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International Express: New Yorkers on the 7 Train
Nicknamed the International Express, the New York City Transit Authority 7 subway line runs through a highly diverse series of ethnic and immigrant neighborhoods in Queens. People from Andean South America, Central America, China, India, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, and Vietnam, as well as residents of a number of gentrifying blue-collar and industrial neighborhoods, fill the busy streets around the stations. The 7 train is a microcosm of a specifically urban, New York experience, in which individuals from a variety of cultures and social classes are forced to interact and get along with one another. For newcomers to the city, mastery of life in the subway space is a step toward assimilation into their new home.In International Express, the French ethnographer Stéphane Tonnelat and his collaborator William Kornblum, a native New Yorker, ride the 7 subway line to better understand the intricacies of this phenomenon. They also ask a group of students with immigrant backgrounds to keep diaries of their daily rides on the 7 train. What develops over time, they find, is a set of shared subway competences leading to a practical cosmopolitanism among riders, including immigrants and their children, that changes their personal values and attitudes toward others in small, subtle ways. This growing civility helps newcomers feel at home in an alien city and builds what the authors call a "situational community in transit." Yet riding the subway can be problematic, especially for women and teenagers. Tonnelat and Kornblum pay particular attention to gender and age relations on the 7 train. Their portrait of integrated mass transit, including a discussion of the relationship between urban density and diversity, is invaluable for social scientists and urban planners eager to enhance the cooperative experience of city living for immigrants and ease the process of cultural transition.
- GenresNonfiction
306 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 18, 2017
6 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 2, 2017
(received a copy from net galley in exchange for an unbiased review)
Sociological / anthropological study of how the New York subway helps new urban residents become urban citizens acclimated to the US. Doesn't seem to have a tpn new to say, but instead draws from lots of the classic urban sociologusts, which makes it useful as an intro to social science. The fact it uses a wide range of methods (neighborhood walk interviews with subway commuters, gleaning themes from message boards, aggregating polics and census data, observing vendors at subway stops, participant observation, having high school students make subway diaries) is very impressive as well, and is a good model for how social science should use a multi-method approach to best understand complex concepts.
Sociological / anthropological study of how the New York subway helps new urban residents become urban citizens acclimated to the US. Doesn't seem to have a tpn new to say, but instead draws from lots of the classic urban sociologusts, which makes it useful as an intro to social science. The fact it uses a wide range of methods (neighborhood walk interviews with subway commuters, gleaning themes from message boards, aggregating polics and census data, observing vendors at subway stops, participant observation, having high school students make subway diaries) is very impressive as well, and is a good model for how social science should use a multi-method approach to best understand complex concepts.
June 19, 2017
What's not to love about a sociological study of riders on the number 7 train in Queens? Okay, maybe not for everyone, but I loved this book. It's an intelligent look at the riders in around the 7 train, which travels through the most diverse county in the country. At each stop, there are different ethnic groups. This study looks at the riders themselves and the ways in which they interact.
Very clearly written, this book is a must for anyone doing a sociological study. It will help the person understand how best to proceed.
If you are a transportation or NYC geek, you might want to give it a look see.
Very clearly written, this book is a must for anyone doing a sociological study. It will help the person understand how best to proceed.
If you are a transportation or NYC geek, you might want to give it a look see.
January 29, 2025
The 7 train is easily the New York Subway line that I know best. For years, I dated a girl who lived in Queens; and several times a month, to get to her house, I would ride the 7 line from Grand Central all the way to Flushing. It was a surprisingly pleasant ride. As soon as the train passed under the East River into Queens, it rose up from beneath the ground and continued the rest of the way on elevated tracks.
For a child of the suburbs, the panorama of the city was agreeably chaotic and gritty, far from the sleek skyscrapers of Manhattan—New York for New Yorkers. I especially enjoyed passing by 5pointz, an abandoned building that had been converted into the city’s premier street art museum, every inch completely covered with astoundingly good graffiti. (The owner of the building has since decided to tear it down in order to make way for high-rise condos—a crime against art.) Then, arriving in Flushing, in the city’s true Chinatown, I felt swept away into another world. It confirmed that one of the great pleasures of living in an international city is the ability to traverse great distances in a small space.
I first learned of this book at an exhibit about the 7 train, in 2017 (?), that was held in the small arm of the New York Transit Museum housed in Grand Central. What stuck in my mind the most were images of the subway line under construction, stretching out into what used to be empty grassland. It was a striking demonstration that the city’s growth has often followed, rather than preceded, its infrastructure. And it was incredible to think that the endless urban environment was such a recent product of history.
Well, to the book. This is a sociological study of riders on the 7 train. One would think that a subway might provide insuperable difficulties to the aspiring sociologist, given that its ridership is constantly changing, and that the vast majority of subway riders simply want to get to their destination. I have myself been interviewed several times by workers on the Madrid Metro and found it quite annoying (despite having agreed to it).
