Urban interaction rests on a hierarchy of sympathies, indifferences, and aversions.

Evidence

The whole inner organization of urban interaction is based on an extremely complex hierarchy of sympathies, indifferences, and aversions of both the most short-lived and the most enduring kind. And in this complex, the sphere of indifference is relatively limited. Our psychological activity responds to almost every impression that comes from another person with a certain determinate feeling. The subconscious, fleeting, changeful nature of this feeling only seems to reduce it to indifference. Actually, such indifference would be as unnatural to us as the vague character of innumerable contradictory stimuli would be unbearable. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 285

Categorization

• XREF: Articulates the substrate into which the essay inserts Lofland’s civil inattention and Cole’s isolation. — connects to: The city’s indifference is a virtue rather than a defect — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 5; Urban tolerance is tempered with an acceptance of conflict and pain; Urban order arising from any source makes social life predictable and bearable — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 260 (+2 more)

Related

• The city’s indifference is a virtue rather than a defect (similarity 0.85)
• Urban tolerance is tempered with an acceptance of conflict and pain (similarity 0.84)
• Urban life is possible because strangers remain categorically identifiable (similarity 0.83)
• Urban life fundamentally means coping with strangers and anonymity (similarity 0.81)
• Pure anonymity is intolerable, so urban dwellers must know their strangers (similarity 0.81)
• Urban life produced a human type who knows others primarily by category (similarity 0.80)
• Urban reserve conceals a latent antipathy that functions as a form of socialization (similarity 0.80)
• Urban dwellers evolve from fearing strangers to managing them easily (similarity 0.80)
• Cities mitigate total anonymity through categorical identification of strangers (similarity 0.80)
• City life depends on categorizing strangers rather than knowing them personally (similarity 0.80)
• Urban ordering likely arose independent of any psychological need for it (similarity 0.80)
• City life depends on dependable clues linking appearances to identities (similarity 0.79)
• City order makes strangers identifiable enough to be tolerated (similarity 0.79)
• Urbanites symbolically transform public space into private space to reduce stranger contact (similarity 0.79)
• Urban life requires categorizing strangers despite humanistic resistance (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Urban life is possible because strangers remain categorically identifiable #expands (0.60)
• Urban order arising from any source makes social life predictable and bearable #complicates (0.50) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 260
• Urban space residents’ behaviors vary by employment status and group approval #corroborates (0.40)