Urban, Rural and Social Networks

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how Claude S. Fischer's ethnographic study "To Dwell Among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City" argues with the findings of Georg Simmel and the sociologists of the Chicago School who felt that urban life had detrimental effects on the well being of the vast majority of citizens in the United States. The paper explains Fischer's essential argument that urbanism produces a different style of life, but has no visible effect on one's quality of life. The paper further explains his theory of subcultures that shows that urban environments offer more opportunities of social exchange and networking than rural environments. The paper also asserts that while Fischer's analysis is useful, with the advent of Internet we must ponder the nature of urban life from a more contemporary perspective.

From the Paper:

"Fischer sharply disagrees with earlier findings on the detrimental effects that urban life has on its inhabitants. Based on his research, he draws the conclusion that whereas urban life may have once been distinguishable from rural life, at the time of his writing (the early 1980s), those differences had been nearly erased. There was no longer any such thing as "urban life" or "rural life," Fischer concludes - just a national life. The extent to which people in American society differed from one another was not rooted in where they lived, but in other factors - particularly their level of education and income, as it is these two factors that seem to have the biggest influence on the extent of one's social network."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Fischer, Claude S. To Dwell Among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.

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