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A Sociologist In Spite of Herself

A Sociologist In Spite of Herself Philip Kasinitz Graduate Center and Hunter College of the City University of New York Jane Jacobs did not have much use for academic Sociologists, or for academics of any sort. When the ASA Community and Urban section presented her with the Lynd award for a life time of contributions a few years ago, she noted that she was probably the first person so honored who lacked not only a Ph.D in Sociology, but also a bachelor’s degree—in anything! Yet her enormous influence on the way we think about cities is due, at least in part, to the fact that her best writing contains a healthy dose of what folks in our business flatter ourselves by calling the “sociological imagination.” Beginning with its now famous account of the rhythms of daily life on Hudson Street in New York’s Greenwich Village, her masterpiece, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, was perhaps the first major book about urban planning to take as its starting point how people actually do live in cities rather than how they should . While hers was hardly the first attack on what modern architecture, urban planning, and urban renewal were doing to American cities, it http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png City and Community SAGE

A Sociologist In Spite of Herself

City and Community , Volume 5 (3): 1 – Sep 1, 2006

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References (4)

Publisher
SAGE
ISSN
1535-6841
eISSN
1540-6040
DOI
10.1111/j.1540-6040.2006.00178.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Philip Kasinitz Graduate Center and Hunter College of the City University of New York Jane Jacobs did not have much use for academic Sociologists, or for academics of any sort. When the ASA Community and Urban section presented her with the Lynd award for a life time of contributions a few years ago, she noted that she was probably the first person so honored who lacked not only a Ph.D in Sociology, but also a bachelor’s degree—in anything! Yet her enormous influence on the way we think about cities is due, at least in part, to the fact that her best writing contains a healthy dose of what folks in our business flatter ourselves by calling the “sociological imagination.” Beginning with its now famous account of the rhythms of daily life on Hudson Street in New York’s Greenwich Village, her masterpiece, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, was perhaps the first major book about urban planning to take as its starting point how people actually do live in cities rather than how they should . While hers was hardly the first attack on what modern architecture, urban planning, and urban renewal were doing to American cities, it

Journal

City and CommunitySAGE

Published: Sep 1, 2006

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