Search

The article explores the need for a systemised structure of the organisation of urban pastoral work. Religious life can find its social basis and offer the experience of community in faith only through human contacts made secure institutionally by an organisation for pastoral care corresponding to the dichotomy of desire for privacy and desire for community life. The urban religious crisis in the industrial age, however, was accompanied from the beginning by the breaking up of the social structures so that the structure of pastoral care inevitably became unsuitable. All pastoral care work in a town must start from the concept of the social fact of the whole town, for only in this way can the personal and social activities that overlap parish boundaries by satisfactorily linked up and combined. There is still lacking in the church organisation an intermediate system between parish and diocese which would permit the simultaneous decentralisation of diocesan responsibilities and the coordination of functions of pastoral care among the individual parishes of the town. The first step in deanery re-organisation under the city church system would be the restriction of the area of the deaneries to that of the actual city. Because the consonance of the social and religious entities has been lost as a result of the urban parish losing its character of primary group, the social and local bonds and contacts must be secured by organisational measures and expedients.

This study examines attitudinal manifestations of anomia and militancy among the Negro populations of three lower-class neighborhoods. Translating these ideas into the present research context, the basic question asked is: What is the relative impact of ecological setting and of the social characteristics of persons (such as social participation and socioeconomic status) in predicting attitudes? The two attitudes studied are anomia, measured by the Stole Anomia Scale, and militancy, measured by a recently published Militancy Scale. The study focuses upon anomia and militancy at two levels of analysis—the neighborhood level and at the individual level. The neighborhood analysis is directed toward measuring the impact of a given ecological setting on the attitudes of those residing in the area. The individual analysis centers around the social attributes of the respondent (the standard socioeconomic indicators, as well as several social participation measures) and their association with militancy and anomia. While sociologists have examined the effect of social context, they have seldom separated the consequences of social conditions from those of a person's own attributes, principally because most sociological data furnish information about social aggregates rather than individuals, (Blau, 1960:179; Coleman, 1969:86-114). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost without exception, students of community life have held that the neighborhood as a basis for association disappears as the degree of urbanization increases. Simmel and Park provided the early theoretical basis; Bernard, McClenhan, Roper, Sweetser, and others, conducted early empirical studies which provided the factual basis for Wirth's later restatement of the Simmel-Park position. After this initial research, which could be characterized as "Chicago style," interest in the problem waned. Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in the problems of urbanization including studies of neighboring as well as other forms of social participation. On the basis of these theoretical statements and empirical studies, most students of the community have continued to point out that contacts with neighbors are less frequent and more superficial in the city than they are in the country. Unfortunately, however well conceived and well executed the empirical studies in this area have been, they do not provide a factual basis for the comparative statements given in most urban-sociology textbooks. The research has been confined to studies of one neighborhood, or two or more neighborhoods in the same city. In addition, none of the studies uses the same "valid" scale for populations from various points on a rural-urban continuum. The problem of testing the above hypothesis, i.e., that there is a negative relationship between urbanism and frequency or quality of neighborhood contacts, is two-fold: to develop a "valid" scale applicable to people located at any point along the urbanism continuum; and to interview a sample of people located at various points along that continuum. Work that tests this hypothesis and is aimed at solving both the problems outlined above is the interest of this paper. Because of the resurgence of interest in the area and a possibly wider use for the scale, it was decided to report these results even though the full work was completed almost eleven years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the distribution of population in the U.S. Sense of history in dealing with residence, migration, socio-economic traits and vital rates; Concept of community; Scheme for the functional classification of cities.

