Reassessing the Effect of Urbanism and Regionalism: A Comparison of Different Indicators of Racial Tolerance

Abstract

Louis Wirth developed the concept of urbanism as a way of life. Urbanism has its drawbacks, since urban life is seen as making human relationships brief, segmented and transitory. But urbanism has promised benefits, namely urbanites are supposed to be more tolerant. But are urbanites more tolerant? Using GSS data, it is shown that southern parts of the United States are less racially tolerant than the rest of the nation, but that urbanism itself only poorly predicts attitudes of tolerance, depending on the measurement.

Keywords

• urbanism
• racial tolerance
• urban