Mario Luis Small
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195384352
- eISBN:
- 9780199869893
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195384352.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Social capital theorists have shown that inequality arises in part because some people enjoy larger, more supportive, or otherwise more useful networks. But why do some people have better networks ...
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Social capital theorists have shown that inequality arises in part because some people enjoy larger, more supportive, or otherwise more useful networks. But why do some people have better networks than others? This book argues that the answer lies less in people's deliberate “networking” than in the institutional conditions of the churches, colleges, firms, gyms, and other organizations in which they happen to participate routinely. This book introduces a model of social inequality that takes seriously the embeddedness of networks in formal organizations, proposing that what people gain from their connections depends on where those connections are formed and sustained. The model is illustrated and developed through a study of the experiences of mothers whose children were enrolled in New York City childcare centers. As a result of the routine practices and institutional conditions of the centers—from the structure of their parents' associations, to apparently innocuous rules such as pick‐up and drop‐off times—many of these mothers dramatically increased their social capital and measurably improved their wellbeing. Yet how much they gained depended on how their respective centers were organized. This book identifies the mechanisms through which childcare centers structured the networks of mothers, and shows that similar mechanisms operate in many other routine organizations, from beauty salons and bath houses to colleges and churches. The book makes a case for the importance of organizational embeddedness in the study of personal ties.Less
Social capital theorists have shown that inequality arises in part because some people enjoy larger, more supportive, or otherwise more useful networks. But why do some people have better networks than others? This book argues that the answer lies less in people's deliberate “networking” than in the institutional conditions of the churches, colleges, firms, gyms, and other organizations in which they happen to participate routinely. This book introduces a model of social inequality that takes seriously the embeddedness of networks in formal organizations, proposing that what people gain from their connections depends on where those connections are formed and sustained. The model is illustrated and developed through a study of the experiences of mothers whose children were enrolled in New York City childcare centers. As a result of the routine practices and institutional conditions of the centers—from the structure of their parents' associations, to apparently innocuous rules such as pick‐up and drop‐off times—many of these mothers dramatically increased their social capital and measurably improved their wellbeing. Yet how much they gained depended on how their respective centers were organized. This book identifies the mechanisms through which childcare centers structured the networks of mothers, and shows that similar mechanisms operate in many other routine organizations, from beauty salons and bath houses to colleges and churches. The book makes a case for the importance of organizational embeddedness in the study of personal ties.
Leah Price
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691114170
- eISBN:
- 9781400842186
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691114170.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book asks how our culture came to frown on using books for any purpose other than reading. When did the coffee-table book become an object of scorn? Why did law courts forbid witnesses to kiss ...
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This book asks how our culture came to frown on using books for any purpose other than reading. When did the coffee-table book become an object of scorn? Why did law courts forbid witnesses to kiss the Bible? What made Victorian cartoonists mock commuters who hid behind the newspaper, ladies who matched their books' binding to their dress, and servants who reduced newspapers to fish n' chips wrap? Shedding new light on novels by Thackeray, Dickens, the Brontës, Trollope, and Collins, as well as the urban sociology of Henry Mayhew, the book also uncovers the lives and afterlives of anonymous religious tracts and household manuals. From knickknacks to wastepaper, books mattered to the Victorians in ways that cannot be explained by their printed content alone. And whether displayed, defaced, exchanged, or discarded, printed matter participated, and still participates, in a range of transactions that stretches far beyond reading. Supplementing close readings with a sensitive reconstruction of how Victorians thought and felt about books, this book offers a new model for integrating literary theory with cultural history. The book reshapes our understanding of the interplay between words and objects in the nineteenth century and beyond.Less
This book asks how our culture came to frown on using books for any purpose other than reading. When did the coffee-table book become an object of scorn? Why did law courts forbid witnesses to kiss the Bible? What made Victorian cartoonists mock commuters who hid behind the newspaper, ladies who matched their books' binding to their dress, and servants who reduced newspapers to fish n' chips wrap? Shedding new light on novels by Thackeray, Dickens, the Brontës, Trollope, and Collins, as well as the urban sociology of Henry Mayhew, the book also uncovers the lives and afterlives of anonymous religious tracts and household manuals. From knickknacks to wastepaper, books mattered to the Victorians in ways that cannot be explained by their printed content alone. And whether displayed, defaced, exchanged, or discarded, printed matter participated, and still participates, in a range of transactions that stretches far beyond reading. Supplementing close readings with a sensitive reconstruction of how Victorians thought and felt about books, this book offers a new model for integrating literary theory with cultural history. The book reshapes our understanding of the interplay between words and objects in the nineteenth century and beyond.
