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The Paradox of Diverse Communities - The Atlantic Cities


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RICHARD FLORIDA 7:00 AM ET

Urbanists and planners like to imagine and design for a world of diversity. Diversity, we like to think, is both a social good and, as I’ve argued, a spur to innovation and economic growth.

But to what degree is this goal of diverse, cohesive community attainable, even in theory?

That’s the key question behind an intriguing new study, “The (In)compatibility of Diversity and Sense of Community,” published in the November edition of the American Journal of Community Psychology. The study, by sociologist Zachary Neal and psychologist Jennifer Watling Neal, both of Michigan State University (full disclosure: I was an external member of the former’s dissertation committee), develops a nifty agent-based computer model to test this question.

Their simulations of more than 20 million virtual “neighborhoods” demonstrate a troubling paradox: that community and diversity may be fundamentally incompatible goals. As the authors explain, integration “provides opportunities for intergroup contact that are necessary to promote respect for diversity, but may prevent the formation of dense interpersonal networks that are necessary to promote sense of community.”

 

 If, as the Neals’ study shows, we can’t make our neighborhoods more diverse and cohesive at the same time, perhaps the primary, over-arching, and achievable objective is to reinforce the bridging ties between them.

 

Given the growing economic, cultural, and political divides within our cities and across the nation as a whole, working to strengthen the “bridges” between communities may be a far more realistic approach than attempting the impossible task of trying to make everywhere more diverse.

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It's a very difficult problem to solve. New York is absolutely shit at it -- we live in one of the most segregated cities in the world, and it's not changed. One neighborhood black, one neighborhood white, one neighborhood rich, one neighborhood poor -- the day that this becomes one 'city' is a long way away...

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Perhaps it's the radical thinking in me but a part of me considers this to be biased toward the perception that diversity is counter intuitive to progress in this county. Not akin to a subliminal but close enough. I was actually in disbelief I was reading an article from the generally progressive Atlantic Cities.

 

Either way, my point of view is that diversity is what truly builds integrated communities. Granted it's a work in progress like all else but eventually I think we as a society will begin to embrace it. The main factor to why the seemingly majority isn't with the program is due to an upbringing in a generally homogenized environment. One can assume this is mainly a result of view points advocated through the previous generations. I really can't fault them, no one can, but at the same time you can't help but pity such ignorance. Such ignorance comes with many repercussions, but that's an entirely different tangent.

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It's a very difficult problem to solve. New York is absolutely shit at it -- we live in one of the most segregated cities in the world, and it's not changed. One neighborhood black, one neighborhood white, one neighborhood rich, one neighborhood poor -- the day that this becomes one 'city' is a long way away...

Not so much in Queens. Where live you have Afghans and Indians in what was a mostly black neighborhood not to mention the West Indians here. Elmhurst is probably the most diverse place in the city. Filipinos in Woodside and Bayside has had a black/white population going back thirty years.

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Can i say something?Richard Florida has written many other articles about the what he calls the creative class... The highly educated, rich population that is moving into cities and basically gentrifying places. I take what he says with a grain of salt. Even though he does say that this creative class looks for diversity......

 

Perhaps it's the radical thinking in me but a part of me considers this to be biased toward the perception that diversity is counter intuitive to progress in this county. Not akin to a subliminal but close enough. I was actually in disbelief I was reading an article from the generally progressive Atlantic Cities. Either way, my point of view is that diversity is what truly builds integrated communities. Granted it's a work in progress like all else but eventually I think we as a society will begin to embrace it. The main factor to why the seemingly majority isn't with the program is due to an upbringing in a generally homogenized environment. One can assume this is mainly a result of view points advocated through the previous generations. I really can't fault them, no one can, but at the same time you can't help but pity such ignorance. Such ignorance comes with many repercussions, but that's an entirely different tangent.
I agree with this, but the question I ask all thr time is what is diveristy? Is it having those with the same social class as you, but also racial diversity? Is it a neighboorhood with mixed incomes and races? Ethnic neighboorhoods? Places with mixed uses?I would love to see areas more diverse and intergrated, but honestly its really hard to do this.Sent from my iPhone 5c using Tapatalk
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I agree with this, but the question I ask all thr time is what is diveristy? Is it having those with the same social class as you, but also racial diversity? Is it a neighboorhood with mixed incomes and races? Ethnic neighboorhoods? Places with mixed uses?

 

 

I would love to see areas more diverse and intergrated, but honestly its really hard to do this.

Actually I think in the society of today the term diversity is one that is very broad. Personally I think integration of any groups within another suffices ass diversity, but as you may or may not tell I'm somewhat of a proponent of cultural diversity, as I do see benefits in those communities which are integrated. Racial barriers soon fall, appreciation for various cultures, the list goes on.

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