UNST 220: Understanding Communities
Dr.
Martha J. Bianco
Module III Lecture Guide
Part
II
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Community, Identity, and Place versus Space
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II. Community versus Identity
A. What
is “community”?
B.
What
does “communal” mean?
C. Understanding
other terms related to the concept of “community”:
þ
neighbor / neighboring
þ
kinship
þ
ritual
þ
secular
þ
face-to-face communications
þ
primary versus secondary groups
þ
individuality
D. Expanding the Concept of Community
1.
America the Melting Pot
America
is “the great Melting Pot, where all the races of Europe are melting and
reforming!…The real American has not yet arrived. His is only the Crucible. I tell you – he will be the fusion
of all races, the coming superman.”
--Israel Zangwill, The Melting
Pot, 1908
a.
The Browning
of America
þ
What
does this mean?
b.
Melting
Pot versus Stewpot
þ
How
is a “stewpot” different from a “melting pot”?
[Refer to graphs regarding economic divisions in Module II, at
http://www.marthabianco.com/Courses/Cities/Module-II/Lecgde2-4.html].
2. The Global
Community
Imagine a World Village of 100 people, with all the same socioeconomic and demographic ratios that currently exist in the world today. Click on the links below to see graphs of what this World Village would look like:
þ
gender
þ
race
þ
religion
þ
wealth
þ
housing
þ
literacy
E. Threats to Community
1.
Sociologist Louis Wirth (1897-1952) and the concept of alienation, in Urbanism as a
Way of Life (1938)
large population size + density
+ heterogeneity è
þ
impersonal, superficial interactions,
defined by the “pecuniary nexus”
þ
a weak
and powerless individual identity that is compartmentalized
and defined through nonfamilial relationships
þ
replacement
of emotion and intimacy with utility and efficiency
þ
depersonalization and alienation
2. French sociologist Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) and the
concept of anomie, in The Division of Labor in Society (1893)
þ
Definition
of anomie.
þ
Read
about The
Bystander
3. Atomization
a.
Louis
Wirth and definition of “minority” (1945)
b.
subculture
c.
subcommunity
d.
Herbert
Gans (1927-) and “ethnicity”
Suburbanization
as a Threat to Community?
Alice in
Wonderland: Gendered Space
How would you classify these groups
in the US:
|
African-Americans “White pride” groups (Aryan Nation) Mormons (Latter Day Saints) LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgendered) PWA (people with AIDS) Vietnam Veterans Disabled people Street people (homeless) People of color Parents of children with learning
disorders or autism |
Cancer
patients Cancer
survivors People
who smoke tobacco People
addicted to prescription pain killers People
addicted to illegal street drugs Muslims Jehovah’s
Witnesses Amish Libertarians Young
Republicans |
The Religious Right Native Americans Techies/Geeks Environmentalists Deaf people Stay-at-home moms Soccer moms Homeschooling families College students Academics |
