Dying Alone: The Social Production of Urban Isolation

Abstract: In July 1995 over 700 Chicago residents, most of them old and impoverished, died in a short but devastating heat wave. As part of a `social autopsy’ of this disaster that goes beyond natural factors to uncover the institutional forces that made the urban environment suddenly so lethal, this article examines the social production and lived experience of everyday urban isolation. Accounts from ethnographic investigations in the affected neighborhoods and of the city agencies entrusted with dealing with the issue are used to highlight four key conditions: (1) the increase in the number and proportion of people living alone, including seniors who outlive or become estranged from their social networks; (2) the fear of crime and the use of social withdrawal and reclusion as survival strategies; (3) the simultaneous degradation and fortification of urban public space, particularly in segregated neighborhoods that have lost major commercial establishments and other attractions that entice people out of their homes; (4) the political dysfunctions stemming from social service programs that treat citizens as consumers in a market for public goods despite a growing population of residents who lack access to the information and network ties necessary for such `smart shopping’ for city support. Together, these conditions create a formula for disaster that the 1995 heat wave actualized for the city of Chicago and might yet recur in other US metropolises.

A Sense of Place shortlink: http://wp.me/pISTJ-gp

Full Text: http://columbiauniversity.net/itc/hs/pubhealth/p6700/readings/klinenberg-dying.pdf

Klinenberg, Eric. Dying Alone: The Social Production of Urban Isolation.
Ethnography. December 2001 vol. 2no. 4 501-531
doi: 10.1177/14661380122231019E

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Stigmatized Property, Clams, and Community in Coastal Ecuador

Abstract: San Felipe is a village on the coast of Ecuador known for collecting clams from mangroves. Being a clam collector is a highly marginalized occupation in the region, and as such the concheros of San Felipe are socially stigmatized. Based on an analysis of the interplay of ecological and social conditions, we describe a form of property and means of controlling rights to natural resources which we call stigmatized property.

Access to stigmatized property is maintained not through active management within a social group but by the stigma associated with the use of the resource imposed by outsiders. Drawing on Eric Wolf’s concept of the Closed Corporate Peasant Community, we analyze the social characteristics of a stigmatized property system. By documenting the connections among individual identities, gender and kinship relations, community institutions and the regional political economy, we show the historical development of a stigmatized property system and the advantages and vulnerabilities it entails.

The recent development of shrimp farms in the area destroyed most of the mangroves, but the social dynamics of stigmatized property persist. Although the concheros of San Felipe are becoming less closed, corporate, and community-oriented now that they no longer collect clams, they are still heavily stigmatized and largely invisible to the Ecuadorean state. We conclude that resource management analyses and policies should recognize how stigma can shape property rights systems.

A Sense of Place shortlink: http://wp.me/pISTJ-eS

Full Article: http://eea.anthro.uga.edu/index.php/eea/article/view/78/68

Kuhl, L., & Sheridan, M. (2010). Stigmatized Property, Clams, and Community in Coastal Ecuador. Ecological And Environmental     Anthropology, 5(1).

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Pets as “Social Capital”

Abstract:  The past few years have witnessed an increase in research investigating the social benefits of pet ownership. This preliminary review examines primary research evidence from quantitative and qualitative studies, and attempts to “connect the dots” between companion animals and the ability for people to generate social capital of the bonding and bridging types.

Pet owners appear to be more likely to interact with others in their communities, and to have longer conversations with other people. The studies also indicate that seeingpeople out and about with their pets is conducive to positive feelings of communitydynamics, with a sense of security, civic engagement, and reciprocity between neighbors. In addition, companion animals help improve social networks and elevate their owners‟ sense of psychological well-being.

A Sense of Place permalink:  http://wp.me/pISTJ-91

Full Text:  http://fletcher.tufts.edu/resilience/pdf/Resilience_Jackson.pdf

Pets As Generators Of Social Capital: A Preliminary Review Of Primary Evidence

Sara Jackson

Resilience: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Science and Humanitarianism, Volume 1, March 2010

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Marginalization of Healthcare Nurses: A Canadian Rural Study

Abstract: Historically, in Canada, rural nurses provided health care that incorporated not only care of disease processes and acute illness but also care related to social and political aspects of need and advocacy.

With the advent of urbanized, acute hospital care and the focus of disease and cure, the role of the rural nurse was diminished. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the rural nurse within the context of the Canadian rural populations for whom they care and more specifically to examine how the effects of marginalization and health policy and decision making processes contributed and may continue to contribute negatively to marginalization.

The implications of not recognizing or marginalizing rural nurses may once again remove or negate their voice, affect their health care influence and impact the central role of the rural nurse in providing holistic care for and with the rural populations they serve.

A Sense of Place permalink: http://wp.me/pISTJ-8J

Full Text: http://www.rno.org/journal/index.php/online-journal/article/viewFile/228/274

Rural Nursing in Canada: A Voice Unheard

 Deirdre Jackman, RN, MN,  Florence Myrick, RN, BN, MScN, PhD,  Olive J. Yonge, RN, PhD, 

Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, vol. 10, no. 1, Spring 2010

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