num_pages: 318
description: An acclaimed sociologist illuminates the public life of an American city offering a major reinterpretation of the racial dynamics in America. Following his award-winning work on inner-city violence Code of the Street  sociologist Elijah Anderson introduces the concept of the cosmopolitan canopythe urban island of civility that exists amidst the ghettos suburbs and ethnic enclaves where segregation is the norm. Under the cosmopolitan canopy diverse peoples come together and for the most part practice getting along. Andersons path-breaking study of this setting provides a new understanding of the complexities of present-day race relations and reveals the unique opportunities here for cross-cultural interaction.Anderson walks us through Center City Philadelphia revealing and illustrating through his ethnographic fieldwork how city dwellers often interact across racial ethnic and social borders. People engage in a distinctive folk ethnography. Canopies operating in close proximity create a synergy that becomes a cosmopolitan zone. In the vibrant atmosphere of these public spaces civility is the order of the day. However incidents can arise that threaten and rend the canopy including scenes of tension involving borders of race class sexual preference and gender. But when they doassisted by glossthe resilience of the canopy most often prevails. In this space all kinds of city dwellersfrom gentrifiers to the homeless cabdrivers to doormenmanage to co-exist in the urban environment gaining local knowledge as they do which then helps reinforce and spread tolerance through contact and mutual understanding.With compelling meticulous descriptions of public spaces such as 30th Street Station Reading Terminal Market and Rittenhouse Square and quasi-public places like the modern-day workplace Anderson provides a rich narrative account of how blacks and whites relate and redefine the color line in everyday public life. He reveals how eating shopping and people-watching under the canopy can ease racial tensions but also how the spaces in and between canopies can reinforce boundaries. Weaving colorful observations with keen social insight Anderson shows how the canopyand its lessonscontributes to the civility of our increasingly diverse cities.
language: English
title: The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life
publisher: W. W. Norton & Company