1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910465798003321

Autore

Tonnelat Stéphane

Titolo

International express : New Yorkers on the 7 train / / Stephane Tonnelat and William Kornblum

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York : , : Columbia University Press, , 2017

©2017

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (312 pages) : illustrations, maps

Disciplina

305.8009747

Soggetti

Multiculturalism - New York (State) - New York

Subways - Social aspects - New York (State) - New York

Ethnic groups - New York (State) - New York

Immigrants - Cultural assimilation - New York (State) - New York

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Becoming New Yorkers on the 7 Train -- 2. Coping with Diversity Aboard the "International Express" -- 3. Walking to the Stations, Code Switching, and the I-We-You Shift -- 4. The 74th Street/Roosevelt Avenue Station -- 5. Trust in the Subway: Exploring the Situational Community in Transit -- 6. Gender Relations on the Subway -- 7. Teenagers on the 7 Train -- 8. Subway City: The 7 Train as an Engine of Urbanism -- 9. A World of Subway Citizens -- Appendix: Mixed Methods in Subway Research -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Nicknamed the International Express, the New York City Transit Authority 7 subway line runs through a highly diverse series of ethnic and immigrant neighborhoods in Queens. People from Andean South America, Central America, China, India, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, and Vietnam, as well as residents of a number of gentrifying blue-collar and industrial neighborhoods, fill the busy streets around the stations. The 7 train is a microcosm of a specifically urban, New York experience, in which individuals from a variety of cultures and social classes are forced to interact and get along with one



another. For newcomers to the city, mastery of life in the subway space is a step toward assimilation into their new home.In International Express, the French ethnographer Stéphane Tonnelat and his collaborator William Kornblum, a native New Yorker, ride the 7 subway line to better understand the intricacies of this phenomenon. They also ask a group of students with immigrant backgrounds to keep diaries of their daily rides on the 7 train. What develops over time, they find, is a set of shared subway competences leading to a practical cosmopolitanism among riders, including immigrants and their children, that changes their personal values and attitudes toward others in small, subtle ways. This growing civility helps newcomers feel at home in an alien city and builds what the authors call a "situational community in transit." Yet riding the subway can be problematic, especially for women and teenagers. Tonnelat and Kornblum pay particular attention to gender and age relations on the 7 train. Their portrait of integrated mass transit, including a discussion of the relationship between urban density and diversity, is invaluable for social scientists and urban planners eager to enhance the cooperative experience of city living for immigrants and ease the process of cultural transition.