Burencontacten en kennismakingsritueel. (Een onderzoek in enkele oudere, gegoede Utrechtse wijken

Samenvatting

The process of making acquaintance with neighbors in a residence area. An investigation into the ways of making acquaintance with neighbors of newley moved in residents in an upper middle class neighborhood of Utrecht. 60 personal interviews with married couples were held, open end questions being the most extensively used. The sending of visitingcards, prescribed in former days by the rules of etiquette, proved to be thought of as conservative and rather meaningless. People prefer to establish direct personal contacts with neighbors. For many people however the entering into contact is still founded on certain standardized principles („it simply ought to be done”), as is the readiness to give help and mutual assistance. Selective processes as to religion and status prove to arise only in a later phase of residence; they influence the building of more intimate personal relationships.