68-650: Dihika is a neighbourhood in Asansol of Paschim Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal . It is governed by Asansol Municipal Corporation Dihika was made famous by Paramahansa Yogananda who came here in 1917 to set up a "How-to-Live" school with only seven students and a couple of teachers. Yogananda "had long nurtured the dream of setting up a residential school where students would be imparted moral and spiritual lessons apart from formal and vocational training." In 1916 Yogananda met Sri Manindra Chandra Nundy,
136-410: A residents' committee ; these are subdivided into residents' small groups of fifteen to forty families. In most urban areas of China, neighbourhood , community , residential community , residential unit , residential quarter have the same meaning: 社区 or 小区 or 居民区 or 居住区 , and is the direct sublevel of a subdistrict ( 街道办事处 ), which is the direct sublevel of a district ( 区 ), which
204-401: A Gurukul from the times of Vedic India had been installed by a magic wand. The quiet ambiance and the serenity was rarely broken when a train slowly whistled its way to its destination. Sri Nundy, after visiting the school burst into exhilaration and named it The School of Divinity ." In 1918 Yogananda moved the fast-growing school to Ranchi, through the generosity of Sir Nundy. Yogananda called
272-796: A high level of regulation of social life by officials. For example, in the Tang period Chinese capital city Chang'an, neighbourhoods were districts and there were state officials who carefully controlled life and activity at the neighbourhood level. Neighbourhoods in preindustrial cities often had some degree of social specialisation or differentiation. Ethnic neighbourhoods were important in many past cities and remain common in cities today. Economic specialists, including craft producers, merchants, and others, could be concentrated in neighbourhoods, and in societies with religious pluralism neighbourhoods were often specialised by religion. One factor contributing to neighbourhood distinctiveness and social cohesion in past cities
340-411: A homeostatic relationship between resources and needs. This notion of plenitude becomes clearer if we suggest that the biotechnic society would relate to its technology in the manner an animal relates to available food–under circumstances of natural satisfaction, the pursuit of technological advance would not simply continue "for its own sake". Alongside the limiting effect of satisfaction amidst plenitude,
408-595: A plateau of efficient design which would call for only minimal changes from year to year." He uses his own refrigerator as an example, reporting that it "has been in service for nineteen years, with only a single minor repair: an admirable job. Both automatic refrigerators for daily use and deepfreeze preservation are inventions of permanent value. ... [O]ne can hardly doubt that if biotechnic criteria were heeded, rather than those of market analysts and fashion experts, an equally good product might come forth from Detroit, with an equally long prospect of continued use." Mumford
476-403: A platform from which to assess technologies, and techniques in general. Thus his criticism and counsel with respect to the city and with respect to the implementation of technology was fundamentally organized around the organic humanism to which he subscribed. It was from the perspective of organic humanism that Mumford eventually launched a critical assessment of Marshall McLuhan , who argued that
544-529: A plethora of hazards, and that it would do so into the future. For Mumford, human hazards are rooted in a power-oriented technology that does not adequately respect and accommodate the essential nature of humanity. Mumford is stating implicitly, as others would later state explicitly, that contemporary human life understood in its ecological sense is out of balance because the technical parts of its ecology (guns, bombs, cars, drugs) have spiraled out of control, driven by forces peculiar to them rather than constrained by
612-420: A small area within a town or city. The label is commonly used to refer to organisations which relate to such a very local structure, such as neighbourhood policing or Neighbourhood watch schemes. In addition, government statistics for local areas are often referred to as neighbourhood statistics, although the data themselves are broken down usually into districts and wards for local purposes. In many parts of
680-496: A specific geographic area and functionally as a set of social networks. Neighbourhoods, then, are the spatial units in which face-to-face social interactions occur—the personal settings and situations where residents seek to realise common values, socialise youth, and maintain effective social control." In the words of the urban scholar Lewis Mumford , "Neighborhoods, in some annoying, inchoate fashion exist wherever human beings congregate, in permanent family dwellings; and many of
748-490: A technology) created, as a side effect, a context for irrational accumulation of excess because it eliminated the burdensome aspects of object-wealth by making wealth abstract. In those eras when wealth was not abstract, plenitude had functioned as the organizing principle around its acquisition (i.e., wealth, measured in grains, lands, animals, to the point that one is satisfied, but not saddled with it). Money, which allows wealth to be conceived as pure quantity instead of quality,
