Analysis Of In Praise Of Margins

In his first preface for "A Place on the Corner," Anderson states "my main purpose here is to sort out and focus on those items that make up the local status system as Jelly's and on the ghetto streets generally" (Anderson, p. xv). He goes further to express a desire to answer a few basic questions regarding rules and principles of operation, social hierarchies and interactions, conflicting and overlapping social statuses, and how people demonstrate to others where they

Imagine growing up in a small town where everyone knows everyone's business and the nearest Wal-Mart is almost an hour away; then imagine attending a school where the amount of student attending is the same number of people who occupy a small town. The size difference is substantial and plays an important role. When I was younger, I had attended both a small town school and a school in the city. I have had the chance to experience the different lifestyles of these two variations of living. The development of who I am today was because of my surroundings. In the city, I noticed there was different opportunities. The opportunities seemed more readily available depending on funding and sources; which are dependant on the location. Education, development, and opportunities are widely known to be affected by environmental factors; thus, people who live in the city have a different experience than those who reside in small towns.

Firstly, Ian Frazier begins his short story with telling the tale of his youth, namely his experiences with his young friends, who would go into the woods for no particular reason, other than to have fun. This was such a common occurrence, in fact, that it had become known as going "out into the woods"(para. 1). When I was a primary school student, five of my best friends and I came to a small garden after school every day. We had played balls, been free to talk, ran or lied on the grass. We were back home only someone’s parents came to catch us. We have spent four years like this, day after day, year after year. So I could say I totally understood what Frazier’s feeling was when he was in “the

Every student is different, from how they learn to how much effort do they put in when studying. But with the right teacher guiding them to success, nothing is impossible. So, how do we motivate the future generation to succeed in school? The Perils and Promise of Praise, by Carole S. Dweck. The author focus on how to motivate students to succeed in school. From how you talk to them, motivate them to learn and rewarding them.

My life is propelled from my education. While the daily facades of school walls try their best to dilute the distractions of reality, in my community, I see families sorting through clothing donation boxes and teenagers hanging around gas stations instead of school. Along with the wastes I see accumulate on the street sides, I see a more disturbing waste: the opportunities begotten from poverty that perpetuates my community's hardships.

In the essay “In Praise of Margins” Ian Fraizer upholds the importance of margins as “a higher sort of unpurpose” (Fraizer 45) defined by his time in “the woods” (44). Fraizer and his friends spent most of their time in their margins also known as stomping ice in “the woods”. Fraizer says that marginal place and activities are “the most important kind” (46) because they are “where you can try out odd ideas”. Margins could be visiting a park, a friend’s house, a dance studio or even a football field, also doing things such as swinging on a tire, reading, watching movies, dancing or playing a sport. He argues that margins- whether places or activities- are valuable because they allow a person to be themselves, have fun and use their

She states that individuals in her cohort tend to be individualistic and prefer their yards, both physically and metaphorically, to

Places have the ability to trigger memories from one’s childhood and experiences. In the excerpt, “In Praise of Margins,” by Ian Frazier, the author argues that marginal places and activities are necessary for our lives because they grant us the opportunity to use our imaginations to have fun without fearing judgment from others. According to Fraizer, these places lack a purpose and don’t need to have an economic value nor need to be productive to be considered valuable. Marginal places are simply a place for you and/or your friends to reminisce all of your memories and reflect back on who you were and how you’ve become who you are now. These marginals are considered to be any place or activity that serve an unintentional purpose. Typically, they originate from childhood adventures such as running around the woods, providing an unintended consequence of a sense of exploration. Through my personal experiences, all of our marginal places and activities change as we age throughout our lives due to societal expectations, but they remain significant because they inspire creativity and allow us to be ourselves.

Public spaces are the achievement of urban societies where people can get urban experience very intensive and lively, offering experiences and possibilities for action. They are important spaces because they have potential for play, a potential which as Stevens believes is almost neglected:

(Dorsey & Mulder, 2013) It increases “eyes on the streets” which sociologist, Jane Jacobs, believes is essential when re-thinking city spaces as they allow people to take care of each other. This BIA has a fair amount of people walking around tending to their everyday business. Because it is located near residential areas, it is not unusual to see small families exploring the BIA or people walking around at night which increases the efforts alongside vehicle traffic to lower the chances of something wrong, such as a crime, from occurring in the

We are all aware of the facts – that materiality is unsustainable; that consumption is overwhelming; that economic gain is all pervasive. Yet we favour ignorance. Time has caught up with us and the self-interested ideals that once held our society together are no longer durable. This has produced a gap, but nothing palpable to replace it with. Hence individuals like you and I must resort to other avenues of fulfilment.

In Brent Staples’ personal essay “Black Men and Public Space”, he tells the readers what happen to a young black man in an urban setting. He pinpointed that people often stereotype you because of color, race, gender, culture or appearance. In addition, the author expresses to us that he notices the space between him and other people, such as women on the street. Some people may disagree that women set a certain amount of space when walking by a black man on the street. This statement is not true and public space is not about race, gender, color, culture, or appearance.

In the song Subdivisions, the band Rush, critically scrutinize the basises and social pressures that come with being brought up in the social formalities of your community, specifically, the suburbs. The song explains a person's thoughts and future is predefined by the general community’s opinions on what is the right way of thinking, that “opinions [are] all provided”. Sometimes, a bubble that can develop around a society, effectively cutting out the different standards of other societies, creating the feeling of there being nothing more than the life in the society. Due to this comes a lack of different ideas and priorities. That being said, if you don’t embody these ideals, the community will shun you.

As someone who’s father also likes to collect the right tool for the right situation, that story seemed to echo the same living space I shared growing up. The stuff we own takes up space, and in order to fit Dietz’s model of a SSE, we must learn to live with less. While Dietz goes on to list around eight various tactics to limit the producer to consumer stream, I found his inclusion of the New Economics Foundation proven ways to achieve well-being – Connect, be active, Take notice, Keep learning, and Give (pg. 161) – to be a more plausible way for all peoples to not only cut back on their consumer habits, but to transition towards a SSE and a happier life in

An example, first provided by Mills but that is still relevant today, which highlights the value – nay, necessity of sociological imagination, is unemployment. Looking at one individual as