Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 2

     With minimal homework and no midterms to study for this past weekend, I decided to make my first trip for this blog, the most time consuming trip, a bus trip through Los Angeles along its famous Sunset Boulevard. With only Emile Durkheim’s concept of division of labor to connect my observations to, I made sure to pay special attention not only to the surrounding environment, but also to the environment within the bus’ doors. Perhaps I would be best served, at this point, to introduce Emile Durkheim’s concept of division of labor to my readers. In a nutshell, Durkheim believed that as societies became more materially dense, that is, the population increased, problems arose from overpopulation and under availability of resources. In response to these issues, citizens within these modernizing cities adopted an idea of job specification, or the division of labor, in order to make living in such a “materially dense” area more efficient. To this extent, this division of labor serves a practical, functional purpose. Durkheim believed, however, that this original functional state is replaced by a state of class inequality when this job specification creates a society that is too differentiated to be unified by a common culture. 

     With the obligatory introduction to Durkheim’s concept of division of labor completed, it is time to turn to my actual trip. On Friday, October 5^th, I took the 2/302 bus from UCLA’s Strathmore/Gayley station all the way to Downtown Los Angeles and back, a trip that took a collective 4 hours and passed through a variety of cities, ranging from Beverly Hills to Echo Park. While the areas I passed through certainly represented the concepts of inequality and social difference, it was the people that boarded the bus that best epitomized both Robert E. Park’s and Emile Durkheim’s views. First, let me start with the surrounding area. While class difference was relatively easy to identify in the different cities I visited, as roads were smoother and cleaner in Beverly Hills than they were in Echo Park or even Hollywood, the most blatant example of social difference I encountered was through the Los Angeles Department of Transportation itself. In a city, county and even state where citizens rely heavily on personal automobiles as their primary means of transportation, it is a widely held view that public transportation is used primarily by those who cannot afford their own vehicle. It appears that the Department of Transportation designed their bus routes with this view in mind, as not only did the route have far fewer stops in the affluent regions of the route, such as Beverly Hills, but the driver seemed surprised when people on the bus requested a stop or when there were riders at these stops waiting to board. While this may be a very limited sample to base such a conclusion, I could not help but notice that neither the Department of Transportation, nor its employees, seem to expect many riders to travel to or from the more affluent parts of town. Finally, I will move within the bus’ doors. While there were several riders that embodied the idea of class differences stemming from the division of labor, as the majority of riders were blue-collar construction workers, gardeners and other manual laborers, the most striking example of social inequality as it relates to job specification came from a comparison between two riders. On my way to Downtown LA, I noticed a maid board the bus in Beverly Hills and later get off in the Echo Park area. It was clear that she felt very comfortable on the bus, as she had a bus pass, knew the driver by name and initiated conversations with other riders throughout her trip. On my return trip to UCLA, I noticed a male rider, in an expensive looking suit, board the bus, presumably, after work. I noticed that the rider paid in cash, kept his head down upon entering and walked to the back of the bus looking ashamed and embarrassed. At first I did not think much of it, as he seemed like just another quiet, semi-depressed looking passenger. That view changed when we approached the Beverly Hills area, as he sprung from his seat, smashed the “request a stop” button with his fist and darted to the doors in an impatient manor. As he stepped off the bus, he turned to a man who was sitting by the door, smiled and said, “The Benz is in the shop.” This is a striking example of how division of labor can lead to class differences, as the rider with the low-paying, low-prestige job had no issue taking the bus, while the rider with the high-paying, high prestige job was not only clearly embarrassed to be on a bus, but felt he had to justify his riding to the other passengers. In summation, my trip down Sunset Boulevard embodied Durkheim’s claim that job specification can lead to class inequality while simultaneously strengthening Robert E Park’s view that the modern city is merely a collection of touching, but never interpenetrating entities.