Traditional neighbourhood in modern city

The question, what happens to tradition in the wake of modern industrial urban development has attracted attention of social scientists ever since the rise of scientific study of society. Early. works in attempting to answer this question have laid emphasis upon the study of the impacts of urban development on the cultural contents of the tradition.

The basis for the present study lie in the need for studying the tradition in their social dimensions and to see how they are organised against the challenges of industrial urban developments. The author brings out how the tradition of neighbourhood living with heightened degree of personal relations could sustain itself in the midst of industrial-urban challenges.

The author has examind processes of continuity and change in the traditional neighbourhoods, called pol in the wake of industrialisation in the city of Ahmedabad, India. The traditional organisation and functions of the pol are traced through the study of pre-industrial phase of the city and the responses of the pol to modern challenges through the adjustments the pol had undergone during the industrial phase of the growth of city.

The study on empirical line succinctly provides how a pol which failed to respond to change withered away; whereas the other two Pols which have taken to change are able to survive on tradition-modernity continuum by retaining some of their traditional elements, hithertofore considered as non-existent in an industrial city.