Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-tsvsl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-30T03:17:00.695Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - The city as a mosaic of social worlds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2012

Duncan Timms
Duncan Timms
Affiliation:
University of Stirling
Get access

Summary

RESIDENTIAL DIFFERENTIATION

The urban community is neither an undifferentiated mass nor a haphazard collection of buildings and people. In the residential differentiation of the city the urban fabric comes to resemble a ‘mosaic of social worlds’. Similar populations cluster together and come to characterize their areas. As Park put it:

In the course of time every sector and quarter of the city takes on something of the character and qualities of its inhabitants. Each separate part of the city is inevitably stained with the peculiar sentiments of its population. The effect of this is to convert what was at first a mere geographical expression into a neighbourhood, that is to say, a locality with sentiments, traditions, and a history of its own.

The residential differentiation of the urban population takes place in terms of many attributes and in many ways. Almost any criterion which can be used for differentiating between individuals and groups may become the basis for their physical separation. The process of separation may be accomplished through force, through a variety of sanctions, through a voluntary aggregation designed as a defence against unfamiliar ideas or customs or as an escape from persecution and discrimination, and through a selection of market forces. In much early town planning residential differentiation and segregation appear as prime characteristics.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Urban Mosaic
Towards a Theory of Residential Differentiation
 , pp. 1 - 35
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1971

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×