psychological effects on sense of community

The Psychological Sense of Community in the Neighborhood
Journal article by David A. Julian, Jack L. Nasar; Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 61, 1995

Journal Article Excerpt


The psychological sense of community in the neighborhood.



by Jack L. Nasar , David A. Julian


Social theorists have decried the lost sense of community in the United States (Keyes 1973; Sarason 1974; Yankelovich 1981; Olson 1982; Dunham 1986; Lyons 1987). They express nostalgia for the interdependence of small town life, rural life or the Greek polis. They blame industrialization, large-scale bureaucracies, the loss of local autonomy, and our culture of mobility, convenience, and privacy for the decline in the sense of community. Politicians use the language of "community" to capture votes. Professionals in planning, architecture, historic preservation, and crime prevention promote the development of a sense of community as a cure for many urban ailments. Advocates of neo-traditional planning and related movements claim their plans will restore a sense of community, which they claim has been lost in traditional suburbs.

While few question the beneficial effects of a psychological sense of community, some object to the emphasis on local community. They see some local communities as exclusionary havens for the privileged, and they fear the focus on community development in neighborhoods may distract attention from the broader political economy.

The professional planners in a local planning agency may wonder at all this talk about "community." What is "community"?(1) Do we have too little or too much community? How can planners identify the effects of their plans and policies on resident practices and perceptions of community?

psychological affects on people's sense of community

The Psychological Sense of Community in the Neighborhood
Journal article by David A. Julian, Jack L. Nasar; Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 61, 1995

Journal Article Excerpt


The psychological sense of community in the neighborhood.



by Jack L. Nasar , David A. Julian


Social theorists have decried the lost sense of community in the United States (Keyes 1973; Sarason 1974; Yankelovich 1981; Olson 1982; Dunham 1986; Lyons 1987). They express nostalgia for the interdependence of small town life, rural life or the Greek polis. They blame industrialization, large-scale bureaucracies, the loss of local autonomy, and our culture of mobility, convenience, and privacy for the decline in the sense of community. Politicians use the language of "community" to capture votes. Professionals in planning, architecture, historic preservation, and crime prevention promote the development of a sense of community as a cure for many urban ailments. Advocates of neo-traditional planning and related movements claim their plans will restore a sense of community, which they claim has been lost in traditional suburbs.

While few question the beneficial effects of a psychological sense of community, some object to the emphasis on local community. They see some local communities as exclusionary havens for the privileged, and they fear the focus on community development in neighborhoods may distract attention from the broader political economy.

The professional planners in a local planning agency may wonder at all this talk about "community." What is "community"?(1) Do we have too little or too much community? How can planners identify the effects of their plans and policies on resident practices and perceptions of community?

HOMEWORK: Due March 1, 2007

1, Post an article to your blog and comment on it

2, Read the following articles found in Everything's an Argument
pg 519 (read again and write a commentary), pg 486 "Turning Boys Into Girls",
pg 540 "We Should Relinquish Some Liberty in Exchange for Security," pg 627 "Bad As They Want to Be"

