Urban spatial literacy varies enormously across individual mental locational maps

Evidence

But how does the individual learn to gauge his own abilities without risk? And how does he even develop them without going to new places where he may feel uncomfortable? The answer seems to be that he does not, and this is perhaps one of the greatest ironies of city living. … In doing so, however, one increases one’s vulnerability to disorganization in the face of change. Or, one can take risks, rushing headlong into new places, new people, and new situations, thereby increasing one’s self-knowledge and one’s skills and, in the long run, finding the city not to be risky at all (see Chapter Eight). — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 638 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Urban competence develops only through exposure to risky new places — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 638; Franchise chains make locational knowledge transferable across cities; Visual competence is learned and more universally distributed than linguistic competence

Related

• Urban competence develops only through exposure to risky new places (similarity 0.85)
• Navigating urban life ultimately depends on self-knowledge, not location knowledge (similarity 0.85)
• Utopian urban plans fail without social psychological realism about people (similarity 0.84)
• The hardest part of urban adventuring is the initial step into public space (similarity 0.84)
• Urban competence rests on reading strangers’ appearances, locations, and behaviors (similarity 0.83)
• City-raised people may navigate urban spaces more skillfully than newcomers (similarity 0.83)
• Ethnic neighborhoods can shelter inhabitants from ever learning to navigate strangers (similarity 0.83)
• Urban spatial knowledge is transmitted mostly through personal verbal instruction. (similarity 0.82)
• Urban competence requires both meaning-knowledge and movement skills (similarity 0.82)
• Urban reading skills are learned, not innate products of culture. (similarity 0.81)
• Urban competence requires judging one’s capacity to handle the unanticipated (similarity 0.80)
• Urban meanings are taught from birth as coded instructions. (similarity 0.80)
• Playing it safe in the city increases vulnerability to later disorganization (similarity 0.79)
• Urbanites’ internal maps of place meaning range from tiny to vast (similarity 0.79)
• Urban strangers can avoid situational incompetence by avoidance and instruction. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Urban competence develops only through exposure to risky new places #expands (0.55) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 638
• Franchise chains make locational knowledge transferable across cities #corroborates (0.50)
• Visual competence is learned and more universally distributed than linguistic competence #expands (0.40)