Kevin T. Smiley
Michael Oluf Emerson (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781479856794
- eISBN:
- 9781479882922
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479856794.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
Cities are diverging in our contemporary era. Specifically, we use our analysis of Copenhagen and Houston to argue that cities exist for one of two reasons: for markets or for people. Market Cities ...
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Cities are diverging in our contemporary era. Specifically, we use our analysis of Copenhagen and Houston to argue that cities exist for one of two reasons: for markets or for people. Market Cities (such as Houston) are dedicated to an unfettered free market ethos, individualism, and tolerance of high levels of inequality and decentralized governance, among other characteristics. By contrast, People Cities (such as Copenhagen) have a much greater collective ideal that drives the city toward attenuating inequality, strengthening government, and sanctioning “people-focused” policies and urban form. The first four chapters of the book showcase “how it happens” by introducing the perspective and studying the histories of the cities. We also showcase how government deeply shapes each type of city as well as the critical role that residents play in underpinning or contesting their city. The second part of the book (chapters 5 through 9) investigates “why it matters.” We discuss the implications of living in a Market City or People City for transportation, land-use planning, the environment, diversity, inequality, segregation, crime, and immigration. We also extend our perspective to a wider range of cities, making suggestions on how to apply the ideas presented in the book. Finally, we conclude by discussing how social change within the city might occur and best be accomplished.Less
Cities are diverging in our contemporary era. Specifically, we use our analysis of Copenhagen and Houston to argue that cities exist for one of two reasons: for markets or for people. Market Cities (such as Houston) are dedicated to an unfettered free market ethos, individualism, and tolerance of high levels of inequality and decentralized governance, among other characteristics. By contrast, People Cities (such as Copenhagen) have a much greater collective ideal that drives the city toward attenuating inequality, strengthening government, and sanctioning “people-focused” policies and urban form. The first four chapters of the book showcase “how it happens” by introducing the perspective and studying the histories of the cities. We also showcase how government deeply shapes each type of city as well as the critical role that residents play in underpinning or contesting their city. The second part of the book (chapters 5 through 9) investigates “why it matters.” We discuss the implications of living in a Market City or People City for transportation, land-use planning, the environment, diversity, inequality, segregation, crime, and immigration. We also extend our perspective to a wider range of cities, making suggestions on how to apply the ideas presented in the book. Finally, we conclude by discussing how social change within the city might occur and best be accomplished.
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, ...
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“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?”
Iddo Tavory
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226321868
- eISBN:
- 9780226322193
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226322193.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sociology of Religion
Based on five years of ethnographic fieldwork, Summoned is an in-depth exploration of the social worlds of Orthodox Jews in a Los Angeles neighborhood as well as a theoretical exploration of the ...
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Based on five years of ethnographic fieldwork, Summoned is an in-depth exploration of the social worlds of Orthodox Jews in a Los Angeles neighborhood as well as a theoretical exploration of the co-construction of identification, interaction and the patterning of social worlds. Located off Hollywood and Melrose—a space known better for aspiring artists than for its religious life—the neighborhood surprisingly emerged as one of the main hubs of Orthodoxy on the West Coast of the US. The study thus traces the everyday ways in which religious life can thrive in the midst of an urban environment that seems to be sharply at odds with its most basic sensibilities. Focusing on the multiple ways in which Orthodox residents are pulled into Orthodox social life, it moves from the synagogue to everyday encounters the street; from panhandlers coming all the way from Israel, to the way residents balance the non-Jewish world they work in, and a religious existence that seeks to erase such profanity. Focusing on this density of social life, the book is simultaneously a theoretical essay on interaction, culture and the theory of action. As such, it argues for an inter-situational view of social life, a view that take the rhythms, syncopations and anticipations of social life as seriously as it takes what happens within each situation.Less
Based on five years of ethnographic fieldwork, Summoned is an in-depth exploration of the social worlds of Orthodox Jews in a Los Angeles neighborhood as well as a theoretical exploration of the co-construction of identification, interaction and the patterning of social worlds. Located off Hollywood and Melrose—a space known better for aspiring artists than for its religious life—the neighborhood surprisingly emerged as one of the main hubs of Orthodoxy on the West Coast of the US. The study thus traces the everyday ways in which religious life can thrive in the midst of an urban environment that seems to be sharply at odds with its most basic sensibilities. Focusing on the multiple ways in which Orthodox residents are pulled into Orthodox social life, it moves from the synagogue to everyday encounters the street; from panhandlers coming all the way from Israel, to the way residents balance the non-Jewish world they work in, and a religious existence that seeks to erase such profanity. Focusing on this density of social life, the book is simultaneously a theoretical essay on interaction, culture and the theory of action. As such, it argues for an inter-situational view of social life, a view that take the rhythms, syncopations and anticipations of social life as seriously as it takes what happens within each situation.
