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Some of the important features of urban community are: (i) Namelessness (ii) Homelessness (iii) Class Extremes (iv) Social Heterogeneity (v) Social Distance (vi) Energy and Speed.
(i) Namelessness:
The urban groups have, as Bogardus observes, a reputation for namelessness. By virtue of its size and population, the city cannot be a primary group. The inhabitants of a city do not come into primary contact with each other.
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They meet and speak without knowing each other’s name. Although superficial manners of politeness and mutual convenience evolve in the city, they are mechanical. The city dweller treats the strangers he meets as animated machines rather than as human beings.
A citizen may live for several years in a city and may not know the names of one-third of the people who live in the same city area. The urban world puts a premium on varied recognition. “In short, urban contacts are segmental. It is part of persons, not whole persons. Lee remarks.” Anonymity is a loss of identity in a city teeming with millions.
Many urbanites live in a social void or vacuum in which institutional norms are not effective in controlling or regulating their social behaviour. Although they are aware of the existence of many institutional organizations and many people around them, they do not feel a sense of belongingness to any one group or community. Socially, they are poor in the midst of plenty.
(ii) Homelessness:
Homelessness is another disturbing feature of city community. The house problem in a big city is very acute. Many low class people pass their nights on pavement. The middle class people have but insufficient accommodation, a room or two and that also on the sixth or seventh floor. The child does not get any play space. The city environment puts a premium on childlessness.
(iii) Class Extremes:
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Class extremes characterize urban community. In a city are found the richest as well as the poorest people, the people rolling in luxury and living in grand mansions as well as the people living on pavements and hardly getting two meals a day. The best forms of ethical behaviour and the worst racketeering are both to be found in cities. Superior creativeness and chronic unemployment are alike urban features. The city is the home of opposites.
(iv) Social Heterogeneity:
The city is more heterogeneous than the village. It has “been the melting pot of races, peoples, and cultures, and is a most favourable breeding ground of new biological and cultural hybrids. It has not only tolerated but rewarded individual differences. It has brought together people from the ends of the earth because they are different and thus useful to one another rather than because they are homogeneous and likeminded.” The personal traits, the occupations, the cultural life and the ideas of the members of the urban community vary widely than those of the rural inhabitants.
(v) Social Distance:
Social distance is a product of anonymity and heterogeneity. The city dweller feels lonely. There is masking of one’s true feelings. Most routine social contacts are impersonal, and segmented. Formal politeness takes the place of genuine friendliness. Urbanites become night dwellers, not neighbours.
(vi) Energy and Speed:
Energy and speed are the final traits of a city. People with ambition work at a tremendous speed, day and night, which stimulate others also to work similarly. Stimulation and inter-stimulation are endless. People indulge in too many activities and inconceivable efforts which ultimately eat their nerves and kill their energies.
Urban life produces greater emotional tension and insecurity than does rural life. Cities may be called consumers of population in the sense that due to congestion, pollution, insanitariness and unhealthiness they adversely affect health of the inhabitants.
It may be of interest to note that the death rate in rural areas is lower despite the fact that rural areas spend very little money on public health while cities spend much and in cities facilities for preserving health, such as hospitals and medicine specialists, are many and excellent. Sickness rates are higher in cities. There are more cases of insanity and heart failures in urban community than in the rural one.