Cities historically shifted from appearance-based to location-based stranger identification

Evidence

We shall discover that “what is going on” has undergone a historical change, and that this change is intimately linked to the matter of what clues are most reliable in the crucial task of identifying strangers. Chapter Two focuses on the preindustrial city. It argues that in this city, public spaces contained such a conglomeration of persons and activities that locational clues were of little value. Appearances, however, were fairly reliably hooked to identity. Chapter Four focuses on the modern city. It argues that in the modern city, the opposite is true. Here, public spaces “specialize” in certain persons and activities, while appearances can be highly deceiving. Each type of city, that is, has its characteristic type of order, which allows its citizens to make relatively accurate identifications of one another. The preindustrial city is characterized by the dominance of appearential ordering; the modern city, by the dominance of spatial ordering. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 11

The goal of this brief chapter is as follows: to touch here and there on just a part of “what was happening” in the early industrial city so as to suggest, tentatively, some of the factors that may help to account for the great urban transformation-the transformation from the dominance of appearential ordering to the dominance of spatial ordering, from a world in which stranger identities were signaled most reliably . by appearance to a world in which they are signaled most reliably by location. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 302

That order, as previously indicated, is spatial. In the great sprawling cities of the twentieth century, location, not appearance, becomes the major key to identification. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 352

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lofland here defines her two core analytical terms: appearential ordering (preindustrial) and spatial ordering (modern).
• XREF: The shift from appearance-signaled to location-signaled identity is the structural precondition for Simmel’s blasé attitude and Lofland’s own stranger-categorization framework. — connects to: Industrialization shifted urban stranger-identification from dress to location; Industrial urbanization destroyed appearance as a reliable clue to strangers’ identities; Urban history trends from appearance-based to location-based ordering (+3 more)
• corroborated: 5 independent passages support this claim — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 11; Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 302; Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 352

Broader Connections

• Industrialization shifted urban stranger-identification from dress to location #corroborates (1.00)
• Urban history trends from appearance-based to location-based ordering #corroborates (0.95)
• Industrial urbanization destroyed appearance as a reliable clue to strangers’ identities #corroborates (0.90)
• Preindustrial cities relied primarily on appearance with spatial segregation as a secondary cue #corroborates (0.70)