Urban and Rural Communities

¶ … urban and rural communities differ in the formality of their norms and the strictness with which they are enforced?

Urban and rural communities differ profoundly in the demographic composition of their population and thus in their informal social norms. The greater influx of immigrants and socially mobile communities of labor often creates greater diversity in urban communities. This diversity results in greater tolerance of different modes of life. People who are young, gay, from other countries, or are pursuing artistic careers, are more likely to live in cities and often are more willing to transgress common social norms of what constitutes an acceptable lifestyle than people living in more rural areas.

Even individuals who limit themselves to dwelling in particular ethnic enclaves, like 'Little Italy' at the beginning of the 20th century, may experience greater heterogeneity of living styles than they did when they lived in rural towns in their 'Old Country.' To use the example of 'Little Italy,' a Florentine and a Sicilian who may never have conversed, and even been at war with one another in Italy, may come to eat one another's food and live on the same street, even observe some of the similar festivals, in America. What is 'Italian' is re-created in a pluralistic urban setting, even within what America deems a single ethnic group.

Rural communities tend to be more spread out, geographically, and thus people who live in such communities are more limited in the number of social interactions they have with different people. Social norms thus tend to evolve and change more slowly. However, one might observe that because of the greater surveillance of city authorities, procedural, legally enforced norms, such as the uniformity of the school system, parking, garbage disposal, transportation, gun control, etcetera -- simple, routine everyday acts of life, perhaps, but still ones that create a common rhythm of life -- are more subject to legal regulations in urban areas. This is out of necessity, because of population and transportation congestion. So perhaps the most accurate assessment of the difference between urban and rural communities is that although many things are more pluralistic and flexible in urban life, in a rural community with less government control over behavior, people may be free to obey an individualistic code, even if this individualistic code is a collection of norms with very old origins in their family or ethnic history. But the lack of exposure to people living in different ways in rural areas means that the informal social code of normality is much narrower and carefully 'policed' in rural areas than in more diverse and densely populated urban areas.