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#1732858149868816-490: A unit of analysis. In mainland China , the term is generally used for the urban administrative division found immediately below the district level, although an intermediate, subdistrict level exists in some cities. They are also called streets (administrative terminology may vary from city to city). Neighbourhoods encompass 2,000 to 10,000 families. Within neighbourhoods, families are grouped into smaller residential units or quarters of 100 to 600 families and supervised by
884-808: Is a curse that falls impartially upon both sides of our existence. Mumford's interest in the history of technology and his explanation of "polytechnics", along with his general philosophical bent, has been an important influence on a number of more recent thinkers concerned that technology serve human beings as broadly and well as possible. Some of these authors—such as Jacques Ellul , Witold Rybczynski , Richard Gregg , Amory Lovins , J. Baldwin , E. F. Schumacher , Herbert Marcuse , Erich Fromm , Murray Bookchin , Thomas Merton , Marshall McLuhan , Colin Ward , and Kevin Carson —have been intellectuals and persons directly involved with technological development and decisions about
952-426: Is a geographically localized community within a larger city , town , suburb or rural area , sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members. Researchers have not agreed on an exact definition, but the following may serve as a starting point: "Neighbourhood is generally defined spatially as
1020-614: Is a piece of power-machinery whose 'product' is seconds and minutes ...." The City in History won the 1962 U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction . In this influential book Mumford explored the development of urban civilizations. Harshly critical of urban sprawl , Mumford argues that the structure of modern cities is partially responsible for many social problems seen in western society. While pessimistic in tone, Mumford argues that urban planning should emphasize an 'organic' relationship between people and their living spaces. Mumford uses
1088-571: Is an example of megatechnics, one which can spiral out of control. If Mumford is right in this conceptualization, historians and economists should be able to trace a relationship between the still-increasing abstraction of wealth and radical transformations with respect to wealth's distribution and role. And, indeed, it does appear that, alongside its many benefits, the movement toward electronic money has stimulated forms of economic stress and exploitation not yet fully understood and not yet come to their conclusion. A technology for distributing resources that
1156-421: Is important because it sets limits on human possibilities, limits that are aligned with the nature of the human body. Mumford never forgot the importance of air quality, of food availability, of the quality of water, or the comfort of spaces, because all these elements had to be respected if people were to thrive. Technology and progress could never become a runaway train in his reasoning, so long as organic humanism
1224-577: Is the direct sublevel of a city ( 市 ). (See Administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China ) The term has no general official or statistical purpose in the United Kingdom, but is often used by local boroughs for self-chosen sub-divisions of their area for the delivery of various services and functions, as for example in Kingston-upon-Thames or is used as an informal term to refer to
1292-409: Is what those individuals in pursuit of biotechnics would do as well. Mumford's critique of the city and his vision of cities that are organized around the nature of human bodies, so essential to all Mumford's work on city life and urban design, is rooted in an incipient notion of biotechnics: "livability," a notion which Mumford got from his mentor, Patrick Geddes . Mumford used the term biotechnics in
1360-777: The College Art Association . Mumford received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. In 1975 Mumford was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE). In 1976, he was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca . In 1986, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts . He served as the architectural critic for The New Yorker magazine for over 30 years. His 1961 book, The City in History , received
1428-489: The Greek tekhne , which means not only technology but also art, skill, and dexterity, technics refers to the interplay of social milieu and technological innovation—the "wishes, habits, ideas, goals" as well as "industrial processes" of a society. As Mumford writes at the beginning of Technics and Civilization , "other civilizations reached a high degree of technical proficiency without, apparently, being profoundly influenced by
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#17328581498681496-577: The National Book Award . Lewis Mumford died at the age of 94 at his home in Amenia, New York , on January 26, 1990. Nine years later the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places . His wife Sophia died in 1997, at age 97. In his book The Condition of Man , published in 1944, Mumford characterized his orientation toward the study of humanity as "organic humanism." The term
