CONTENTS – November 2023
Character towns, small and large, build social cohesion, community connections, civic pride, hometown spirit and institutional trust. Joy and beauty play a part. Civic leaders, public and private, collaborate to balance their personal needs with the communities’ best interests. Sociability and civility are the hallmarks of character towns.
THE COMMUNITY SOCIABILITY EDITION
PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT IDEAS FOR SOCIABILITY…
- “Attributes of a Social Infrastructure Plan for a Character Town”…wck.
- “The Social Infrastructure Aspiration of the City’s General Plan”…wck.
- “Worry Less About Crumbling Roads, More About Crumbling Libraries”…from The Atlantic, Sep 20, 2018.
- “Urban Tissue and the Character of Towns” from The Semantic Scholar, 1996.
- The Four Freedoms.
- “Social Network Theory and Metcalfe’s Law”…wck.
- “Main Street: The Ultimate Community ‘Third Place’ ”…wck.
- “The Neighborhood Sociable”…wck.
PEOPLE TO KNOW…
- “Robert K. Merton and the Social Sphere of Sustainability” from ThoughtCo.com.
- Robert E. Park | Sociology, from The University of Chicago.
FROM THE PLANNERS’ BOOKSHELF…
- The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, William H. Whyte, The Conservation Foundation, Washington D.C., 1980.
- Urban Sociology: A Human Ecological Perspective, William A. Schwab, Addison-Wesley, 1982.
- Arrival City, How the Largest Migration in History Reshaped Our World, Doug Saunders [dougsaunders.net], Pantheon Books, New York, 2010.
- The Great Reset, How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity, Richard Florida, HarperCollins Publishers, 2010.
- The Great Good Places, Cafés, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community, Ray Oldenburg, Marlowe & Company, New York, 1999.
- Building A Vibrant Community: How Citizen-Powered Change Is Reshaping America, Quint Studer, Be the Bulb Publishing, Janesville WI, 2018.
- Mirror for Man: The Relation of Anthropology to Modern Life, Clyde Kluckhohn introduced by Andrea Smith, Routledge Classic Texts in Anthropology, 1949.
- Better Together, Restoring the American Community, Robert D. Putnam and Lewis M. Feldstein, Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, 2003.
- Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life, Eric Klinenberg, Crown Books, NY, 2018.