In the bastides , an ancient city form found in France, this problem was solved by building houses around a central square, which served as marketplace and gathering center. The walkway around the square was covered with an arcade. The church was placed on or near the square, while the fields extended behind the houses. This intimate clustering still provides an attractive and coherent setting for the communal life of residents. When the physical foundation for group life is disrupted, many changes in individual and group functioning follow.
Home has psychological importance as an object of attachment and as a source of identity.
It is a small bit of territory through which the individual makes a connection to the larger world, indeed to the larger universe. A stable and functioning home is essential to psychological well-being. The grief among former residents of West Boston 3 shows striking parallels to the distress of Gypsies forced to abandon their life on the road. This is a matter both of finding empirical evidence to locate the source of the problem and of adopting sound principles to guide action. In our experience, applied ethnography is the most useful tool for examining the structural conditions of the neighborhood, the state of social relationships, and the resources that can be a basis for problem solving.