Herbert J. Gans
Columbia University
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Ethnic and Racial Studies | 1979
Herbert J. Gans
(1979). Symbolic ethnicity: The future of ethnic groups and cultures in America. Ethnic and Racial Studies: Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-20.
International Migration Review | 1997
Herbert J. Gans
The reconciliation between “assimilation” and “pluralism” is sought to help prevent further polarization among immigration researchers and is based mainly on two arguments. First, if assimilation and acculturation are distinguished, acculturation has proceeded more quickly than assimilation in both “old” and “new” immigrations. This reconciles traditional assimilationist theory with current pluralist — or ethnic retention — theory, which admits that acculturation (and accommodation) are occurring, but without assimilation. Second, the reconciliation can also be advanced by the recognition that the researchers of the old and new immigrations have studied different generations of newcomers and have approached their research with “outsider” and “insider” values, respectively.
Ethnic and Racial Studies | 1994
Herbert J. Gans
Abstract This article begins with a brief section updating my 1979 Ethnic and Racial Studies article ‘Symbolic ethnicity: the future of ethnic groups and cultures in America’. However, its main aim is to describe and develop the somewhat parallel concept of symbolic religiosity, which I conceive as the consumption of religious symbols apart from regular participation in a religious culture or in religious organizations, for the purpose of expressing feelings of religiosity and religious identification. Since I assume that symbolic religiosity develops mainly among the acculturating descendants of immigrants, I also explore the possibility of separating and then comparing ethnic and religious acculturation. I assume further that among religio‐ethnic groups like the Jews, and ethno‐religious groups such as Russian, Greek and other Orthodox Catholics, ethnic and religious acculturation proceed in divergent ways. This raises a number of interesting empirical questions about the differences between and similar...
American Journal of Sociology | 1972
Herbert J. Gans
Mertonian functional analysis is applied to explain the persistence of poverty, and fifteen functions which poverty and the poor perform for the rest of American society, particularly the affluent, are identified and described. Functional alternatives which would substitute for these functions and make poverty unnecessary are suggested, but the most important alternatives are themselves dysfunctional for the affluent, since they require some redistribution of income and power. A functional analysis of poverty thus comes to many of the same conclusions as radical sociological analysis, demonstrating anew Mertons assertion that functionalism need not be conservative in ideological outlook or implication.
Journal of The American Planning Association | 1961
Herbert J. Gans
Abstract The discussioiz of the relation between population homogeneity and social-life values, begun in an earlier article, is here extended to the larger question of the desirability of the balanced, or heterogeneous, community. A number of planners have advocated population heterogeneity as a means for achieving four sets of cultural, political, and educational ends or values. This article discusses each of the means-ends relationships, concluding that population heterogeneity contributes relatively little toivard the achievement of these values. Nevertheless, heterogeneity is desirable, because as long as local taxation is the main support of community services, it will help to prevent undesirable inequalities in the level of community services. It is not, however, the best means of alleviating the glaring social and economic inequality noiv rampant in most metropolitan areas, and planners are therefore urged to place greater emphasis on policies that will reduce this inequality. The increased opportu...
Ethnic and Racial Studies | 2007
Herbert J. Gans
Abstract Like the European immigrants who streamed into American cities at the start of the twentieth century, the immigration researchers who first studied them took their upward mobility for granted and focused on their assimilation. As a result, the published research virtually equated assimilation with mobility. Nonetheless, assimilation and mobility were and still are independent processes; immigrants can assimilate without being mobile and vice versa. Consequently, I ask, whether, when and how assimilation causes or leads to mobility; but also whether mobility causes or leads to assimilation. The article considers some empirical and conceptual questions that emerge when the two concepts are separated.
Journal of The American Planning Association | 1990
Herbert J. Gans
Abstract In our era, planning has evolved into a more catholic and eclectic discipline. As a result, it has become hospitable to concepts and terms from other disciplines and professions. At times, planners also use the buzzwords that show up in the public discourse of these disciplines and professions, as well as in the news media, official reports, and other informational material targeted at elite and college-educated Americans.
City & Community | 2002
Herbert J. Gans
The revival of spatial sociology justifies a renewed exploration of the various connections between “space” and “society.” I argue that sociologists must avoid both the reification of space and studies that mainly demonstrate that all social life exists in space. Instead, researchers should focus on the causal relations between space and society: (1) on the few but important ways in which natural space affects social life and collectivities; and (2) on the innumerable ways in which these collectivities turn natural space into social space and shape its uses. Treating use, users, and effects as primary concepts, the paper discusses a variety of topics in spatial sociology to illustrate my causal point and to suggest research and other questions that deserve answers.
Journal of The American Planning Association | 1961
Herbert J. Gans
Abstract Students of suburban communities have found that social relationships are influenced by the site and. the architectural plans-re-enforcing the proposition that planners can influence social life. But, while physical propinquity does affect some visiting patterns, positive relationships with neighbors and the more intensive forms of social interaction, such as friendship, require homogeneity of background, or of interests, or of values. The planning implications of these findings are developed on the basis of value judgments that positive relationships between neighbors are desirable and that opportunities for the free choice of friends ought to be maximized. These values can be affected by site planning techniques to a limited extent, but they can be implemented only by a moderate-though yet undetermined-degree of homogeneity among the residents. This requirement conflicts, however, with other planning values, for which planners have advocated the balanced community, made up of heterogeneous resi...
Contemporary Sociology | 1997
Herbert J. Gans
Sociologys support from the general public, in its taxpayer and other roles, depends in significant part on how informative that public finds sociology, and what uses it can make of the disciplines work. Since one of the many things we do for various sectors of the general public is to inform its reading members through our books and nonjournal articles, this study aims to determine what sociology that general public has read and is reading, and it takes a first cut at answering that question by estimating sociologys bestselling books. The study is about sales, not readership, and this article reports 53 titles that have sold over 50,000 copies.1 The identification of these titles turned out to be a difficult empirical problem, and discussion of the study must thus begin with a report on methods. What books by sociologists have been read most often by the general public can really only be answered by a readership study among a sample of that public. What I have done instead, and as a very exploratory effort, is to ask a large number of editors at commercial and university presses, and authors, about the sales of sociological books other than texts and classics.