This article focuses on certain ecological patterns of Honolulu, Hawaii. American sociologists who have attempted to test in Honolulu the principles of human ecology as these have been developed in the study of U.S. cities have often expected Honolulu to be markedly different from U.S. cities. For instance, six characteristics have been listed, such as that Honolulu's metropolitan district comprises an island, which is 2,000 miles from a continent and has a fairly limited base. Also, services to the armed forces, tourism, and plantation agriculture, whose employment centers are widely dispersed. In addition, except for rainfall, Honolulu has an equable climate, and its ethnic composition is unique. Like the travellers to Hawaii, sociologists expect to find a South Sea town, or, knowing that over half the population is derived from the Far East, a typical Oriental city. Characteristics that sociologists find unique about Honolulu include the absence of billboards, distinct relevance for U.S. cities, rather than being highly bizarre or exotic irrelevant characteristics. Apparently, Honolulu is a center of dominance by which its hinterland is economically integrated with the national and world market.

The article discusses that villages holds possibilities for the future development of our civilization that neither the city nor open country possess. Because the village is the meeting place of these two extremes, it has a chance, which is distinctly unique, to select, conserve, and develop the best from both. Also, decentralization of industry is taking place and manufacturing plants are going to the villages on a small scale. Due to these changes with the accompanying diversity of occupations, more and more trained men and women are being found in the villages. In fact, a few people are returning to the village from the city. Besides, farmers' open country spontaneous and unconscious community organization has broken down through systems of rapid transit. This same system is carrying the farmer into the villages and causing him to mix with the laboring men and businessmen. Moreover, concentration is taking place in the churches, schools, hospitals, and other institutionalized activities. With all this development, city meeting country in the village, villages have infinite possibilities to make great contributions to civilization and become the stabilizing force in the industrial revolution.

A few studies have been made purporting to prove the neighborhood to be outmoded and no longer a significant group in rural society. Nevertheless, it may be pointed out that the concept has wide acceptance and use in rural and urban sociology, and that the term is used by people in both rural and urban areas. This study examines the formation of neighborhoods in several counties of Illinois. It is noted that the concept of neighborhood was found valuable in Illinois studies relating to school-district reorganization, as an important guide for the location of natural community boundaries of new community-unit school districts. The method used in Illinois to "bound" neighborhoods was based primarily on whom farm people called their neighbors. The neighborhood maps presented in this study are the result of the said method of mapping.

This paper examines a number of dimensions of public response to the crime problem. A sample from a high crime rate urban area and a sample from a low crime rate suburban area are compared. The urban sample perceives higher local crime rates than the suburban sample, and it also feels less safe, less trustful of others, and less positive affect for the community than the suburban sample. Relationships between perception of crime and the dimensions of response are stronger in the urban sample than in the suburban sample, suggesting a threshold effect may be operating, with perception of crime affecting dimensions of community life only after that perception has passed a certain level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an analysis of a group of offenders who, with the exception of minor traffic violators, constitute the great bulk of law-breakers in the small city. Special efforts at job placement for the petty offender are important, because it becomes progressively more difficult for him to achieve steady employment once the community becomes aware of his past behavior. Such a circular reaction must be broken if the petty offender is not to continue to relinquish institutional norms and cultural goals. He should, if possible, be placed in a situation in which the rewards for accepting such norms and goals can be made real to him. It is desirable that the petty offenders be organized under their own sponsorship in order that a socially acceptable sense of self may develop in a quasi-primary group situation and that their energies may be diverted into activities which will give them a feeling of belonging to the society from which they are rapidly becoming alienated. A club such as the one suggested here would help in many ways to make petty offenders a part of society again. They would have a new responsibility in organizing the club, laying plans, making and enforcing rules.

