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The Microcommunity: Control of the Immediate Environment
The Microcommunity: Control of the Immediate Environment
Pages 67-86
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From page 67... ...
The Microcommunity: Control of the Immediate Environment As was noted in the Introduction, there are two common definitions of community. One defines a community as a population carrying on a collective life through a common set of institutions.
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From page 68... ...
Whether one examines what is left or what has left, it is apparent that although there is more variation among neighborhoods, individually they remain homogeneous. This situation arises because the settlement patterns of the diverse metropolitan population reflect such factors as socioeconomic class, the family life cycle, and ethnic background.
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From page 69... ...
As residential densities decline and household incomes rise, the automobile becomes the predominant form of transportation. Together with other forms of improved communication, it facilitates access to opportunities located throughout the metropolitan area.
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From page 70... ...
Findings Lower residential densities, rising household incomes, increasing specialization, and a preponderant reliance on the automobile have contributed to the diminished importance of the more traditional neighborhood, or microcommunity, pattern, 70 TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF METROPOLITAN AMERICA
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From page 71... ...
Although the rule may be violated in newly settled areas and in certain special circumstances, neighboring subsequently tends to decline to a normally low level. Yet the microcommunity, to the extent that it persists, must serve some purpose for its residents.
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From page 73... ...
The degree of choice or constraint is reflected in the purposes a neighborhood serves for its residents and in the extent of neighborhood interaction. For example, in middle-income suburban neighborhoods, a perceived threat to the value of residential properties or the physical well-being of the residents seems necessary to stimulate community mobilization, and this mobilization lasts only for the duration of the crisis.
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From page 74... ...
In sum, interaction in poor neighborhoods may compensate to some degree for lack of access to opportunities potentially available in the larger environment. Interaction in these neighborhoods tends to focus on improved public services, while in upper-income neighborhoods what interaction exists is likely to be concerned with generalized control of the immediate environment.
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From page 75... ...
Residential areas vary as much or more in racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic composition; in life styles; in the physical features that can be used to create images and boundaries; and in claims to a distinct reputation or identity. If a localized residential population cannot point to territorial limits that separate it from other populations, then it does not really constitute a microcommunity, except perhaps as a contrived social entity.
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From page 76... ...
Although changes in the structure of metropolitan government may ultimately be essential, some metropolitan problems might be mitigated if governments could be induced to be more systematic and sensitive in identifying and reinforcing existing social groupings. One of the early attempts to provide a rational basis for microcommunity decision-making processes by defining community areas in Chicago was that of E
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From page 77... ...
A central problem in microcommunity control of the environment, then, is the absence of any authoritative way in which residents can appeal to a single set of boundaries. It is remarkable that microcommunities exist at all in metropolitan areas, given the mobility of the urban population and lack of support by supracommunity organizations.
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From page 78... ...
The PTA, recreational centers, community centers, civic associations, and voluntary associations find ample constituencies in these communities. Frequently, these groups are linked to national or regional structures that give residents some sense of being part of a larger social structure than their local community.
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From page 79... ...
The standardization of public services and the appeal of professionals to "objective" decision rules make metropolitan institutions inflexible in the face of locality group desires. The number of people an urban public agency must serve reduces the likelihood of individualized treatment and client feedback.
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From page 80... ...
Participation in the community of limited liability, then, is a voluntary choice among options rather than one prescribed on the basis of residence alone. Local community organizations, improvement associations, political interest groups, and the like attract only a portion of the local residents.
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From page 81... ...
Microcommunity action is basically determined by communities of limited liability, that is, group activities in which people invest their efforts and resources for achievable gains with the expectation that they can "pull out" on short notice. ENHANCEMENT OF MICROCOMMUNITY INFLUENCE Since low-income neighborhoods have difficulty in obtaining effective public services, a number of social reformers and social planners have been concerned with making local government more responsive to the needs of the immigrant and the working class, or, in today's terms, the poor and minorities.
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From page 82... ...
However, such militant community organizations seem to work best where there is a political machine, as in Chicago, that possesses the power to deliver more or different public services to a local community. The Woodlawn Organization, also created by Alinsky, has had great difficulty in negotiating with relatively autonomous public agencies (for example, the Board of Education)
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From page 83... ...
The Mobilization for Youth program introduced the idea that outside help also should promote agitation for improved public services and community control. When outsiders were funded by the federal government, locally elected officials and other interest groups objected to the unilateral change in the rules of the game and developed effective means of resistance.
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From page 84... ...
However, such activity is unlikely to result in sustained interaction within the microcommunity. In short, the microcommunity survives principally as a means of control over the immediate physical or public service environment and in this respect tends to operate as a unit only when it is threatened.
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