Urban History and Working-Class History: Reflections on Working-Class Life and Urban Space, 1900-1950

The article provides some keys to relate city & working class. Urban space, especially in the great cities of the early 20th century, was not a passive element in working-class formation. Social segregation, housing, commuting to work, & the neighborhood communities of European cities are examined in a comparative approach. WWII was a turning point for working-class life with regard to these issues. Manual workers became even more segregated from other social classes, especially in the new suburban council housing. Journeys to work became longer. Primary community networks -- kinship, neighborhood bonds, friendship -- survived, but secondary networks started their decline. Skilled & white-collar workers were often the protagonists of the transformations. Unskilled workers preserved the old patterns to a great extent. In the cities of the South, transformations were not so profound as in those of the North. These cities were the stage of a gradual fragmentation of the different working-class strata, with greater personal & geographical separation. 5 Tables. Adapted from the source document.