1564-553: The Navy to serve in World War I and was assigned as a radio electrician. He was discharged in 1919 and became associate editor of The Dial , an influential modernist literary journal. He later worked for The New Yorker where he wrote architectural criticism and commentary on urban issues. Mumford's earliest books in the field of literary criticism have had a lasting influence on contemporary American literary criticism. His first book
1632-673: The Second Industrial Revolution . His early architectural criticism helped to bring wider public recognition to the work of Henry Hobson Richardson , Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright . Mumford was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1941 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1947. In 1963, Mumford received the Frank Jewett Mather Award for art criticism from
1700-544: The assembly line , or instant, global, wireless , communication and remote control , can easily weaken the perennial psychological barriers to certain types of questionable actions. An example which he uses is that of Adolf Eichmann , the Nazi official who organized logistics in support of the Holocaust . Mumford collectively refers to people willing to carry out placidly the extreme goals of these megamachines as "Eichmanns". One of
1768-559: The 1900s, Clarence Perry described the idea of a neighbourhood unit as a self-contained residential area within a city. The concept is still influential in New Urbanism . Practitioners seek to revive traditional sociability in planned suburban housing based on a set of principles. At the same time, the neighbourhood is a site of interventions to create Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCC) as many older adults tend to have narrower life space. Urban design studies thus use neighbourhood as
1836-435: The 1960s on topics including Herman Melville , psychology, American values and culture, and the nature of the self. In his early writings on life in an urban area , Mumford was optimistic about human abilities and wrote, that the human race would use electricity and mass communication to build a better world for all humankind. Mumford later took a more pessimistic stance on the sweeping technological improvements brought by
1904-619: The British sociologist Victor Branford . Mumford was also a contemporary and friend of Frank Lloyd Wright , Clarence Stein , Frederic Osborn , Edmund N. Bacon , and Vannevar Bush . Mumford was born in Flushing , Queens , New York, and graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1912. He studied at the City College of New York and The New School for Social Research , but became ill with tuberculosis and never finished his degree. In 1918 he joined
1972-553: The UK wards are roughly equivalent to neighbourhoods or a combination of them. In the United States and Canada , neighbourhoods are often given official or semi-official status through neighbourhood associations , neighbourhood watches or block watches. These may regulate such matters as lawn care and fence height, and they may provide such services as block parties , neighbourhood parks and community security . In some other places
2040-608: The West the philosophy of Yoga and its tradition of meditation. It was then that he founded Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), the sister organization to YSS. He was the first Hindu teacher of yoga to make his permanent home in America, living there from 1920—1952. Dihika is located at 23°38′29″N 86°54′06″E / 23.64136°N 86.901551°E / 23.64136; 86.901551 . Neighbourhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English)
2108-418: The auspicious occasion of the (Spring) equinox. A local attorney was invited to preside over the ceremonial rituals held in a serene and tranquil ambiance. Thus was sown the seed of a life-long mission that blossomed in later years to draw millions of God-seeking people with its fragrance. In those days Dihika was a forlorn place where nature was in attendance with all her bounties. The one-story school building
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2176-687: The beginning of another one: the possible revolution that gives rise to a biotechnic society, a quiet revolution, for Mumford, one that would arise from the biotechnic consciousness and actions of individuals. Mumford was an avid reader of Alfred North Whitehead 's philosophy of the organism. A key idea, introduced in Technics and Civilization (1934) was that technology was twofold: Mumford commonly criticized modern America's transportation networks as being "monotechnic" in their reliance on cars. Automobiles become obstacles for other modes of transportation, such as walking , bicycle and public transit , because
2244-487: The better-known studies of Mumford is of the way the mechanical clock was developed by monks in the Middle Ages and subsequently adopted by the rest of society. He viewed this device as the key invention of the whole Industrial Revolution , contrary to the common view of the steam engine holding the prime position, writing: "The clock, not the steam-engine, is the key-machine of the modern industrial age. ... The clock ...
