Week 11: PEOPLE AND LIFESTYLES IN THE METROPOLIS

this chapter concern the people of the metrop- olis and explore the relationship between everyday life and local territory. The sociospatial approach to metropolitan life asserts that diversity in lifestyles and sub- cultures exists not just within the city but throughout the metropolitan region. This is especially the case since 1980 as suburban settlement spaces have matured and as a new wave of immigrants from Asia and Latin America have entered the country since the 1960s. In this chapter, we consider the interplay between the social factors of income, gender, age, ethnicity, and race, and the spatial patterns of population concentration or dispersal across the metropolitan region.

A basic tenet of the sociospatial approach is that social factors determining the patterns of population dispersal are also linked to particular spaces. Class or gender relations, for example, are conducted through spatial as well as social means. Lifestyle differences are externalized in a specific environment: the ghetto, the street corner, the mall, the golf course. Furthermore, these places are always meaningful. Interaction is shaped through the signs and symbols of the socio-spatial context. In this chapter, we will consider the effect of class standing on lifestyles, gender differences, and everyday life; racial and minority distinctions; and new patterns of ethnic formation and immigration.