Gans and West End

Gans: Urban Villagers 

Big ideas: Urban Renewal and Peer group society

A. Peer Group Society

• Combination of family and peer relationships; elaborate membership rules
• Individual not central -since West Enders have been taught to “function soley within the group” since childhood, “being alone bring discomfort and ultimately fear’” 
• Ability to “limit deviant behavior” because West Enders are so obsessed with how they appear to the group, and of what the peer group might think of his/her actions, they are therefore left with “highly exaggerated…expectations of what others think of him. This in turn is an effective device for limiting deviant behavior
• Functions: gets news thru the group, instead of turning to local gov’t— satisfies needs thru peer group rather than a neighborhood institution 
• - PGS LIMITS: group’s inability to work together due to its fear that doing so would put one person in the group ahead of the rest, caused a weakness in community organization,  unable to work together even when their survival depends on it, as can be seen in the redevelopment of the West End , AND no individual identity (does not give participants an ability to develop their own self image apart from the group— they only have developed a sort of group image)

B. Urban Renewal

• government sees area as a slum, and sees area as potential for property redevelopment to jump-start static economy; they work to name it a slum and completely bulldoze the entire neighborhood thru eminent domain
  • justification for UR was that social organization= weak, but Gans shows us that social organization occurs thru gossip, rather than social institutions; many people look at effectiveness of community organization (formal inst.) to determine neighborhood organization, or disorganization ( Gans refutes this, informal organization maintains social order, too)

C. Racial and Ethnic Diversity 

• no meshing, not interacting; live as neighbors, but not harmoniously

D. West End and Chicago School 

• Chicago school says Capitalism drives decision of city 
• West End: not just mitigated/ driven by capitalism BUT Urban Renewal’s drive= capitalistic
• Capitalist interests= driving force, but would not account for entire picture