3, Read Chapter 3 in They Say, I Say

Britney's Meltdown

Posted at 11:01 AM ET, 02/20/2007
Parsing Britney's Meltdown
A bald Britney. (AFP/Getty Images) Photo Gallery: Britney's Changing Look
Unless you spent the long weekend in a sensory deprivation chamber, you know Britney Spears -- in full view of a horde of photographers -- wandered into a neighborhood hair salon in California on Friday night and proceeded to shave her head. Images of a bald Britney have been burned into our retinas, joining Michael Jackson's balcony baby dangle, Tom Cruise's couch jumping and Mel Gibson's mug shot in the celebrity meltdown hall of fame.
Mothers who once accompanied teenyboppers to Spears's concerts are faced with the daunting task of turning this trainwreck into a life lesson. Grown men who slavered over the post-Disney/pre-preggo Brit just a couple of years ago have now dropped her from their top five. And the AARP crowd -- more accustomed to stars who self-destruct the old-fashioned way -- are risking whiplash with the amount of "what is this world coming to?" head-shaking going on.
Spears's Web site is no help. Suddenly, the pop tart -- who has a habit of baring her soul online -- has no cryptic poetry, no uncomfortable TMI "feelings" to share, no finger pointing for her recent slide into the deep end. The now familiar gilt-frame -- that as recently as December relayed to us Britney's oops-I-did-it apology for her lost weekend (well, week really) with Paris Hilton -- remains empty, containing only a one-line placeholder to let us know that something will be there sometime in the future.
And, thus far, Spears is -- for better or for worse -- shunning Matt Lauer and the rest of the newshounds (Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, Oprah) no doubt jockeying to land a very special interview with her.
In fact, the last word we had directly from Spears was that December Web message (linked above), the one where Britney dismissed her extreme partying as merely making up for lost time and vowing to work hard in the new year on her image and music. I guess that didn't quite work out for her.
I've had my fun with Britney here (this piece's co-authoress recently commented: "If only we'd included "shave your head, we'd be sitting pretty right about now") and, truth be told, will probably continue to do so -- there's just something about a fallen pop princess shaving her head that defies being taken too seriously. Of course, this recent episode certainly qualifies as one of the biggest red flags I've ever seen, but to quote someone who once got to the point much quicker than I did: If we didn't laugh, we'd cry.
Still, my heart aches for this woman who grew up (or, more accurately, failed to grow up) in the spotlight, pushed on stage and into an early sexuality -- taught that looks equal talent. At 25 (so young) she's past her pop prime, a mother of two, divorcing and scorned by the public that once embraced her.
Nothing like shaving one's head, spontaneous tattoos and hard partying to deface one's self image.
It's hard not to draw parallels to Anna Nicole Smith -- another blonde bombshell who came unglued publicly and perished before finding help. A former assistant recently said she hopes Britney hits bottom soon and gets that help so she can return to her former, ambitious self.
Me, I hope she gets the help she needs to find out who she really is.

There will be no class on Thurs. Feb 22!!
Use this time to work on research for your final paper.

Homework due Feb 27
1, Create your blog. Then post one argumentative article (the topic can be your research topic or another that interests you) from a reputable source and write a comment about it, stating the argument, both sides and your opinion on it.
2, Write a one page summary, outling your research topic. Explain both sides of the argument and state your opinion. If it's helpful you can use the template I distributed in class called Template for Academic Argument . It is also found in your text They Say, I Say
3, Readings: Read Chapter 14 (285-98); Rhetorical Analysis, Chapter Eighteen, “What Counts as Evidence.” (367-82). Make notes on what you've read and be ready to talk about it.

There will be no class on Thurs. Feb 22!!
Use this time to work on research for your final paper.

Homework due Feb 27
1, Create your blog. Then post one argumentative article of your choosing (the topic can be your research topic or another that interests you) from a reputable source and write a comment about it, stating the argument, both sides and your opinion on it.
2, Write a one page summary, outling your research topic. Explain both sides of the argument and state your opinion. If it's helpful you can use the template I distributed in class called Template for Academic Argument . It is also found in your text They Say, I Say
3, Readings: Read Chapter 14 (285-98); Rhetorical Analysis, Chapter Eighteen, “What Counts as Evidence.” (367-82). Make notes on what you've read and be ready to talk about it.

CLASS FEb 20th MEET AT THE LIBRARY!!!

We'll have class in the library on Tuesday where one of the reference afficionados will show us around. It'll be fun. You'll also get your next assignment! See you then.

Field Trip To the Library

Thursday's class will take place at the library.

MEET ME AT THE MAIN ENTRANCE
AT 9:40AM

HOMEWORK: Due Feb 20, 2007

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

HOMEWORK: Due Feb 20, 2007
1, Create your own blog. Go to http://www.blogger.com/start and it will take you through the steps to make your own blog. Invite me to your blog lgcupolo@memphis.edu(Your task then, each week will be to post an article from an on-line magazine, newspaper, academic source, etc and write a paragraph commenting on what you've read)

2, Read Ch.14 pg 285-298,and Ch. 9, pg. 147-166, and be ready to talk about what you've read in class on Tuesday

Homework: Due February 13

Homework: Due February 13
1, DUE: Final draft of Ad Analysis (make sure to attach your ad)

2, Read “Turning Boys into Girls” ( 486); “We Should Relinquish Some Liberty in Exchange for Security” (540); and write a paragraph responding to each article

3, Read the following NYTimes article "Africa, at the Cineplex" and make a comment about what you've read on this blog. DO NOT summarize what the article is about, we've all read it. What do you think about what this article is saying? How does it make you feel?

