{"id":6932,"date":"2009-02-18T05:03:30","date_gmt":"2009-02-18T10:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=6932"},"modified":"2011-08-08T02:43:35","modified_gmt":"2011-08-08T07:43:35","slug":"guest-post-using-google-maps-to-teach-urban-ethnography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2009\/02\/18\/guest-post-using-google-maps-to-teach-urban-ethnography\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Google Maps to Teach Urban Ethnography"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am teaching Elijah Anderson’s Code of the Street<\/em> in my Introduction to\u00a0Sociology class, and I have found that an excellent supplement to the text is\u00a0the “Street view” of Google Maps. With a simple internet connection,\u00a0you can type in addresses into maps.google.com and show students the\u00a0places Anderson describes in the book.<\/p>\n

Anderson begins the book with a descriptive tour of Germantown Avenue,\u00a0starting in the wealthier and middle class neighborhoods and\u00a0continuing through the ghettos described throughout the book.\u00a0 As you\u00a0read the introduction, you can follow his description of the street\u00a0with Google maps.\u00a0 The “Street view” allows you to “drive” up and down\u00a0the street, look all around, and actually see how the ghettos are\u00a0different from the middle-class neighborhoods that are his comparative\u00a0foil.<\/p>\n

The entire street is not photographed in this way, but much of it is.\u00a0 You can detour off Germantown Avenue as well, following other major\u00a0arteries and smaller streets through the city.<\/p>\n

Here are the instructions and some screenshots. I don’t know much\u00a0about Philadelphia; this is only based on Anderson’s descriptions.\u00a0 Perhaps those more knowledgeable than I can fill in some details?<\/p>\n

Go maps.google.com and type in the following addresses. Then click on\u00a0“Street view” and navigate up and down the street as you desire.<\/p>\n

“8500 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA” takes you to a little\u00a0shopping district in Chestnut Hill, the upper-middle class\u00a0nighborhood that Anderson starts out with. You can go all the way up\u00a0to about 9500 or so.<\/p>\n

“7600 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA” transitions into the Mt. Airy\u00a0neighborhood, a more racially mixed middle class neighborhood. The\u00a0street view ends at 7200.<\/p>\n

“4600 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA,”\u00a0 Here the Street View starts\u00a0up again and goes for a few blocks before turning off on Windrim Ave.<\/p>\n

“3700 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA”–Corner of Broad St, “one of\u00a0the centers of the North Philadelphia ghetto”<\/p>\n

\"picture-15\"
\n“2900 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA.” Here, you start to see the\u00a0empty lots, barred windows, and shuttered buildings.<\/p>\n

\"picture-25\"
\n“1000 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA.” Where the street ends under\u00a0the interstate:<\/p>\n

\"picture-35\"<\/p>\n

———————<\/p>\n

Peter Hart-Brinson<\/a> is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.\u00a0 He is a cultural sociologist and is working on a dissertation about gay marriage.\u00a0 His post is inspired by Elijah Anderson’s\u00a0Code of the Street<\/em>… so it’s for serious sociological nerds.<\/p>\n

If you would like to write a post for Sociological Images, please see our\u00a0Guidelines for Guest Bloggers<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am teaching Elijah Anderson’s Code of the Street in my Introduction to\u00a0Sociology class, and I have found that an excellent supplement to the text is\u00a0the “Street view” of Google Maps. With a simple internet connection,\u00a0you can type in addresses into maps.google.com and show students the\u00a0places Anderson describes in the book. Anderson begins the book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[209,253,341],"class_list":["post-6932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-academia","tag-history","tag-ruralurban"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6932"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6940,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6932\/revisions\/6940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}