Urban Sub-areas Research Articles

Suicide and Social Areas

areas vary to the extent the inhabitants are identified with the social group that controls and defines their activities.' Working within the general theoretical framework provided by Durkheim, the study reported here was designed to ascertain the degree of relationship between suicide rates and the Shevky-Bell indexes of economic, family and ethnic status. By the use of multiple and partial correlations the relationships between the indexes and the suicide rates are examined. An attempt is also made to interpret economic, family and ethnic characteristics in terms of the phenomenon of anomie. In our society there are few occasions or circumstances in which suicide is approved. Religions and legal or other codes, generally conceded to be important aspects of social control, emphasize the obligation of each individual not to commit suicide. Thus it is reasonable to assume that in those areas where the incidence of suicide is high, social control is least effective and adequate social cohesiveness is lacking. Various kinds of social data enable us to make statements regarding the population composition and social relationships that are peculiarly characteristic of urban sub-areas. These social characteristics of urban neighborhoods serve to differentiate them from one another. One recent attempt at urban analysis of this type is that of Shevky and Bell2 who were primarily concerned with the description and measurement of social differentiation in terms of continua of economic, family and ethnic status. The characteristics of census tracts, as defined by these continua, may be compared with the suicide rates of the tracts. Such comparisons provide a means of assessing the extent to which suicide rates vary with differences in the economic, family and ethnic characteristics of census tracts. Further, to the extent that anomie is an important factor in the etiology of suicide, we would expect anomie to be related to the Shevky-Bell continua. The relationship, however, is not clear. On the basis of Durkheim's findings and subsequent research, we have conflicting reports with regard to economic status and suicide. However, we do have consistent evidence of an association between the highest suicide rates and the most mobile, densely populated and low socio-economic areas of American cities.

The Utility of the Shevky Typology for the Design of Urban Sub-Area Field Studies

The Utility of the Shevky Typology for the Design of Urban Sub-Area Field Studies

Class and Ethnic Correlates of Casual Neighboring

configuration of attitudes, interests, and values which favors a high rate of both informal interaction and formal participation. This social psychological aspect of the suburban population appears to be an important factor in developing patterns of social relationships in suburbs which differ from those found in the equally homogeneous, middleclass populations of some urban subareas. However, regardless of variations in age, income, family status, or attitudes, the structuring of social relationships in suburbs is always influenced by the definitive characteristics-the size and density of population, the accessibility of the large city, and the daily commuting pattern. Thus it can be anticipated that when the suburban pattern of social relationships has been more fully documented it will be found to be an outgrowth of the definitive ecological characteristics on one hand and such derivative characteristics as homogeneity and a particular socio-psychological milieu on the other. At that time, also, it should be possible to weigh the influences of the respective factors more precisely than has been done to date.

Urbanism Reconsidered: A Comparative Study of Local Areas in a Metropolis

THE investigation of the internal differentiation of urban population has been concerned chiefly with economic rank and ethnic diversity, and with the differences which accompany variations in these factors. Such studies throw little light upon the broad, non-ethnic, cultural differences generated in the metropolitan environment, i.e., upon as a way of life. While there has been much concern, theoretically, with the effects of the metropolitan ambit upon all social relationships, most of the empirical basis of urban theory has been the study of small natural or the study of gross regularities in census data, arranged spatially for analysis. Perhaps the best evidence bearing upon this larger question of urbanism has been the study of urban neighborhoods. The work of Donald Foley, for example, indicates that in a sample of Rochester residents (1) the neighborhood pattern still exists to some degree, but, (2) many individuals do not neighbor and do not consider their local area to be a social community.' Such studies approach the propositions that urban society is functionally rather than spatially organized and that urbanites are mobile, anonymous, and lacking in identification with their local area. To gauge the generality of Foley's conclusions, however, one needs to know where the neighborhoods he studied fit in an array of neighborhoods. Because wide variation exists, the relation between the area studied and others is crucial for the hypothsis tested; most of Rochester may be much more neighborhood oriented, or much less so, than the area studied. The Shevky-Bell typology of urban subareas is useful in this connection, for it allows any census tract to be located in three different arrays by means of three indices constructed from census data.2 It is hypothesized that these represent three dimensions within urban social space, each statistically unidimensional and independent of the others. The dimensions are social rank, segregation, and urbanization.3 The last largely measures differences in family structure, and, it is assumed, indicates corollary differences in behavior. Thus, when social rank and segregation are controlled, differences in the index of urbanization for specific tract populations should indicate consistent variations in social behavior. One purpose of the present research was to determine the nature of such corollary differences, and particularly differences in social participation. This report is based upon a pilot study of differences in social participation between sample populations in two Los Angeles areas (census tracts 35 and 63).4 The two tract populations are nearly identical with respect to two of the indices (social rank and segregation) and differ on the third, urbanization.

The Compatibility of Alternative Approaches to the Delimitation of Urban Sub-Areas

TOCATING the boundaries of urban subareas has been an emerging controver~-~sial issue among sociologists over the past decade. Before that time, traditional ecologists dominated the scene by presenting rather simple and direct means of isolating sub-areas or census tracts. More recently some urban sociologists have contended that the distribution of social phenomena may not be directly dependent on variations in land use, natural barriers, and other ecological factors. They contend that the social integration of areas should be considered as important in this regard as ecological criteria. Demographers have also suggested that population indices are very sensitive to differences among the social subareas of cities. Other interested students have adopted a synthetic approach-suggesting that ecological, demographic, and social criteria are equally important in deriving a set of urban sub-areas useful for sociological investigations.' Yet, almost no research has attempted to show the relations among these criteria.2

A Method for the Classification of Areas on the Basis of Demographically Homogeneous Populations

S OCIAL scientists are often confronted with the problem of dividing large areas into smaller sub-units for purposes of research. The process through which any desired sub-area system is derived varies with the theoretical position and substantive interests of the investigator involved. In recent decades, urban sociologists and ecologists have been particularly concerned with the division of cities (large areal units) into census tracts (small areal units). The distinction and utility of the census tract lies in the fact that it is the smallest urban areal unit for which the Bureau of the Census regularly reports complete information. As of 1950, approximately seventy-five American cities of over 100,000 population have had census tract plans accepted for use by the Bureau of the Census. These plans may be deemed useful for sociological research only insofar as they provide a set of urban sub-areas which are meaningful for research within cities and among cities. The plain fact is that most tract plans are not meaningful in this sense. Census tracting has largely been a piecemeal operation, and sociologists have only been directly responsible for the plans of a small number of the cities already tracted. Since the existing plans have been formulated by members of widely divergent interest groups,