Neighborhoods, Their Place in Urban Life

Download or read book Neighborhoods, Their Place in Urban Life written by Howard W. Hallman and published by . This book was released on with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hallman's in-depth study begins with the basic definition that a neighbourhood is both a physical place and a social community. Man as a social being relies on the neighbourhood as a community -- which in turn becomes a manifestation of man's interdependence. Neighbourhoods are analysed as: personal arenas (where individuals perform certain classes of action, e.g. shopping); social communities (where individuals work together in groups and take part in some form of collective life); physical places (where certain amenities are, e.g. houses and hospitals which give an area a cohesiveness as a whole); political communities (of varying degrees of intensity); and as little economies (where people buy houses, rent houses, employ each other etc). Each aspect is examined on its own, and the complete neighbourhood is viewed as a microcosm of a greater whole. Hallman stresses that a neighbourhood need not have all of these facets -- and those it does have may overlap. From this basis he looks at what neighbourhoods can mean to people, how people have attempted to better their neighbourhood, and how we can improve our own neighbourhoods in the future.