. Whitestone, Chamberlaine, W. Watson, Potts, S. Watson and 15 others in Dublin.