The major objective of this paper is to describe with a high degree of specificity the more significant economic, demographic and social determinants, and dimensions of crime areas in a large urban community. The basic data include two series of crime statistics, "offenses known to the police" and "arrests," totaling over 65,000 cases, along with detailed economic, demographic, and social statistics from the 1950 decennial census. A 38 x 38 correlation matrix, based on 20 crime indices and 18 economic, demo graphic, and social variables was derived. This matrix was analyzed by the principal axes technique. Eight factors were extracted and retained for orthogonal rotation. To determine how the basic dimensions derived for the community as a whole are related to specific areas, standard factor scores for each of the eight factors were computed for the 93 census tracts in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the city of Shanghai, China. Assuming that Shanghai, in spite of the present disruption of its normal functions, has certain elements of permanence as a community, it briefly examines some of the essential conditions of its reconstruction. Shanghai has often been discussed as a city without a past. It may seem to have no future. But cities neither rise nor disappear in a day. Such towns, when they survive, achieve cityhood later, through the logic of their internal development and their services to a much larger area than that which they enclose. A city is the fixed abode of most of those who inhabit it, and its first function is to provide for their safety and the orderly conduct of their affairs. But it remains an armed camp if it does not include also the concentration of economic, administrative, and cultural functions for an area extending at least over a radius equivalent to a convenient day's journey. These are largely independent of the exact nature which the government of the city may assume after the end of the present war and the degree to which control will pass out of the hands which now hold it. They reside largely in the organic needs of an urban community, and can neither be removed nor set aside by arbitrary decisions.

The article presents a detailed discussion about neighborhood changes and expansion in urban areas. It tells of the concept of instability in almost all urban areas in the United States. It explains that instability occurs because of the continuous growth of American cities and towns, which makes utilization areas, commercial districts, residential areas, and industrial regions in constant relocations and disrupting each other's community life. It mentions that population growth also greatly affects the stability of every urban area.

The most significant development in the community life of American cities during the past decade has been the development of the community fund movement. Previous to 1917 there were some beginnings of the movement in several cities. Cleveland and Cincinnati in particular had begun a joint method of financing their social work agencies, and the Jewish group in a number of cities had achieved a federation of their social work activities. The incidence of the war, however, brought to all American communities the problem of raising large amounts of money quickly for the welfare activities of a number of national agencies. War chests set the community fund movement ahead much farther than a decade of peace-time activity could have done. After the close of the war community chests for local agencies appeared rapidly in a large number of cities and continued to grow in numbers until at present there are approximately 300. While the stimulus of the war chests had much to do with hastening the movement, it cannot in itself explain the completeness with which it has spread over American cities.

The quality of local government in large measure determines the quality of life for its residents, particularly the poor whose options are limited. The standards of service and justice achieved in the basic functions of municipal government influence the standards achieved in every facet of community life. Cities, counties, and other local governments are the agencies through which citizens establish community standards and provide for their common welfare and security. Local government is also the delivery system for many of the most essential of state and federal services. To the traditional functions of local government have been added in recent years a dramatically increased concern and responsibility for social services. Local governments' efforts to assure justice and provide service equally to all citizens have failed too often to serve adequately those whose needs are greatest. The poor, the old, the handicapped, the subjects of ethnic and racial discrimination have often been overlooked by local government. That society as a whole has failed them increases the responsibility of the local government management profession to intensify its efforts now to serve them better.

The modern period of city planning, which dates roughly from the World's Fair of 1893, has been dominated from its inception by architects, landscape architects, and engineers. Their domination has spread from the private consulting firms to the established planning commissions and departments on federal, state, and local levels. For years the problems laced and dealt with in the planning field were problems with which these specialists were equipped to deal, and the buildings, fountains, civic centers, lagoons, monuments, and even the highways were treated in isolation from the thinking and research of the social scientists. The latter were pursuing the problems of urbanism in their own way, and for the most part with neither knowledge or concern of efforts of those technicians in the drivers' seats of the planning firms, commissions, or departments. The plea made by this paper is that the social scientist in general, and the urban sociologist in particular, make certain amendments and additions before the planners.

The article discusses various aspects of the symbolism of urban space. These include ceremonial areas, locale, location and others. Some of this sociological research can be utilized for a specific interest in the spatial representations of urban populations. The article first describes briefly certain aspects of several studies in order to suggest modes of analyzing and ordering the spatial representations of various urban populations. The major ordering principle that the article utilizes will be the city themes characteristically found in novels about urban life. One persistent theme has been the search for some viable metropolitan existence by migrants with rural or small town backgrounds. Another persistent theme found in novels about city life is that cities are conducive to personal demoralization and are characterized by the destructive impersonality of their relationships. Sociological studies of urban communities lend themselves to suggestions of what may be the predominant spatial representations held by inhabitants of those communities.

