The Sense of Belonging in New Urban Zones of Transition

Abstract

In most modern sociological literature, it is a rarity to find analyses suggesting that social bonds and the sense of belonging can be strong in socially deprived areas. In the classic Chicago tradition of sociology, in the works of Park et al. and in Louis Wirth’s The Ghetto, residential areas are described both as places in which the social bonds are loose and places with strong bonds. However, a focal point in this article is that the sense of place and belonging are related to the type and the quality of local social bonds. The article discusses the sense of belonging in socially deprived areas by using and adapting classic concepts and insights of human ecology as formulated by the classical Chicago sociologists Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgess. Recent sociological contributions about belonging and the sense of place, including recent empirical studies on the topic, are also addressed. It is argued that two socially deprived neighbourhoods with identical social profiles measured by traditional sociological variables as average income, educational level, unemployment, ethnicity, welfare benefits, etc. can be very different when it comes to local community and local social networks.