Nicole P. Marwell
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226509068
- eISBN:
- 9780226509082
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226509082.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. The primary goal of this book has been to offer an alternative for theoretically grounding empirical investigation of the problem of ...
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This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. The primary goal of this book has been to offer an alternative for theoretically grounding empirical investigation of the problem of social integration and social order in the city and beyond. It has challenged the notion that, in contemporary society, integration and order are produced principally within geographically bounded subareas of the city. The book has argued that integration and order derive substantially from the distribution of resources and opportunities within particular fields of economic and political action—such as housing production, government spending, and employment—and that the competitive and cooperative processes underlying this distribution should thus be a principal focus of urban sociologists interested in poverty and inequality. An examination of the economic and political fields within which community-based organizations carry out their daily activities also yields a more complete understanding of how social integration and social order are produced in contemporary society.Less
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. The primary goal of this book has been to offer an alternative for theoretically grounding empirical investigation of the problem of social integration and social order in the city and beyond. It has challenged the notion that, in contemporary society, integration and order are produced principally within geographically bounded subareas of the city. The book has argued that integration and order derive substantially from the distribution of resources and opportunities within particular fields of economic and political action—such as housing production, government spending, and employment—and that the competitive and cooperative processes underlying this distribution should thus be a principal focus of urban sociologists interested in poverty and inequality. An examination of the economic and political fields within which community-based organizations carry out their daily activities also yields a more complete understanding of how social integration and social order are produced in contemporary society.
David R. Diaz
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814784044
- eISBN:
- 9780814724705
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814784044.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter challenges current planning ideology by claiming that what is being called “New Urbanism” is in reality “barrio urbanism” or “Latina/o urbanism.” The social function of the city that New ...
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This chapter challenges current planning ideology by claiming that what is being called “New Urbanism” is in reality “barrio urbanism” or “Latina/o urbanism.” The social function of the city that New Urbanists are trying to restore still exists in barrios and has not fundamentally changed over the past century. The barrio's cultural logic of a communally oriented spatial arena that reflects rich interrelationships and social networks has intrinsic value for planning and urban sociology. Yet New Urbanism has not even so much undervalued barrio urbanism as totally ignored it. This chapter thus shows how the everyday life of el barrio exemplifies a workable, enduring alternative to the suburban model that has persisted throughout the decades of failed suburban policy, arguing that this historic urbanism is not “new.”Less
This chapter challenges current planning ideology by claiming that what is being called “New Urbanism” is in reality “barrio urbanism” or “Latina/o urbanism.” The social function of the city that New Urbanists are trying to restore still exists in barrios and has not fundamentally changed over the past century. The barrio's cultural logic of a communally oriented spatial arena that reflects rich interrelationships and social networks has intrinsic value for planning and urban sociology. Yet New Urbanism has not even so much undervalued barrio urbanism as totally ignored it. This chapter thus shows how the everyday life of el barrio exemplifies a workable, enduring alternative to the suburban model that has persisted throughout the decades of failed suburban policy, arguing that this historic urbanism is not “new.”
Fleur Thomése, Tine Buffel, and Chris Phillipson
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781447331315
- eISBN:
- 9781447331339
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447331315.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
Chapter 3 places the debate about AFCCs within a sociological context and explore the links between ‘community’ on the one side, and the idea of ‘age-friendliness’ on the other. The chapter draws ...
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Chapter 3 places the debate about AFCCs within a sociological context and explore the links between ‘community’ on the one side, and the idea of ‘age-friendliness’ on the other. The chapter draws upon a range of theoretical perspectives in sociological and community studies to assess current pressures facing communities, especially those linked with neighbourhood inequalities and the impact of globalisation. It concludes by discussing strategies for strengthening the community dimension of AFCCs and develops key principles for a critical social policy strategy which promotes age-friendliness.Less
Chapter 3 places the debate about AFCCs within a sociological context and explore the links between ‘community’ on the one side, and the idea of ‘age-friendliness’ on the other. The chapter draws upon a range of theoretical perspectives in sociological and community studies to assess current pressures facing communities, especially those linked with neighbourhood inequalities and the impact of globalisation. It concludes by discussing strategies for strengthening the community dimension of AFCCs and develops key principles for a critical social policy strategy which promotes age-friendliness.
Daphne Spain
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816665754
- eISBN:
- 9781452946559
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816665754.003.0003
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
Jane Addams was one of Chicago’s most prominent citizens and the most famous American woman of the Progressive Era. University of Chicago sociologists Ernest Burgess and Robert Park collaborated on ...
