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?
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2 comments:
Political leaders place a large influence of how people perceive communities. Often times they place they blame on large corporations and industrialization for our lack of community. Politicans make promises to benefit the community to capture people's attention. It is a well-known fact that everyone craves a comfortable feeling in the place that they live, a sense of community. If political leaders can promise to rebuild these communities and get these interests back they can often times get the voters attention and in the end, their vote.
Good words.
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