IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v59y2022i6p1185-1201.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘I can’t just go up to a person to ask what’s going on.’ How Dutch urbanites’ accounts of non-engagement enhance our understanding of urban care

Author

Listed:
  • Laurine Blonk

    (University of Humanistic Studies, the Netherlands)

  • Margo Trappenburg

    (University of Humanistic Studies, the Netherlands)

  • Femmianne Bredewold

    (University of Humanistic Studies, the Netherlands)

Abstract

In the context of increasing appeals to informal care in Western welfare state policies, questions concerning urban sociality acquire new significance. This paper aims to contribute to the emergent thinking on ‘urban care’ by situating it in policy debates concerning care responsibilities between citizens. We used small-scale focus groups among urban residents in The Hague (the Netherlands) to inquire into the accounts urbanites give of engaging or not engaging with perceived care needs of a stranger. Informed by Goffman’s ‘civil inattention’, we found that accounts of non-engagement highlight urbanites’ orientation towards maintaining friendly social interactions in the face of strange or worrisome situations. Urbanites feel that they should respect people’s choices even if these might hurt them. They fear that interference might be humiliating and they attribute to themselves the task of sticking to normality, while family members, friends or professionals might take on the task to intervene. This careful non-engagement, contrasted with long-standing accounts of urban indifference, enhances our understanding of urban care.

Suggested Citation

  • Laurine Blonk & Margo Trappenburg & Femmianne Bredewold, 2022. "‘I can’t just go up to a person to ask what’s going on.’ How Dutch urbanites’ accounts of non-engagement enhance our understanding of urban care," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(6), pages 1185-1201, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:59:y:2022:i:6:p:1185-1201
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098021997013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098021997013
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098021997013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zheng Wang & Fangzhu Zhang & Fulong Wu, 2020. "The contribution of intergroup neighbouring to community participation: Evidence from Shanghai," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(6), pages 1224-1242, May.
    2. Allen J. Scott & Michael Storper, 2015. "The Nature of Cities: The Scope and Limits of Urban Theory," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 1-15, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Becker, Jörg & Distel, Bettina & Grundmann, Matthias & Hupperich, Thomas & Kersting, Norbert & Löschel, Andreas & Parreira do Amaral, Marcelo & Scholta, Hendrik, 2021. "Challenges and potentials of digitalisation for small and mid-sized towns: Proposition of a transdisciplinary research agenda," ERCIS Working Papers 36, University of Münster, European Research Center for Information Systems (ERCIS).
    2. Rosanna Salvia & Rares Halbac-Cotoara-Zamfir & Sirio Cividino & Luca Salvati & Giovanni Quaranta, 2020. "From Rural Spaces to Peri-Urban Districts: Metropolitan Growth, Sparse Settlements and Demographic Dynamics in a Mediterranean Region," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-20, June.
    3. Helga Leitner & Eric Sheppard, 2018. "From Kampungs to Condos? Contested accumulations through displacement in Jakarta," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(2), pages 437-456, March.
    4. Paköz, Muhammed Ziya & Yaratgan, Dilara & Şahin, Aydan, 2022. "Re-mapping urban vitality through Jane Jacobs’ criteria: The case of Kayseri, Turkey," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    5. Oli Mould, 2016. "A Limitless Urban Theory? A Response to Scott and Storper's ‘The Nature of Cities: The Scope and Limits of Urban Theory'," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 157-163, January.
    6. Kevin Ward & Timothy Bunnell, 2021. "Reflections on five years of the Summer Institute in Urban Studies," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(4), pages 863-878, March.
    7. Zheng Wang & Jie Shen & Xiang Luo, 2023. "Can residents regain their community relations after resettlement? Insights from Shanghai," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(5), pages 962-980, April.
    8. Ilaria Zambon & Artemi Cerdà & Filippo Gambella & Gianluca Egidi & Luca Salvati, 2019. "Industrial Sprawl and Residential Housing: Exploring the Interplay between Local Development and Land-Use Change in the Valencian Community, Spain," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-18, September.
    9. Frederick Guy, 2020. "Who wants their city to become a world city? Comment on “Expanding the international trade and investment policy agenda: The role of cities and services”," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 3(3), pages 224-228, September.
    10. Alessia D’Agata & Daniele Ponza & Florin Adrian Stroiu & Ioannis Vardopoulos & Kostas Rontos & Francisco Escrivà & Francesco Chelli & Leonardo Salvatore Alaimo & Luca Salvati & Samaneh Sadat Nickyain, 2023. "Toward Sustainable Development Trajectories? Estimating Urban Footprints from High-Resolution Copernicus Layers in Athens, Greece," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-17, July.
    11. Qin Ye & Xiaolei Xu, 2021. "Determining factors of cities’ centrality in the interregional innovation networks of China’s biomedical industry," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(4), pages 2801-2819, April.
    12. Yılmaz, Merve & Terzi, Fatih, 2021. "Measuring the patterns of urban spatial growth of coastal cities in developing countries by geospatial metrics," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    13. Rasa Pranskuniene & Dalia Perkumiene, 2021. "Public Perceptions on City Landscaping during the Outbreak of Coronavirus Disease: The Case of Vilnius Pop-Up Beach, Lithuania," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, January.
    14. Das, Ashok & Susantono, Bambang (ed.), 2022. "Informal Services in Asian Cities: Lessons for Urban Planning and Management from the COVID-19 Pandemic," ADBI Books, Asian Development Bank Institute, number 30, Décembre.
    15. R. V. Fattakhov & M. M. Nizamutdinov & V. V. Oreshnikov, 2020. "Assessment of the Attractiveness of Large Russian Cities for Residents, Tourists, and Business," Regional Research of Russia, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 538-548, October.
    16. Pierre-Alexandre Balland & Cristian Jara-Figueroa & Sergio G. Petralia & Mathieu P. A. Steijn & David L. Rigby & César A. Hidalgo, 2020. "Complex economic activities concentrate in large cities," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(3), pages 248-254, March.
    17. Danie Francois Toerien, 2022. "Temporal and Geographic Stress Testing of Entrepreneurial Proportionalities in United States Counties," World, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-31, July.
    18. Murphy James T., 2022. "Urban-economic geographies beyond production: Nairobi’s sociotechnical system and the challenge of generative urbanization," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 66(1), pages 18-35, May.
    19. McGreevy, Michael & Harris, Patrick & Delany-Crowe, Toni & Fisher, Matt & Sainsbury, Peter & Baum, Fran, 2019. "Can health and health equity be advanced by urban planning strategies designed to advance global competitiveness? Lessons from two Australian case studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    20. Paolo Perulli & Veronica Ronchi & Giulio Sapelli, 2020. "Souths of the World," Reports, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:59:y:2022:i:6:p:1185-1201. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.