February 4, 2007
Film Fatigue
Africa, at the Cineplex
By MANOHLA DARGIS
American children used to connect with their deprived African counterparts mostly by cleaning their plates. Today, those same children have a dizzying variety of ways of reaching out to the continent and its inhabitants: they can shop at the Gap, mind Bono, listen to Kanye West, read Dave Eggers and watch an Oscar-nominated film or two, like “Blood Diamond” or “The Last King of Scotland,” and, while flipping through their favorite magazine, contemplate the AIDS awareness ad campaign in which celebrities like Richard Gere and Gwyneth Paltrow, faces daubed with paint, declare “I am African.”
Well, really, aren’t we all? The new African awareness isn’t just deeply, appreciably earnest; it’s personal, too. Angelina Jolie, the head of the new class of celebrity missionaries, not only adopted an Ethiopian girl, but has also poured money into Namibian maternity wards. The same goes for Oprah Winfrey, who founded a girls’ school in South Africa, and the rapper Jay-Z, who last year traveled the world, including parts of Africa, for “The Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life,” a documentary. The diary was the product of a rather unusual collaboration, as signaled on a Web page for the United Nations: “The United Nations, MTV and Jay-Z team up to raise attention of the world water crisis.”
If you didn’t know about the documentary or the United Nations-initiated Water for Life campaign, you are probably not alone. The humanitarian crises in Africa are overwhelming, but they’re also now such a familiar fixture in our 24/7 news-and-entertainment spin cycle that it can be hard to keep up. Yet if the bad news out of Africa never seems to end, neither do the pop-cultural responses.
IN 1984, that response to African tragedy seemed purely seasonal, exemplified by the hit single on behalf of Ethiopian famine relief, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” For the last few years or so, every week seems to bring another documentary, another song, another ad campaign, another press conference, another celebrity sighting.
And why not? As George Clooney, a supple manipulator of the media, explained after embarking on a high-profile effort to bring attention to the Darfur region of Sudan, “If you’re going to be famous and have cameras follow you around, you might as well go where the cameras will do some good.” Last April, Mr. Clooney and his father, Nick, visited refugee camps in the Sudan, and the son subsequently joined Senators Sam Brownback and Barack Obama at a news conference where he passionately urged that greater international attention be paid to the crisis. It was a tough sell, even for the Sexiest Man Alive, who at one point also admitted that it was hard to capture people’s attention because, as he put it, “We have tragedy fatigue on television.”
I know what he means. It’s hard enough to keep track of the globe-trotting Ms. Jolie, who has done more good in the world than most of the housebound pundits who poke fun at her. My problem is that I have almost bottomed out when it comes to films about Africa. Not the real deal, like the films of the great Senegalese-born auteur Ousmane Sembène, whose 1966 drama “Black Girl” is a classic of postcolonial cinema, and whose 2004 film, “Moolaadé,” manages to tackle the issue of female genital mutilation and critique patriarchic Islam in one entertaining package (really). My problem, rather, is all those films filled with suffering, struggling black Africans who, for the most part, seem to be on camera to make me feel bad.
These faces, weeping and smiling by turns, show up in fiction and documentary films, in big-budget Hollywood fare like “Blood Diamond” and more modest studio offerings like “The Last King of Scotland.” In the old Tarzan days, of course, Johnny Weissmuller yodeled across a back-lot jungle while black extras ran amok in feathered headdress borrowed from the cowboys-and-Indians department. In that Hollywood, Africa was an extension of the studio lot (often it was the studio lot), the setting for thrilling adventures, big-game safaris and the occasional bloody conflict with native peoples. Mostly, though, Africa was the exotic backdrop for white characters, who paid about as much attention to its black populace as they did to the black populace back home.
These days, black African characters in American-produced films generally serve more than a decorative function; some of them actually speak lines and share serious screen time with the white stars. Now and again, as in “Hotel Rwanda” and “Sometimes in April,” two films from 2004 and 2005 about the Rwandan genocide, the stars themselves are actually black, if not African, and their characters help drive the narrative. In the case of the HBO film “Sometimes in April,” the director is also black, the Haitian-born Raoul Peck. In both “April” and “Hotel Rwanda,” the white characters are peripheral, just as they were during the genocide; in each, the victims and the victimizers are black, but so, too, are the heroes.
New films tend to be smarter about race if not necessarily its representation. One of the truths about the movies is that, no matter how high-minded a director or how earnest his intentions, what he puts in front of his camera usually talks louder and more honestly than anything he himself might say. The director and the screenwriter may be on the same resolute page, with nicely composed speeches about Africa, the West and how something, finally, must be done. But the black faces on the screen — the babies with the swollen bellies and pipe-cleaner limbs, and the legless men crawling alongside them — tend to tell a different story, one of hopelessness and despair that all too often feels as immutable as the earth.
This sense of immutability, that the violence and the hunger are persistent, almost eternal and natural, infects too many films about Africa. There is a long tradition of victim documentaries, films about the wretched of the earth from Welsh and Appalachian mining towns, South African shantytowns and New York City homeless shelters. By turns touristic and voyeuristic, these films habitually follow a reassuringly familiar trajectory. They evade unpleasant truths about history, power and ideology in favor of heroic stories about individual resistance and triumph that wouldn’t be out of place in a studio potboiler. As any Hollywood producer knows, real life can be a total bummer, which is why a Lost Boy of Sudan newly transplanted to America makes a better commercial bet than one who didn’t make it out of Africa.
Most American films about Africa mean well, at least those without Bruce Willis, and even openly commercial studio fare like “Blood Diamond” wears its bleeding, thudding heart on its sleeve. But what, exactly, are we meant to do with all their images, I wonder? Like “The Constant Gardener” and “Catch a Fire,” two other thrillers set in Africa, “Blood Diamond” was designed to make money, not instigate change. Watching Leonardo DiCaprio share the screen with genuine handless black Africans or Ralph Fiennes’s gardener learn a lesson in postcolonial realpolitik while I munch my popcorn doesn’t rouse me to action; it stirs horror, pity, sometimes repulsion, sentiments that linger uneasily until the action starts up again to sweep away that empathy with another explosion, gunfight or rousing chase.
It is exhausting having your conscience pricked so regularly. It may also be counterproductive to the stated aims of the people who make these films. It’s an article of faith that social-issue movies are worthwhile, important, even brave, as people in Hollywood like to insist. But it is naïve to think that these films, including a fair share of the documentaries, are being made on behalf of Africa and its people; they are made for us. They provide us a night’s entertainment and perhaps, for a couple of hours, they may make us think outside the multiplex box. They serve as balm for our media-saturated, fatigued hearts and minds. Like one of those Gap (Product) RED cashmere sweaters, they temporarily wrap us in their fuzzy goodness, shielding us from the chilling world outside.