2312-719: The control of city or state officials. In some preindustrial urban traditions, basic municipal functions such as protection, social regulation of births and marriages, cleaning and upkeep are handled informally by neighbourhoods and not by urban governments; this pattern is well documented for historical Islamic cities. In addition to social neighbourhoods, most ancient and historical cities also had administrative districts used by officials for taxation, record-keeping, and social control. Administrative districts are typically larger than neighbourhoods and their boundaries may cut across neighbourhood divisions. In some cases, however, administrative districts coincided with neighbourhoods, leading to
2380-410: The crises facing urban culture, distrustful of the growing finance industry, political structures, fearful that a local community culture was not being fostered by these institutions. Mumford feared "metropolitan finance," urbanization, politics, and alienation . Mumford wrote: "The physical design of cities and their economic functions are secondary to their relationship to the natural environment and to
2448-435: The early 2000s, Community Development Corporations, Rehabilitation Networks, Neighbourhood Development Corporations, and Economic Development organisations would work together to address the housing stock and the infrastructures of communities and neighbourhoods (e.g., community centres). Community and Economic Development may be understood in different ways, and may involve "faith-based" groups and congregations in cities. In
2516-569: The equivalent organization is the parish , though a parish may have several neighbourhoods within it depending on the area. In localities where neighbourhoods do not have an official status, questions can arise as to where one neighbourhood begins and another ends. Many cities use districts and wards as official divisions of the city, rather than traditional neighbourhood boundaries. ZIP Code boundaries and post office names also sometimes reflect neighbourhood identities. Lewis Mumford Lewis Mumford (19 October 1895 – 26 January 1990)
2584-517: The example of the medieval city as the basis for the "ideal city," and claims that the modern city is too close to the Roman city (the sprawling megalopolis) which ended in collapse; if the modern city carries on in the same vein, Mumford argues, then it will meet the same fate as the Roman city. Mumford wrote critically of urban culture believing the city is "a product of earth ... a fact of nature ... man's method of expression." Further, Mumford recognized
2652-698: The examples of the Soviet and United States power complexes represented by the Kremlin and the Pentagon , respectively. The builders of the pyramids , the Roman Empire and the armies of the World Wars are prior examples. He explains that meticulous attention to accounting and standardization, and elevation of military leaders to divine status, are spontaneous features of megamachines throughout history. He cites such examples as
2720-585: The functions of the city tend to be distributed naturally—that is, without any theoretical preoccupation or political direction—into neighborhoods." Most of the earliest cities around the world as excavated by archaeologists have evidence for the presence of social neighbourhoods. Historical documents shed light on neighbourhood life in numerous historical preindustrial or nonwestern cities. Neighbourhoods are typically generated by social interaction among people living near one another. In this sense they are local social units larger than households not directly under
2788-447: The introduction of new technical innovation. In Mumford's words, a biotechnic society would direct itself toward "qualitative richness, amplitude, spaciousness, and freedom from quantitative pressures and crowding. Self-regulation, self-correction, and self-propulsion are as much an integral property of organisms as nutrition, reproduction, growth, and repair." The biotechnic society would pursue balance, wholeness, and completeness; and this
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2856-472: The later sections of The Pentagon of Power , written in 1970. The term sits well alongside his early characterization of "organic humanism," in that biotechnics represent the concrete form of technique that appeals to an organic humanist. When Mumford described biotechnics, automotive and industrial pollution had become dominant technological concerns, along with the fear of nuclear annihilation. Mumford recognized, however, that technology had even earlier produced
2924-884: The methods and aims of technics." In The Myth of the Machine Vol II: The Pentagon of Power (Chapter 12) (1970), Mumford criticizes the modern trend of technology , which emphasizes constant, unrestricted expansion, production, and replacement. He contends that these goals work against technical perfection, durability, social efficiency, and overall human satisfaction. Modern technology, which he called "megatechnics," fails to produce lasting, quality products by using devices such as consumer credit , installment buying , non-functioning and defective designs, planned obsolescence , and frequent superficial "fashion" changes . "Without constant enticement by advertising," he writes, "production would slow down and level off to normal replacement demand. Otherwise many products could reach
2992-433: The myth of the machine, the next move is ours: for the gates of the technocratic prison will open automatically, despite their rusty ancient hinges, as soon as we choose to walk out." Mumford believed that the biotechnic society was a desideratum—one that should guide his contemporaries as they walked out the doors of their megatechnic confines (he also calls them "coffins"). Thus he ends his narrative, as he well understood, at