Data comparing working-class families living in a suburb with similar families living in a central city are presented which challenge some commonly held assumptions about suburban life. It is suggested that for working-class women, moving to the suburbs takes on the social-psychological characteristics of a crisis. Evidence is presented to support two propositions: (1) upward mobility deprives these women of a system of structural supports and therefore increases their sense of social isolation and disaffection; and (2) the sense of social disaffection is associated with a breakdown in primary group relations. The move to the suburbs is considered as a special care relevant to these generalizations. A sequence of events leading to social disaffection is inferred sterling with migration away from neighborhoods end families of orientation. This leads to isolation and the need to change conjugal and external roles which, in turn, makes marital conflict a more salient issue, thereby increasing the disaffection of the women involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the population of the U.S. and of the world becomes increasingly urbanized, it becomes important for all social workers, not only those working in community organization, to develop an accurate picture of the city as a community. But such a picture must include the new kinds of relationships and new social worlds that residents of the city are creating, for such social worlds are gradually producing new identities with which persons fashion their lives. This article is concerned with the depiction of some of the newer of those worlds, especially the less visible and obvious. But before one can look at them, we must look at a set of attitudes that stands in the way. If one were to try to sum up the most widely held attitudes toward the city in modem times, one would be forced to conclude that, contrary to the favorable view suggested by the proverb, there must be a prejudice against the city. In politics a rural origin continues to be considered an asset. In the novels of Theodore Dreiser, Thomas Wolfe, John Dos Passos, and James T. Farrell, the city is a terrible place.

The article discusses the concept neighborhood unit, which has been based upon convenient statistics at the expense of sociological facts. It is maintained that many physical planners have misunderstood the available sociological information. This applies in particular to those planners who believe that the secret of neighborliness lies in finding appropriate catchment areas for various primary institutions. It has consequently led them to underestimate the psychological factors. It has caused many planners to think in terms of neighborhood units rather than neighborliness, which is rather like confusing houses with homes. This article attempts to unravel some of the difficulties and to put forward some helpful suggestions. The present lack of understanding between planners and sociologists is due partly to this confusion of terms as well as to the planners' attitude towards the value of the social sciences. Yet, consciously or otherwise, planners have to make sociological value judgments.

This article presents information on community councils. It is informed that a community council is a group composed of persons representing each community organization, agency, and interest. It is open to every one on a nonprofit, nonpartisan basis. It is organized on a community basis in towns and small cities, and on a neighborhood basis in large cities. The council may advise the organizations in the town, when asked; appoint a committee from its own membership to carry on certain tasks; or cooperate with any organization that may wish to carry on a given activity in the community. The council often has an executive committee for policy planning, and may find it necessary to give the details of responsibility to a secretary or coordinator on a half-time or full-time basis. It is opined that the best type of community council constitution is not known; a lot depends upon the cooperative understanding of the members of the community than upon the written framework adopted by the organization.

The article discusses problems in Americanization of the city of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Two decades ago a group of pioneering stock of Italians settled in Fitchburg. Socially, educationally, and religiously these Italians were self-sufficient. They retained almost entirely the cultural pattern of their native land. Their community life was their social life. They preserved their language to an amazing degree. Soon a group of English miners, relatively small, settled about a mile to the south of the Italian community. A modern twelve-room structure was designed to serve the needs of a growing community. School programs were planned in which Italians as well as English took part. The school exerted a definite influence in the desire of more children to remain in school for a longer period as was evinced by the increasing number of children graduating from high school and going on to the university. Fitchburg, like many other communities, organized a Community Chest to which each wage earner contributed two percent of his monthly salary for unemployment relief.

