Evelyn M. Perry
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469631387
- eISBN:
- 9781469631400
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469631387.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
“We are in a bind,” writes Evelyn M. Perry. While conventional wisdom asserts that residential racial and economic integration holds great promise for reducing inequality in the United States, ...
More
“We are in a bind,” writes Evelyn M. Perry. While conventional wisdom asserts that residential racial and economic integration holds great promise for reducing inequality in the United States, Americans are demonstrably not very good at living with difference. Perry’s analysis of the multiethnic, mixed-income Milwaukee community of Riverwest, where residents maintain relative stability without insisting on conformity, advances our understanding of why and how neighborhoods matter. In response to the myriad urban quantitative assessments, Perry examines the impacts of neighborhood diversity using more than three years of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews. Her in-depth examination of life “on the block” expands our understanding of the mechanisms by which neighborhoods shape the perceptions, behaviors, and opportunities of those who live in them. Perry challenges researchers’ assumptions about what “good” communities look like and what well-regulated communities want. Live and Let Live shifts the conventional scholarly focus from “What can integration do?” to “How is integration done?”Less
“We are in a bind,” writes Evelyn M. Perry. While conventional wisdom asserts that residential racial and economic integration holds great promise for reducing inequality in the United States, Americans are demonstrably not very good at living with difference. Perry’s analysis of the multiethnic, mixed-income Milwaukee community of Riverwest, where residents maintain relative stability without insisting on conformity, advances our understanding of why and how neighborhoods matter. In response to the myriad urban quantitative assessments, Perry examines the impacts of neighborhood diversity using more than three years of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews. Her in-depth examination of life “on the block” expands our understanding of the mechanisms by which neighborhoods shape the perceptions, behaviors, and opportunities of those who live in them. Perry challenges researchers’ assumptions about what “good” communities look like and what well-regulated communities want. Live and Let Live shifts the conventional scholarly focus from “What can integration do?” to “How is integration done?”
Evelyn M. Perry
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469631387
- eISBN:
- 9781469631400
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469631387.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
An individual’s residential mobility trajectory tells us a great deal about that individual but also about place. Where someone has lived, the changes they have witnessed, and where they hope to be, ...
More
An individual’s residential mobility trajectory tells us a great deal about that individual but also about place. Where someone has lived, the changes they have witnessed, and where they hope to be, together, affect how they think about where they are. This chapter presents five residential mobility narratives. These residents’ stories bring together key themes from preceding chapters to illustrate place effects, showing how features of the neighborhood interact with individual preferences and skills to jointly affect understandings and experiences of place. For example, experiences in previous neighborhoods generate sets of expectations and comparisons that shape evaluations of the quality and livability of Riverwest. The strategies residents develop to manage previous environments may or may not be effective in a new residential context. Finally, the chapter draws on an analysis of residential mobility narratives to identify mechanisms that mediate the effects of neighborhood diversity and help explain differences in residents’ lived experiences of integration.Less
An individual’s residential mobility trajectory tells us a great deal about that individual but also about place. Where someone has lived, the changes they have witnessed, and where they hope to be, together, affect how they think about where they are. This chapter presents five residential mobility narratives. These residents’ stories bring together key themes from preceding chapters to illustrate place effects, showing how features of the neighborhood interact with individual preferences and skills to jointly affect understandings and experiences of place. For example, experiences in previous neighborhoods generate sets of expectations and comparisons that shape evaluations of the quality and livability of Riverwest. The strategies residents develop to manage previous environments may or may not be effective in a new residential context. Finally, the chapter draws on an analysis of residential mobility narratives to identify mechanisms that mediate the effects of neighborhood diversity and help explain differences in residents’ lived experiences of integration.
