Taylor, D.E., 1999, Central Park as a model for social control: urban parks, social class and leisure behavior in nineteenth-century America, in: Journal of Leisure Research, 31, 4
- Author : Taylor, D.E.
- Year : 1999
- Journal/Series : Journal of Leisure Research
- Volume Number (ANNUAL: Counting Volumes of the Year shown above) : 4
- Volume Number (CONSECUTIVE: Counting all Volumes of this Journal ever published) : 31
- Pages : 420-477
- Abstract in English : Throughout the nineteenth century, the leading landscape architects and park advocates believed that parks were important instruments of enlightenment and social control. This paper contends that planning elites designed and used urban park as tools of social control. The study of social control is the analysis of the process that tends to counteract deviant tendencies. Broadly speaking social control is an attempt by one or more individuals to manipulate the behaviour of others by means other than chain of command or requests. The parks were conceptualized, designed and managed by elites in accordance to middleclass values, tastes and mores. In this context elites can be viewed as key actors or inner circle of participants who play structured functionally understandable roles in the urban park system. As the middle and working class mingled in these spaces, conflicts arose over appropriate park use and behaviour, which laid the foundation for recreation movement
- Comments/Notes : KEYWORDS: recreation, social control, societal significance, urban parks, history, management, park uses, quality. UTILITY: lecturers/teachers, academic research, students of universities of professional education.