The article focuses on community organization. It informs that the poor school, the foul garbage, and the restricted welfare services were all familiar blights. Inertia, fear, irresponsibility, lack of imagination, and the simple fact that no one had seriously believed that anything could be done had combined to produce a mood of fatalism. Community organization is more than a matter of structure, such as the delineation of functions, the definition of roles, the designation of offices and the formulation of by-laws for the regulation of these elements. Instead community organization is a dynamic process of community problem solving imbedded in interplay of forces, interests and resistances with enough machinery to make the process manageable. Many thoughtful observers are convinced that the impersonal conditions of modern urban living often lead to an impoverishment of social life for the individual and that as a reaction against this impoverishment there is a great drive for a satisfying togetherness, especially in our large cities.

The article presents information on the concept of social mobility among farm operators in North Carolina. The degree of territorial shifting among the farm owning and operating group is very low. North Carolina owners are an immobile group. It is a relatively old farming area. The lack of mobility among its owner operator class leads to the suggestion that, in old and settled agricultural communities, mobility of farm owner operators is slight. Farmers do not move long distances to occupy and work land, but remain in the same region where they were born. Nor, is the Latin owner operating class made up to any large extent of persons born and reared in villages, towns, or cities. The major conclusion of this study is that farm owner operators are not a mobile class in North Carolina. The importance of this immobility, geographically or occupationally, from the point of view of rural organization, lies in the fact that such an immobile group, with long-time attachment to the community of which they are members, and with which they are bound by economic ties, may form the nucleus around which the building of strong community life is possible.

The article discusses the problems in the development of cooperation between social work agencies and churches in the rural districts of the U.S. The most obvious set of problems centers around the proper division of functions between the social worker and minister. These problems are not peculiar to the rural field alone but they are more acute there because of the limited resources. The minister, if he is a resident in the community where lie works, should function as a local volunteer leader; the social worker, who in rural work is usually a county worker, as an outside specialist. No less important, however, than the problems arising from personal inadequacy are those arising from technical incapacity. The minister who is not well trained in methods of dealing with personal situations and methods of group organization is not the man to whom the social worker can look for leadership in attacking the social problems in his community. If the minister must bring community knowledge and community leadership to the social worker, it is no less important that the social worker bring on her side a thorough mastery of her technique, both case work and organization, and a through knowledge of resources outside the community.

The article focuses on the book "The Social Trend," by Edward A. Ross. The book is suggestive, thought-provoking. It is made up of a selection of articles from current magazines, and lectures delivered on various occasions, it has a series of widely diverging appeals. According to Ross, the book is an attempt of an observer at the masthead to judge the probable course of the ship, and to call out what lies ahead, and how the ship must bear to starboard or to port in order to avoid trouble. A more careful and rigid selection of the immigrants that come to the U.S. shores, and this selection made in the homeland across the sea rather than here, is Ross' suggestion. The intellectual and moral conditions of country life are subjects of concern. The best and strongest of the young men and women, those who are by nature equipped for leadership, are leaving, going to the cities. The development and maintenance of the social and business life of the community is left in the care of mediocre individuals.

The article focuses on social problems. Sociologist Jackson Toby says that delinquency cannot be explained by the effectiveness of the treatment program. Rejecting the explanation of effectiveness of a treatment program, Toby speculates that to escape the delinquent influences of slums, parents move to more wholesome communities. The effect of being designated for special treatment differs according to the socioeconomic level of the neighborhood for two reasons. First, such special treatment is more conspicuous in good than in poor neighborhoods-there is greater likelihood of stigmatization. Secondly, stigmatization is likely to be more harmful to the individual's self-concept in good neighborhoods, because in these neighborhoods one's evaluation of his self-concept is more likely to coincide with the evaluation of conventional members of the society. The damage to the self-concepts of subjects singled out as being in need of special treatment to prevent delinquency caused an unexpectedly high rate of convictions among the treatment group in good neighborhoods.