Urban status is inferred from symbols while small-town status is enacted

Evidence

The urbanite may frequently rely upon appearance rather than reputation: status may be temporarily appropriated by the “correct” display and manipulation of symbols, while in the small town it is more permanently manifested by the direct enactment of rights and duties. The bestowal of status in the city is often an inference from symbolism to social position; in the small town the bestowal of status proceeds from the evaluation of rights and duties appropriate to social position, and the relevant symbolism is basically symptomatic. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 148

Categorization

• XREF: Links to the reader’s interest in how urban dwellers categorize strangers; the symbolic-inference mechanism parallels the unreliability of observer judgments in Cole. — connects to: Urban life is possible because strangers remain categorically identifiable; Preindustrial urbanites signaled their identity through visible costuming; Sumptuary laws and hair rules publicly encoded class rank in preindustrial cities
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 148

Broader Connections

• Preindustrial urbanites signaled their identity through visible costuming #expands (0.80)
• Sumptuary laws and hair rules publicly encoded class rank in preindustrial cities #exemplifies (0.75)