Week 15: The Social Organization of Everyday City Life

“this chapter show that although persons in cities are typically operating in highly anonymous situations, their behaviors are not without social character; that is, anonymity does not preclude the existence of patterned, highly structured, predictable social relationships. Quite the contrary, the studies reviewed allow us to argue, somewhat paradoxically, that anonymity demands social relationships. Persons must work to maintain anonymity, and that work is of a highly social nature.
Anonymity cannot be considered a given, existing spontaneously and wholly independently of social action. Anonymity is, rather, produced by actors. Instead of defining a situation in which there are no interpersonal relations, as it would seem to do, anonymity can obtain only because there are interacting agents. Contrary to some images of urban life, anonymity does not define a situation of enormously decreased social control. Although anonymity does increase the potential for personal freedom of action, we must at the same time recognize that in those situations characterized as anonymous, anonymity itself constitutes a norm to be maintained. There are rules for preserving anonymity, which, like all other rules, if broken, cause the transgressor to be subject to negative sanctions. Breaking the rules of anonymity, where they apply, constitutes the basis for being defined as improper or nonsocial.