Class #7: Neighborhood Ecology
Discussion Questions for Class on Sept 16, 2009

Related Readings: Jacobs, "The uses of sidewalks: safety" and Klinenberg, "Race, place, and vulnerability"
All auction papers are due in class this day.

These writing assignments are meant to help you think about the readings and to prepare you for class discussions. For that reason, when you write a response it is important that you give your opinions and that you relate your thoughts to the reading. Remember that these are exam questions and that they are graded as such. You ought to write them as though you are writing questions on a midterm or a final exam.

Respond to one of the following questions by writing a response on the class Discussion Board on Blackboard at least one hour before class on the date the question is listed. Put your name in the text of the question and give the question number as listed below. Without these I can't tell who wrote the question or what you are responding to. You then have until Midnight on the following Sunday of that week to revise your response if you wish to do so and to submit it for grading. To submit your responses, send them via email to milofsky@bucknell.edu.

Your final version of this question is due by midnight, Sunday, September 20.

7-1. Klinenberg self-consciously draws on Jacobs in comparing North and South Lawndale.  Be specific in explaining why South Lawndale experienced a death rate so much lower than North Lawndale during the Chicago Heat Wave.

7-2. There were dramatically different rates of death in the Black and Hispanic communities during the Chicago Heat Wave.  Some observers claimed this represented differences in the styles of community organization between the two groups and that as a result Blacks were more vulnerable.  Klinenberg argues that the difference was not a result of cultural differences in community organization style.  Why does he make this argument? This is a tricky question. Make sure you get Klinenberg's argument right!

7-3. Some argue that human services become important when there is a need to substitute for an erosion of social capital.  How might services have replaced social capital in North Lawndale and helped to reduce the death rate?