Herbert Gans' study of Italian Americans in Boston's West End is one of the classics of contemporary sociology A first-hand account of life in an inner city neighborhood, it is a systematic and sensitive analysis of working-class culture_ and of the politicians, planners and other outside professionals who affect it.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
During the early 1970's, I lived Philadelphia. Working class communities in South Philadelphia were ethnically and religiously homogeneous, quite parochial places where "working class" had not yet become coterminous with "working poor." It was commonplace for close relatives to occupy row houses next to each other.
I now live in West Virginia, where rural neighborhoods are commonplace. Frequently, such neighborhoods are organized around a collection of extended families. Distances among the homes which make up the neighborhood may be substantial, thereby making informal dropping-in less convenient than in a town or city. Nevertheless, even though contacts among like-minded West Virginian's may be comparatively infrequent, when they occur the are based on the accurate presumption that participants have lived similar lives, think alike, see the world in the same way, and can deftly and unself-consciously take the role of the other.
Herbert Gans' classic The Urban Villagers provides another look at the concept neighborhood. Much as in South Philadelphia, the Urban Villagers were close-knit groups of Italian families who lived working class lives. In the case of the Urban Villagers, however, the large, unattractive buildings they occupied made it easy for an outsider to mistake a community for an impoverished ghetto. One consequence of this is that the Urban Village no longer exists: relegated by city and federal officials to the status of a slum, it fell victim to urban renewal, and was bulldozed to make room for upscale apartment buildings.
The Urban Villagers is a fascinating book that shows how ethnography should be done. It also enables us to see that neighborhoods, from time to time and place to place, take many forms. Surely, a resident of Boston or Philadelphia driving down Route 10 in West Virginia would not recognize a neighborhood if he or she saw one. Proponents of urban renewal made the same mistake in Boston.
I now live in West Virginia, where rural neighborhoods are commonplace. Frequently, such neighborhoods are organized around a collection of extended families. Distances among the homes which make up the neighborhood may be substantial, thereby making informal dropping-in less convenient than in a town or city. Nevertheless, even though contacts among like-minded West Virginian's may be comparatively infrequent, when they occur the are based on the accurate presumption that participants have lived similar lives, think alike, see the world in the same way, and can deftly and unself-consciously take the role of the other.
Herbert Gans' classic The Urban Villagers provides another look at the concept neighborhood. Much as in South Philadelphia, the Urban Villagers were close-knit groups of Italian families who lived working class lives. In the case of the Urban Villagers, however, the large, unattractive buildings they occupied made it easy for an outsider to mistake a community for an impoverished ghetto. One consequence of this is that the Urban Village no longer exists: relegated by city and federal officials to the status of a slum, it fell victim to urban renewal, and was bulldozed to make room for upscale apartment buildings.
The Urban Villagers is a fascinating book that shows how ethnography should be done. It also enables us to see that neighborhoods, from time to time and place to place, take many forms. Surely, a resident of Boston or Philadelphia driving down Route 10 in West Virginia would not recognize a neighborhood if he or she saw one. Proponents of urban renewal made the same mistake in Boston.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was pleased with the amount of information found in this informative book. I already knew about the Italian aspect of the Boston area, but I was surprised to read the extensive research in the "Urban" text. This is a great piece of work for all sociology courses. it is definitely a classic in the field of social development.
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85
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- Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration by Richard Alba in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Beyond The Mafia: Italian Americans And The Development Of Las Vegas (Shepperson Series in History Humanities) by Alan Balboni in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The American City: Civic Culture in Sociohistorical Perspective by Daniel Monti on page 275, and page 310
- Understanding Ordinary Landscapes by Paul Groth in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Four Generations: Population, Land, and Family in Colonial Andover, Massachusetts by Philip Greven on page 284, and Back Matter
See all 85 books citing this book
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