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Jane Addams was one of Chicago’s most prominent citizens and the most famous American woman of the Progressive Era. University of Chicago sociologists Ernest Burgess and Robert Park collaborated on urban research throughout the 1920s and their 1925 edited volume, The City, became the bible of the Chicago school of urban sociology. This chapter explores the different visions of Chicago held by participants in the American settlement house movement, epitomized by Addams, and members of the Chicago school of urban sociology, as represented by Burgess. Settlement house workers and sociologists documented social problems associated with rapid industrialization, yet they had different priorities. The urban sociologists saw themselves as academic theorists; settlement house residents considered themselves activists. Where Burgess saw social breakdown, Addams saw community strengths. Because they had minimal interaction, their respective visions of the city barely touched. Sociological theory and practice could have converged in Chicago during the 1920s but the historical moment was lost. The two became estranged and social work became a mostly separate and less academically prestigious profession.Less
Jane Addams was one of Chicago’s most prominent citizens and the most famous American woman of the Progressive Era. University of Chicago sociologists Ernest Burgess and Robert Park collaborated on urban research throughout the 1920s and their 1925 edited volume, The City, became the bible of the Chicago school of urban sociology. This chapter explores the different visions of Chicago held by participants in the American settlement house movement, epitomized by Addams, and members of the Chicago school of urban sociology, as represented by Burgess. Settlement house workers and sociologists documented social problems associated with rapid industrialization, yet they had different priorities. The urban sociologists saw themselves as academic theorists; settlement house residents considered themselves activists. Where Burgess saw social breakdown, Addams saw community strengths. Because they had minimal interaction, their respective visions of the city barely touched. Sociological theory and practice could have converged in Chicago during the 1920s but the historical moment was lost. The two became estranged and social work became a mostly separate and less academically prestigious profession.
Michael Oluf Emerson and Kevin T. Smiley
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781479856794
- eISBN:
- 9781479882922
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479856794.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
The book’s claim is that cities in the twenty-first century are diverging in their fundamental priorities in one of two directions: toward markets or toward people. In introducing the concepts of ...
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The book’s claim is that cities in the twenty-first century are diverging in their fundamental priorities in one of two directions: toward markets or toward people. In introducing the concepts of Market Cities and People Cities, we make our primary argument that cities are not the homogeneous lot that many urban scholars might lead us to believe. Rather, our investigation of Copenhagen and Houston supplies the evidence that there are wide and important differences across cities. In this chapter, we state this argument, address a few critical questions, illustrate the concepts using a journey through our two cities, and preview the chapters to come.Less
The book’s claim is that cities in the twenty-first century are diverging in their fundamental priorities in one of two directions: toward markets or toward people. In introducing the concepts of Market Cities and People Cities, we make our primary argument that cities are not the homogeneous lot that many urban scholars might lead us to believe. Rather, our investigation of Copenhagen and Houston supplies the evidence that there are wide and important differences across cities. In this chapter, we state this argument, address a few critical questions, illustrate the concepts using a journey through our two cities, and preview the chapters to come.
Iddo Tavory
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226321868
- eISBN:
- 9780226322193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226322193.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sociology of Religion
The chapter outlines the historical emergence of the Orthodox neighborhood from a Jewish ethnic enclave and into its status as a religious hub today, and the way in which multiple forms of Orthodoxy ...
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The chapter outlines the historical emergence of the Orthodox neighborhood from a Jewish ethnic enclave and into its status as a religious hub today, and the way in which multiple forms of Orthodoxy defined the space. As I show, the neighborhood began as a middle class, mobile ethnic enclave in the 1930s. Although there were some strict Orthodox pioneers, only in the 1970s did strict Orthodox organizations make significant inroads into the neighborhood, with organizations transplanted from the Orthodox centers on the East Coast. I show how this history problematizes the tropes of “supply” and “demand” sociologists of religion often employ. The neighborhood was not transformed primarily because it made its residents Orthodox, but because once enough organizational infrastructure was in place, Orthodox men and women from elsewhere could migrate there.Less
The chapter outlines the historical emergence of the Orthodox neighborhood from a Jewish ethnic enclave and into its status as a religious hub today, and the way in which multiple forms of Orthodoxy defined the space. As I show, the neighborhood began as a middle class, mobile ethnic enclave in the 1930s. Although there were some strict Orthodox pioneers, only in the 1970s did strict Orthodox organizations make significant inroads into the neighborhood, with organizations transplanted from the Orthodox centers on the East Coast. I show how this history problematizes the tropes of “supply” and “demand” sociologists of religion often employ. The neighborhood was not transformed primarily because it made its residents Orthodox, but because once enough organizational infrastructure was in place, Orthodox men and women from elsewhere could migrate there.
