A SENSE OF PLACE:

One of the classic questions in urban sociology is how social relations and solidarity are maintained in an urbanized, industrialized, bureaucratic society. The two pivotal research focuses have been the issues of (1) the persistence of territorially based affective ties and primary relations in an urban world and (2) the micro/macro links connecting community residents and the larger society. This article argues that social bonds and solidarity are now transformed from affective ties into more diffuse relationships as individuals purposively use the externally shared meanings of housing and community in American society to situate themselves, simultaneously locating themselves with others who share their values and preferences and asserting their social status and social identity to others.