3060-490: The needs of the species that created them. He believed that biotechnics was the emerging answer and the only hope that could be set out against the problem of megatechnics. It was an answer, he believed, that was already beginning to assert itself in his time. It is true that Mumford's writing privileges the term "biotechnics" more than the "biotechnic society." The reason is clear in the last sentence of The Pentagon of Power where he writes, "for those of us who have thrown off
3128-431: The neighbourhood as a small-scale democracy , regulated primarily by ideas of reciprocity among neighbours. Neighbourhoods have been the site of service delivery or "service interventions" in part as efforts to provide local, quality services, and to increase the degree of local control and ownership. Alfred Kahn, as early as the mid-1970s, described the "experience, theory and fads" of neighbourhood service delivery over
3196-611: The period that would be destroyed by the late-19th-century social changes wrought by the American Civil War and industrialization of the United States. Herman Melville (1929), which combined an account of Melville's life with an interpretive discussion of his work, was an important part of the Melville revival . Mumford was a close friend of the psychologist Henry Murray , with whom he corresponded extensively from 1928 until
3264-571: The prior decade, including discussion of income transfers and poverty. Neighbourhoods, as a core aspect of community, also are the site of services for youth, including children with disabilities and coordinated approaches to low-income populations. While the term neighbourhood organisation is not as common in 2015, these organisations often are non-profit, sometimes grassroots or even core funded community development centres or branches. Community and economic development activists have pressured for reinvestment in local communities and neighbourhoods. In
3332-452: The pursuit of technological advance would also be limited by its potentially negative effects upon the organism. Thus, in a biotechnic society, the quality of air, the quality of food, the quality of water, these would all be significant concerns that could limit any technological ambitions threatening to them. The anticipated negative value of noise, radiation, smog, noxious chemicals, and other technical by-products would significantly constrain
3400-551: The repetitive nature of Egyptian paintings which feature enlarged pharaohs and public display of enlarged portraits of Communist leaders such as Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin . He also cites the overwhelming prevalence of quantitative accounting records among surviving historical fragments, from ancient Egypt to Nazi Germany . Necessary to the construction of these megamachines is an enormous bureaucracy of humans which act as "servo-units", working without ethical involvement. According to Mumford, technological improvements such as
3468-831: The roads they use consume so much space and are such a danger to people. Mumford explains that the thousands of maimed and dead each year as a result of automobile accidents are a ritual sacrifice the American society makes because of its extreme reliance on highway transport. Also discussed at length in Technics and Civilization is Mumford's division of human civilization into three distinct epochs (following concepts originated by Patrick Geddes): Mumford also refers to large hierarchical organizations as megamachines —a machine using humans as its components. These organizations characterize Mumford's stage theory of civilization. The most recent megamachine manifests itself, according to Mumford, in modern technocratic nuclear powers —Mumford used
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#17328581498683536-402: The school Yogoda Satsanga Brahmacharya Vidyalaya In 1997, a piece of this land encompassing the pond was purchased by Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS), the spiritual organization that Paramahansa Yogananda founded in 1917. Yogoda Satsanga Dhyana Kendra-Dihika has been functioning from this place since then. In 1920, Sri Yogananda was sent by his Guru Sri Yukteswar Giri to share with
3604-408: The spiritual values of human community." Suburbia did not escape Mumford's criticism either: In the suburb one might live and die without marring the image of an innocent world, except when some shadow of evil fell over a column in the newspaper. Thus the suburb served as an asylum for the preservation of illusion. Here domesticity could prosper, oblivious of the pervasive regimentation beyond. This
3672-427: The state of its environment. In Mumford's mind, the society organized around biotechnics would restrain its technology for the sake of that integral relationship. In Mumford's understanding, the various technologies that arose in the megatechnic context have brought unintended and harmful side effects along with the obvious benefits they have bequeathed to us. He points out, for example, that the development of money (as
3740-447: The technology, not the natural environment, would ultimately shape the nature of humankind, a possibility that Mumford recognized, but only as a nightmare scenario. Mumford believed that what defined humanity, what set human beings apart from other animals, was not primarily our use of tools (technology) but our use of language (symbols). He was convinced that the sharing of information and ideas amongst participants of primitive societies
