Beverley,
Yes, I think you might find some valuable parallels in Klinenberg’s work. Also, I recommend political scientist Douglas Rae’s CITY: THE END OF URBANISM (2004?); and psychiatrist Mindy Fullilove’s ROOT SHOCK (2002?), both superb pictures of how urban neighborhoods worked or work as everyday lifeworlds. Fullilove’s work focuses on the American urban ghettoes and what they were, both in a supportive and undermining way, before integration.
I realize I didn’t give a very clear picture of Klinenberg’s work. By chance, I’m discussing his findings in an article I’m currently working on. Here is the summary section I just wrote:
In Heatwave, Klinenberg provided a detailed portrait of the two Chicago neighborhoods’ environmental and social differences. He describes North Lawndale as a neighborhood of derelict buildings, shuttered stores, second-tier fast-food eateries, abandoned lots, deteriorating housing stock, few employment opportunities, and much crime, especially drug dealing. One result was that Lawndale residents have few neighborhood sites as local destinations or places of employment. As one long-time resident explained to Klinenberg, “There’s not very much in the streets for people to do here anymore.” 94
The deterioration of North Lawndale’s local economy and commercial activity has been devastating for the neighborhood’s street life. Klinenberg referred to Jane Jacobs’s claim that a good number of shops, eateries, and other secondary functions are crucial in maintaining informal sidewalk and street safety: ‘Commercial institutions draw residents and passersby out into the sidewalks and streets, inviting foot traffic and promoting social interaction among consumers, merchants, and people who simply enjoy participating in or observing street life’. As North Lawndale’s economy declined, residents able to do so forsook the area, leaving behind empty houses as well as neighbors who had not the will or resources to leave. These residents who remained often withdrew inwardly from North Lawndale by finding social support beyond the neighborhood or isolating themselves. Klinenberg determined that, during the heat wave, it was largely the place-alienated individuals who died. They had neither the social contacts to assist them nor the courage to seek help in a threatening neighborhood offering few public or commercial establishments where they might escape the heat. There was little collective life that might have protected these isolated individuals, most of whom were older persons living alone ‘with limited social contacts and weak support networks during normal times’. 41
Though Little Village is just one street south of North Lawndale, Klinenberg described the dramatic environmental changes one notices in moving toward Little Village’s commercial core on Twenty-sixth Street, called by locals Calle Mexico. Even though Little Village had similar proportions of poor elderly and elderly living alone, the neighborhood incorporated lively retail, bustling sidewalks, and many more dwellings, all of which were occupied. Whereas North Lawndale’s place ensemble undermined neighborhood activity, Little Village’s facilitated ‘public life and informal social support for residents’. 109 This robust place activity was particularly important for older residents living alone because it drew them out of their dwellings into the streets and public places where they made the social contact that isolated individuals in North Lawndale were much less able to establish. During the heat wave, the activity of nearby streets provided shops, eateries, and other places where these individuals might find respite from the heat. Most vulnerable during the heat wave were older white residents remaining in the neighborhood after it had become mostly Latino. For the most part, however, they too were protected. Klinenberg concludes that ‘the robust public life of the region draws all but the most infirm residents out of their homes, promoting social interaction, network ties, and healthy behavior’. 110
In discussing the two neighborhoods, Klinenberg also considered social and culture differences and the contrasting significance of more formal social and cultural institutions, including churches and block clubs. But most of the explanation for the two neighborhoods’ dramatically different heat-wave death rates he assigned to the neighborhoods’ contrasting place qualities, especially the significance of Little Village’s lively neighborhood sidewalk and street life largely supporting and supported by an environmental and human diversity grounded in lived bodies meeting in interpersonal encounter because of a supportive material space and environment. Klinenberg concluded:
Many of the [Little Village] elderly I interviewed explained that during the heat wave they sought relief in the air-conditioned stores on Twenty-sixth Street, just as they do on ordinary summer days. Not only did elderly residents in Little Village have less to fear on the sidewalks and streets than did their neighbors in North Lawndale; living in a region with busy commercial traffic and active streets, they also had more incentive to go outdoors and walk to places where they could get relief. The rich commercial resources and a flourishing sidewalk culture animated public areas throughout the neighborhood; and there were always people, including seniors with their pushcarts full of groceries and small bags of goods, in the streets when I did my fieldwork…. [T]he sidewalks are primary conduits for social contact and control. The relative security of these public areas makes it easier for residents of Little Village—even the older whites—to engage with their neighbors and participate in community events. 116-17
Dr. David Seamon
Professor of Environment-Behavior & Place Research
Department of Architecture
211 Seaton Hall
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506-2901
785-532-5953
