City dwellers read identities and perform behavior from learned repertoires

Evidence

Assuming an urbanite is in the “right” place at the “right” time in the “right” costume, how does he know what to do? How does he know what actions are appropriate, given the identity he wishes to project to the human object or objects he has identified? As I have suggested earlier, he calls on his knowledge of behavioral repertoires. He uses his understanding of the links between identities and behavior to guide his own actions. … Nevertheless, most humans are exceptionally good actors. Through a subtle and complex socialization process, they learn not only how to interpret behavior but how to “perform” it. … It is probably only under conditions of rapid change that large numbers of people are likely to find themselves in situations where they do not know what to do. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 642

Categorization

• XREF: Direct bridge to Simmel’s blasé attitude and to the whole reading cluster on urban anonymity and Lofland’s strangers-as-types. — connects to: Repertoires are learned, clustered, and improvisational but finite — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 234; Passive observation of locals transfers little skill without active guided practice — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 121
• DEFINE: Defines what ‘knowing what to do’ in public space means via behavioral repertoires tied to identities.