The researchers overcame this problem by using a variety of techniques. They did historical research, conducted walking interviews with regular riders, observed people interacting with vendors, scoured blogs and forums for anecdotes, and gave journals to high school students in order to collect their experience. And although this data was presented in the context of an academic study, the result was an authentic portrait of how New Yorkers—and, presumably, city dwellers in general—interact with public transport.
One theme recurs in every chapter: the existence of social norms specific to the subway. This, the authors sum up as “civil inattention.” This is the paradoxical attitude, familiar to most urbanites, of pretending not to notice or care about those packed around you, while studiously avoiding anything that might bother them. This is what allows people to board a crowded train and ride to work in silence, without being overwhelmed by uncomfortable attention or interaction.
And yet, as any New Yorker knows, this ideal behavior is broken constantly and in a variety of ways. Teenagers play loud music, shout, and throw balls around; women, unfortunately, are often hit on, flashed, or groped; and more innocently, people make chit chat, flirt, or give directions. What’s more, although a high tolerance for diversity is necessary for life in the big city, categories of gender and race play a large role in how people end up treating one another.
All of this information is valuable and interesting. And by the standards of an academic text, this book is quite readable, mostly eschewing jargon and communicating in an unpretentious style. That being said, the book is rather dry and—perhaps due to the many research techniques—feels a little disorganized. It is not the sort of book you casually recommend to someone taking a trip to New York. But for the nerdier among you, looking to deepen your appreciation of the subway, it is a worthwhile read.
For a child of the suburbs, the panorama of the city was agreeably chaotic and gritty, far from the sleek skyscrapers of Manhattan—New York for New Yorkers. I especially enjoyed passing by 5pointz, an abandoned building that had been converted into the city’s premier street art museum, every inch completely covered with astoundingly good graffiti. (The owner of the building has since decided to tear it down in order to make way for high-rise condos—a crime against art.) Then, arriving in Flushing, in the city’s true Chinatown, I felt swept away into another world. It confirmed that one of the great pleasures of living in an international city is the ability to traverse great distances in a small space.
I first learned of this book at an exhibit about the 7 train, in 2017 (?), that was held in the small arm of the New York Transit Museum housed in Grand Central. What stuck in my mind the most were images of the subway line under construction, stretching out into what used to be empty grassland. It was a striking demonstration that the city’s growth has often followed, rather than preceded, its infrastructure. And it was incredible to think that the endless urban environment was such a recent product of history.
Well, to the book. This is a sociological study of riders on the 7 train. One would think that a subway might provide insuperable difficulties to the aspiring sociologist, given that its ridership is constantly changing, and that the vast majority of subway riders simply want to get to their destination. I have myself been interviewed several times by workers on the Madrid Metro and found it quite annoying (despite having agreed to it).
The researchers overcame this problem by using a variety of techniques. They did historical research, conducted walking interviews with regular riders, observed people interacting with vendors, scoured blogs and forums for anecdotes, and gave journals to high school students in order to collect their experience. And although this data was presented in the context of an academic study, the result was an authentic portrait of how New Yorkers—and, presumably, city dwellers in general—interact with public transport.
One theme recurs in every chapter: the existence of social norms specific to the subway. This, the authors sum up as “civil inattention.” This is the paradoxical attitude, familiar to most urbanites, of pretending not to notice or care about those packed around you, while studiously avoiding anything that might bother them. This is what allows people to board a crowded train and ride to work in silence, without being overwhelmed by uncomfortable attention or interaction.
And yet, as any New Yorker knows, this ideal behavior is broken constantly and in a variety of ways. Teenagers play loud music, shout, and throw balls around; women, unfortunately, are often hit on, flashed, or groped; and more innocently, people make chit chat, flirt, or give directions. What’s more, although a high tolerance for diversity is necessary for life in the big city, categories of gender and race play a large role in how people end up treating one another.
All of this information is valuable and interesting. And by the standards of an academic text, this book is quite readable, mostly eschewing jargon and communicating in an unpretentious style. That being said, the book is rather dry and—perhaps due to the many research techniques—feels a little disorganized. It is not the sort of book you casually recommend to someone taking a trip to New York. But for the nerdier among you, looking to deepen your appreciation of the subway, it is a worthwhile read.
May 29, 2017
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves the nyc subway system. It was a great blend of informative and personal (the researchers used interviews and journals to learn more about riders' experiences). A lot of my own observations and feelings about the subway were in this book, but with more background and explanation. Just a fun read for a subway super fan like me.
September 17, 2017
Some interesting observations, especially when it focuses on interviews with vendors and MTA workers, but it's got a lot of generic observations and needs a little more history or policy in it. Also think it would have been a little more engaging if the research were organized by sociological principle; as it is it feels kind of meandery.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews