The Ties That Bind Chapter 6 Amina Sillah, PhD.

What is a Community Consciously identify with each other "Community" refers to a population whose members are : defined by its geographic location Consciously identify with each other share a certain trait Engage in common activities People who share an identity and culture (social cohesion). See Phillips p.167 There is general agreement that communities in the United States are threatened, and many are in decline.

A Sense of Community? Communities based on territory dominated by social relationships Shared identity and interdependence (“we- ness”) Communities based on common culture Dominated by shared characteristics

Community as a System The most difficult system to define with precision. Community is a macro system. Held together by feeling and sentiment. At the interface between society and microsystems.

Energy Functions The functions the community performs include the maintenance of a way of life or culture. Another important function is the satisfaction of common needs, interests, and ambitions. Members of a community must be aware of its “we- ness”.

Modernization theory and Social Change Modernization: The process of social change initiated by industrialization. The key dimensions are: Decline of small, traditional communities: Cars, TV, and high-tech communications puts small towns in touch with the world Expansion of personal choice: An unending series of options referred to as “individualization” These transformations – Economic and technical come with a loss of : Loss of attachment Loss of sense of connection to culture, security and identity Evolutionary NOT revolutionary

Causes of Social Change Innovation Production of new objects, ideas, and social patterns Discovery Taking note of certain elements of a culture Diffusion The spread of products, people, and information from one culture to another

Social and Theoretical Roots of Modern Urban Theory (Selected) Ferdinand Tonnies (Community and Society -1887)- German sociologist Introduced in the West one of the more enduring and effective ways of understanding social change. Proposed that we understand social change by distinguishing between communities and societies.

Ferdinand Tonnies (cont.) Gemeinschaft (community) characterized : people in rural village have an essential unity of purpose work together for the common good united by ties of family (kinship) and neighborhood land worked communally by inhabitants, social life characterized by intimate, private and exclusive living together members bound by common language and traditions recognized common goods and evils, common friends and enemies sense of we-ness or our-ness

Ferdinand Tonnies (cont.) Gesellschaft (Society)characterized: large city city life is a mechanical aggregate characterized by disunity, rampant individualism and selfishness meaning of existence shifts from group to individual rational, calculating, each person understood in terms of a particular role and service provided.

Georg Simmel Society is not an abstract creation – rather it is an intricate web of patterned multiple relations between individuals in constant interaction Society is made of group interaction vs. individual interaction

Social Types Simmel created “social types” which characterized different individuals within a society Each type needs to be present in order for society to exist Examples of types include: “the stranger”, “the wanderer”, and “the poor”

Classical Urban Theory Durkheim(1858-1917) Two types of social bonds mechanical and organic solidarity Mechanical solidarity- shared beliefs, values, and traditions; homogeneity of thought; typical of rural areas and simple societies Organic solidarity- society held together by a specialized division of labor; common in complex societies

Living in cities Spengler (Culture and civilization) – analysis based on socio–psychological: people interacted based on feelings Wirth - urban dwellers develop coping mechanisms for living in high-density, heterogeneous areas, including becoming sophisticated and depersonalizing from others

Aspects of Community Systems How a sense of community will be maintained is not clear. Divisions of social class or status, ethnic or racial heritage, religion, or ideology, continue to frustrate efforts to strengthen a sense of “the common” shared by all inhabitants. The shape taken by cities of the future is being determined by experiences and crises in cities today.