3808-528: The then Maharaja of Kashimbazar, who also wanted to create such a school. "It was decided that the Ashram-School would begin in an estate bungalow in Dihika, a lonely hamlet by the river Damodar, some 10 km from Asansol. The area was the property of Sri Nundy who agreed to bear most of the expenses of the initial batch of seven students. At the behest of Sri Yukteswar , the school was inaugurated on March 22, 1917,
3876-448: The use of technology. Mumford also had an influence on the American environmental movement, with thinkers like Barry Commoner and Bookchin being influenced by his ideas on cities, ecology and technology. Ramachandra Guha noted his work contains "some of the earliest and finest thinking on bioregionalism , anti-nuclearism, biodiversity , alternate energy paths, ecological urban planning and appropriate technology." Mumford's influence
3944-430: Was The Story of Utopias (1922), an insightful exploration of the many visions of a better world that influenced the development of modern urban planning theory. In The Golden Day (1926), he argued for a mid-19th-century American literary canon comprising Herman Melville , Ralph Waldo Emerson , Henry David Thoreau , Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman , all of whom he argued reflected an antebellum American culture of
4012-446: Was an American historian, sociologist , philosopher of technology , and literary critic . Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a writer. He made significant contributions to social philosophy , American literary and cultural history, and the history of technology . Mumford was influenced by the work of Scottish theorist Sir Patrick Geddes and worked closely with his associate
4080-415: Was completely natural to early humanity, and had obviously been the foundation of society as it became more sophisticated and complex. He had hopes for a continuation of this process of information "pooling" in the world as humanity moved into the future. Mumford's choice of the word "technics" throughout his work was deliberate. For Mumford, technology is one part of technics. Using the broader definition of
4148-524: Was deeply concerned with the relationship between techniques and bioviability. The latter term, not used by Mumford, characterizes an area's capability to support life. Before the advent of technology, most areas of the planet were bioviable at some level or other; however, where certain forms of technology advance rapidly, bioviability decreases dramatically. Slag heaps, poisoned waters, parking lots, and concrete cities, for example, are extremely limited in terms of their bioviability. Mumford did not believe it
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#17328581498684216-457: Was less given to abstract hoarding would be more suitable to a biotechnic conception of living. Thus, Mumford argued that the biotechnic society would not hold to the megatechnic delusion that technology must expand unceasingly, magnifying its own power and would shatter that delusion in order to create and preserve "livability." Rather than the megatechnic pursuit of power, the biotechnic society would pursue what Mumford calls "plenitude"; that is,
4284-432: Was necessary for bioviability to collapse as technology advanced, however, because he held it was possible to create technologies that functioned in an ecologically responsible manner, and he called that sort of technology biotechnics. Mumford believed that biotechnic consciousness (and possibly even community) was emerging as a later stage in the evolution of Darwinian thinking about the nature of human life. He believed this
4352-416: Was not merely a child-centered environment; it was based on a childish view of the world, in which reality was sacrificed to the pleasure principle. Mumford is also among the first urban planning scholars who paid serious attention to religion in the planning field. In one of his least well-known books, Faith for Living (1940), Mumford argues: The segregation of the spiritual life from the practical life
4420-440: Was situated on a land that was a few feet above the surrounding area. A forest consisting mainly of Sals stood only a little distance away from the school. The river, Damodar, could be seen flowing gently in its silent serpentine way. A range of hills appeared like silhouettes in the distance. Huts of local villagers dotted the place and above all these mortal bodies there lay a vast expanse of blue sky with all its magnanimity. As if,
4488-482: Was the role of rural to urban migration. This was a continual process in preindustrial cities, and migrants tended to move in with relatives and acquaintances from their rural past. Neighbourhood sociology is a subfield of urban sociology which studies local communities Neighbourhoods are also used in research studies from postal codes and health disparities , to correlations with school drop out rates or use of drugs. Some attention has also been devoted to viewing
4556-418: Was the sort of technology needed to shake off the suicidal drive of "megatechnics." While Mumford recognized an ecological consciousness that traces back to the earliest communities, he regarded emerging biotechnics as a product of neo-Darwinian consciousness, as a post-industrial form of thinking, one that refuses to look away from the mutually-influencing relationship between the state of the living organism and
4624-415: Was there to act as a brake. Indeed, Mumford considered the human brain from this perspective, characterizing it as hyperactive, a good thing in that it allowed humanity to conquer many of nature's threats, but potentially a bad thing if it were not occupied in ways that stimulated it meaningfully. Mumford's respect for human "nature", that is to say, the natural characteristics of being human, provided him with
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