Functions of The Working-Class Community in Modern Urban Society; Implications for Forced Relocation

Abstract

The working class community serves as a processing mechanism for two transitions by immigrant groups: from peasant to worker, and from worker to full participant in urban industrial society. Communities which are successful in assisting in the first transition are likely to be stable and thus may actually hinder the second transition. As revealed by data on the West End in Boston, forced relocation can provide an opportunity for the second transition, but members of wording-class communities are differently equipped to take advantage of this opportunity depending upon the degree of their commitment to certain aspects of wording-class community life.