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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page book review that examines Professor Herbert J. Gans' landmark work The Urban Villagers, which was originally published in 1962 and revised and updated in 1982. This volume is considered to be a "classic statement against urban renewal and the effects it can have on community ties and patterns" (Herbert J. Gans). The writer summarizes the book's content and relates Gans' principal thesis, which argues against urban renewal projects that displace the poor. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khgans.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
landmark work The Urban Villagers was originally published in 1962 and revised and updated in 1982. This volume is considered to be a "classic statement against urban renewal and the
effects it can have on community ties and patterns" (Herbert J. Gans). Gans begins his preface by explaining the location of his original study and its objectives. Between October
of 1957 and May of 1958, the author lived in a Boston community named the "West End," which was slated for destruction (Gans xiii). This neighborhood was primarily inhabited by
native-born Italian-Americans, as well as other ethnic groups. It was declared a "slum" in 1953 and demolished as part of a federal renewal program, with its resident scattered all over
the greater Boston metropolitan area (Gans xiii). His research goals were two-fold: "to study a slum and to study the way of life of a low-income population" (Gans xiii). Gans
expected to discover that the assumptions made by sociologists toward low-income neighborhoods was correct, that is, his research to verify that life in this neighborhood was a "deviant form
of the dominant American middle-class one" (Gans xiv). However, his study of this so-called slum convinced him that the urban planner were wrong; the West End was "not really a
slum" and while its residents had their own problems, these difficulties did not evolve from living in this neighborhood (Gans xiv). The first two chapters are introductory, with one
describing the physical environment of the West End and the other introducing its residents. Chapters 3 through nine describe life in this neighborhood in detail, giving the reader a comprehensive
overview of the social structure of the neighborhood. Topics covered by Gans include the family; the peer group and the individual; the community; as well as how residents relate to
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