ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how urban sociologists have thought about neighborhoods and communities, and how they have studied neighborhood interaction and community life. It highlights the various methodologies used in urban research, as well as important information learned about urban communities and neighborhoods from this rich research tradition. Gans's work highlights earlier research on communities and groups studied by urban sociologists—such as the urban poor and the elderly—and included Gans's own work, The Urban Villagers. Neighboring is often said to be the most characteristic behavior of suburban life. Yet this behavior is a phenomenon of the city as well. Only when people speak of generalities can say that persons in large cities know fewer of their neighbors than do residents of smaller communities. Communities with a diversity and density of many types of organizations seem to do better, creating collective spillover or 'knock on' effects.