Homework for Thursday feb 8

1, Due: Ad Analysis
2, Readings, Arguments of Definition Ch. 9 pg 147-166

AD ASSIGNMENT: Due Thursday Feb 8

Homework for Tuesday, February 6, 2007

• Readings, “Visual Arguments” (301-14), pages 42-9.
• Five ideas for Research project
• Work on Ad Analysis (see details below)
  
• AD ASSIGNMENT
  Pick one print advertisement (an ad specifically designed for a print source--magazine, newspaper, etc.). It need not have a specific number of words, though it must combine some printed text with a compelling visual image. Attach your ad to your analysis. Your analysis will likely be about 2 – 4 pages,double spaced.
• Consider the ad as a mode of persuasion and analyze the techniques that have been used to make it a persuasive piece of discourse. The questions below should guide your analysis:•
• Why does this ad look the way it does? This will require description andexplanation of the ad's design: visual images, colors, etc.; word choices;layout and arrangement, etc.• What assumptions does it make about you?•
• What claim does it make and how does it support that claim?•
• What's this ad really seem to be saying?•
• What story does it tell, if any, about the American culture?Your paper will be evaluated by how thoughtfully and thoroughly you do the following:
• • build an interpretation/analysis of the ad that.
• identifies important verbal aspects of the ad.
• identifies important visual/symbolic aspects of the ad.
• describes the intended rhetorical effect of those aspects on the ad'sdesired audience.
• demonstrate careful proofreading.
• Due: Thursday, February 8, 2007