Customer Reviews

To Dwell among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book reads like a 250 page sociology paper. It attempts to debunk the idea that people living in urban environments suffer a degraded social network as compared to people in more rural settings. Basically, the author conducted a major survey analyzing several hundred (or thousand perhaps) people's relationships including friends, kin, neighbors, etc.

The study took place in the 1980s making it somewhat dated, and was focused in California which may not be a representative sample of the entire US. Moving past the initial issues with the 'study' so to speak, the book becomes quite interesting by comparing the difference in social networks between people living in the 'regional core' - most urban part of the city, the 'metropolitan area' - suburbs, 'towns nearby' - pretty self explanatory, and 'semi-rural areas'.

What I find interesting about the book is how it constantly compares and contrasts the experience of living in all of these settings. The book also attempts to define what KIND of networks people in each setting are more likely to have, i.e. a network composed mostly of kin, neighbors, and some friends, or a network composed mostly of friends, coworkers, and some kin. It quantifies the difference between the networks, and offers some decent explanations for why a person in the most urban area may be more likely to have networks with more coworkers, whereas in small towns networks may be composed mostly of kin.

I also like how the book breaks up network support in the practical, counseling, and companion based support.

I should mention that this book in no way contains sociological 'fluff.' Meaning that they pretty carefully look at the statistical data taken directly from their surveys to back everything up.

This book will give you a general sense between the trade-offs of living in the urban part of a city, suburbia, outer towns, and far out from the city. It will also change the way you think about people in your network and give you the ability to look at your friends, family, neighbors, etc. from a much broader perspective. In this manner I like the book, but make no mistake its quite boring at times.