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Race and Civility in Everyday Life
W. W. Norton & Company
April 2011
On Sale: March 28, 2011
378 pages
ISBN: 0393071634
EAN: 9780393071634
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
An acclaimed sociologist illuminates the public life of an
American city, offering a major reinterpretation of the
racial dynamics in America.
Following his award-winning work on inner-city violence,
Code of the Street, sociologist Elijah Anderson introduces
the concept of the “cosmopolitan canopy”—the urban island of
civility that exists amidst the ghettos, suburbs, and ethnic
enclaves where segregation is the norm. Under the
cosmopolitan canopy, diverse peoples come together, and for
the most part practice getting along. Anderson’s
path-breaking study of this setting provides a new
understanding of the complexities of present-day race
relations and reveals the unique opportunities here for
cross-cultural interaction. Anderson walks us through Center City Philadelphia,
revealing and illustrating through his ethnographic
fieldwork how city dwellers often interact across racial,
ethnic, and social borders. People engage in a distinctive
folk ethnography. Canopies operating in close proximity
create a synergy that becomes a cosmopolitan zone. In the
vibrant atmosphere of these public spaces, civility is the
order of the day. However, incidents can arise that threaten
and rend the canopy, including scenes of tension involving
borders of race, class, sexual preference, and gender. But
when they do—assisted by gloss—the resilience of the canopy
most often prevails. In this space all kinds of city
dwellers—from gentrifiers to the homeless, cabdrivers to
doormen—manage to co-exist in the urban environment, gaining
local knowledge as they do, which then helps reinforce and
spread tolerance through contact and mutual understanding. With compelling, meticulous descriptions of public spaces
such as 30th Street Station, Reading Terminal Market, and
Rittenhouse Square, and quasi-public places like the
modern-day workplace, Anderson provides a rich narrative
account of how blacks and whites relate and redefine the
color line in everyday public life. He reveals how eating,
shopping, and people-watching under the canopy can ease
racial tensions, but also how the spaces in and between
canopies can reinforce boundaries. Weaving colorful
observations with keen social insight, Anderson shows how
the canopy—and its lessons—contributes to the civility of
our increasingly diverse cities.
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