Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T15:53:35.726Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Transitional environments: health and the perception of permanence in urban micro-environments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2010

L. M. Schell
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Albany
S. J. Ulijaszek
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

Editors' introduction

This chapter, and the one preceding it, by Clark, address the issue of diversity and character of “urban” places. Trailer parks, which Huss-Ashmore and Behrman term “permanently transitional communities,” defy classification in common categories of urban places, demonstrating Clark's point about the uselessness of simple categories for either description or analysis. The macrolevel perspective provided by Clark is complemented by the microlevel approach taken here. The analysis works on several levels. Like Clark, Huss-Ashmore and Behrman address the issue of what an urban place is, by examining the culture, environment and biology of residents of trailer parks. The approach is remarkably similar to that used in adaptability studies which were usually conducted with remote and isolated communities and sought to understand how the biological and cultural systems worked adaptively. A key theoretic and methodological problem for such studies has been defining the boundaries of the study population. Today more then ever before, communities are linked to larger networks through economic relations. In an urban world where boundaries are often indistinct, the authors are able to define a community for intense, ethnographic and human biologic study. Ironically, the community defined in this chapter is characterised by an ideology of transition, although residence in trailer parks may be long-term and anything but transient.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1999

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
×