The Cosmopolitan Canopy Race and Civility in Everyday Life

by Anderson, Elijah

• ISBN13: 9780393071634
• ISBN10: 0393071634
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-03-28
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

Following his award-winning work on inner-city violence, Code of the Street , Elijah Anderson takes us back to Philadelphia, exploring urban islands of civility he calls "cosmopolitan canopies." 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 all kinds of people-from gentrifiers to the homeless, cabdrivers to doormen-go about meeting the demands of everyday urban existence. Anderson reveals how eating, shopping, and people-watching under the canopy can ease racial tensions, but also how the spaces between canopies can reinforce boundaries. In Anderson's vibrant atmospheres, we practice what he calls "folk ethnography," learning how "good behavior" can mend "tears" in the canopy. Weaving lively, colorful observations with keen social insight, Anderson shows how the canopy may well be the salvation for our increasingly diverse cities.