In this paper, we envisage how the sociohistorical experiences of groups are related to their residential patterns. We posit that the residential clustering of a group can be strongly related to the group's mnemonic institutions, which are organizational symbols of collective identity that link the present to the past. We present the case of Jewish residential clustering patterns in Toronto to demonstrate our arguments. We employ 2001 Canadian Census tract-level data to show Jewish residential clustering patterns in relation to the presence of a synagogue or Jewish community center, the mnemonic institutions of Jews.
This article examines ethnic boundary formation by analyzing how former participants in a liminal organization mobilize organizational schemas of identity and practice. I envisage Jewish summer camps as liminal organizations that provide an undifferentiated setup for immersive ethnic engagement within a clearly defined temporal period. I posit that the liminality of camp helps participants overlook the complexities of identity by transmitting organizational schemas without the constraint of structural pressures. I argue the concept of liminality makes visible structural pressures that stimulate deliberate cognition over organizational schemas. Using qualitative interviews with former camp participants, this article attends to the cognitive boundary work that underlies organizational participation. It contributes to understandings of how identity practices are shaped by institutional discourses and extends ethnic boundary theory to include liminal organizational types. I show that the structure of camp activities organizes liminality into three predominant schemas. I then show how, in the context of structural shifting, campers mobilize these schemas as salient ethnic boundaries. The results demonstrate that structural pressures encourage deliberate cognition over organizational schemas, thereby complicating projects of boundary work that structure groupness.
Cities and neighbourhoods across Canada are undergoing significant social and economic transformations. Though change is an expected part of urban development, Canadian cities are experiencing growing levels of income inequality and polarization. In Changing Neighbourhoods: Social and Spatial Polarization in Canadian Cities, editors Jill Grant, Alan Walks, and Howard Ramos assemble a collection of studies that provide a stark picture of the socio-economic realities of Canadian cities: low-income neighbourhoods and high-income neighbourhoods are intensifying, and "the middle is disappearing." Differences in city characteristics, including population and geographic size, regional culture, ethno-cultural diversity, and population age, mean that neighbourhood change and inequality happen in different ways and for different reasons. This data-driven collection takes up important questions about the causes and trends of neighbourhood change.
Scholarly inquiry into ethnic and racial boundaries has occupied a prominent place in social science research. Its intellectual roots can be traced largely to Fredrik Barth, who argued that understanding the construction and maintenance of ethnic groups should be accomplished by looking at the boundaries between groups. His insights have since been developed in the literature, with particular attention to institutional dynamics and cognitive processes in ethnic boundary development.
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