Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART III: P LANTING U RBAN C HURCHES • 381

Six Types of Neighborhoods Warren & Warren. 1977. The Neighborhood Organizer’s Handbook . Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, pp. 96-97

Integral A cosmopolitan as well as a local center. Individuals are in close contact. They share many concerns. They participate in activities of the larger community. Parochial A neighborhood having a strong ethnic identity or homogeneous character. Self-contained, independent of larger community. Has ways to screen out what does not conform to its own norms. Diffuse Often homogeneous setting ranging from a new subdivision to an inner city housing project. Has many things in common. However, there is no active internal life. Little local involvement with neighbors. Stepping Stone An active neighborhood. A game of “musical chairs.” People participate in neighborhood activities because they identify with the neighborhood but often to “get ahead” in a career or some other nonlocal point of destination. Transitory A neighborhood where population change has been or is occurring. Often breaks up into little clusters of people – frequently “old-timers” and newcomers are separated. Little collective action or organization takes place. Anomic It’s really a non-neighborhood. Highly atomized; no cohesion. Great social distance between people. No protective barriers to outside influences making it responsive to some outside change. It lacks the capacity to mobilize for common actions from within.