D Silver
Biographic Data
| ID | 14268 |
|---|---|
| NAME | D Silver |
| GIVEN NAMES | D |
| FAMILY NAME | Silver |
| SIGNATURE | SILVER D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Toronto |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6242-8235 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 39 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1973 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
To interpret, not just select: Engaging the Chicago School Legacy
This commentary responds to Justus Uitermark's call for renewed engagement with the Chicago School of Sociology, arguing that such engagement should be interpretative as well as selective. While Uitermark urges contemporary urbanists to draw selectively from the School's legacy, I suggest that this risks flattening the internal tensions and conceptual richness that animated its founding figures. Through a close rereading of Robert E. Park, I show…
Mapping Social Change: A Unified Framework for Temporal Clustering
Analyzing social change requires detecting patterns of continuity and difference over time. While time-series clustering offers a valuable approach, existing techniques are often limited by assuming fixed cluster definitions and static assignments of entities to clusters. To address these limitations, we introduce a unified framework of temporal clustering methods that allows for both dynamic cluster definitions and the transition of entities bet…
Urban Referencing Styles and Networks: How Cultural Domination and Local Interests Shape Policy Discourse
In the global arena of municipal policymaking, cities do not merely address local concerns but actively engage with other cities in a global relational space, referencing and being referenced by others. Within these networks, certain “model cities” emerge, linking urban transformation strategies to specific city experiences. Although much research focuses on the production of model cities—how they gain prominence and status—less attention has bee…
Residential preferences, place alienation, and neighborhood satisfaction: A conjoint survey experiment in Toronto’s inner suburbs
In this article, we study neighborhood preferences among residents of highly diverse, lower income suburban neighborhoods in Toronto, Ontario. By extending the typical application of conjoint designs to the urban domain, we show techniques for measuring place alienation—a sense of disconnection from place—and its impact on neighborhood satisfaction. We find that residents in lower SES neighborhoods share many of the same priorities as residents i…
Towards a Model of Urban Evolution—Part I: Context
This paper seeks to develop the core concepts of a model of urban evolution. It proceeds in four major sections. First, we review prior adumbrations of an evolutionary model in urban theory, noting their potential and their limitations. Second, we turn to the general sociocultural evolution literature to draw inspiration for a fresh and more complete application of evolutionary theory to the study of urban life. Third, building upon this backgrou…
Towards a Model of Urban Evolution Part IV: Evolutionary (Formetic) Distance—An Interpretation of Yelp Review Data
This paper is part IV of “towards a model of urban evolution”. It demonstrates how the Toronto Urban Evolution Model (TUEM) can be used to encode city data, illuminate key features, demonstrate how formetic distance can be used to discover how spatial areas change over time, and identify similar spatial areas within and between cities. The data used in this study are reviews from Yelp. Each review can be interpreted as a formeme where the categor…
Towards a Model of Urban Evolution: Part II: Formal Model
This paper is part II of “Towards A Model of Urban Evolution.” It defines a formal model of the Signature of an urban space, comprised of the information encoded in that space. This information consists of: an urban genome, which captures ideas regarding the groups (i.e., users) and activities (i.e., uses) to which a space’s physical forms are oriented; ideas among human actors regarding who (users) and how (uses) to utilize the space and its for…
Towards a Model of Urban Evolution—Part III: Rules of Evolution
This paper develops a formal model of urban evolution in terms of (1) sources of variations; (2) principles of selection; and (3) mechanisms of retention. More specifically, regarding (1) it defines local and environmental sources of variation and identifies some of their generative processes, such as recombination, migration, mutation, extinction, and transcription errors. Regarding (2), it outlines a series of selection processes as part of an …
The Dilemmas of Spatializing Social Issues
Cities have established official neighborhood boundaries for targeted social policy in recent decades. The authors propose that a sociological conception of neighborhoods sensitizes us to the potential consequences of imposing categorical divisions onto a largely continuous urban space. The authors specify this idea in three steps. First, they argue that designations affect people's behavior toward target neighborhoods. Second, the heterogeneity …
The right tool for the job: Problems and solutions in visualizing sociological theory
The visualization of social theory is an important part of the development and communication of our theoretical ideas. While most theorists use figures of some kind, few if any have formal training, or guiding rules or principles for the representation of theory. This has often led to poor visualization efforts, and the visual culture of sociology continues to lag behind the natural sciences. The intent of this paper is to serve as a practical an…
Alienation in a four factor world
This paper aims to reconstruct the concept of alienation as a live topic for active social theorizing. Joining Marxian and Simmelian ideas, it provides a multi‐dimensional, formal, and synthetic theory of alienation. The paper develops a set of theoretical tools for articulating formal elements of action that make alienation possible, without giving conceptual priority to alienation in the sphere of production, or within that sphere to the aliena…
Full Issue
From Hungry to Healthy: Simmel, Self-Cultivation and the Transformative Experience of Eating for Beauty
We examine American Cosmopolitan in order to understand how specific foods have been linked to dominant forms of beauty. Three food-beauty nexuses emerge, namely moralism, strategy and holism. To understand how women engaged with these nexuses, we draw on Simmel’s “religiosity.” Simmel traced deeply-felt experiences like self-cultivation (beauty) through cultural objects (food) using religious imagery. In this respect, changing messages about die…
Cultural scenes and contextual effects on political attitudes
Spatial variation in voting is well documented, but substantively meaningful explanations of how places shape individuals’ politics are lacking. This paper suggests that local cultural ‘scenes’ exert a contextual effect – a spatial effect not driven by demographic differences between individuals in different places – on political attitudes and sensibilities. We measure the local ‘scene’ of Canadian electoral districts (EDs) through an original, n…
The American scenescape: Amenities, scenes and the qualities of local life
This paper outlines a new approach to measuring local quality of place. It uses a national database of some 500 types of local amenities to measure the local 'scene' in every US zip code. It provides a brief tour through the American 'scenescape' at the national, regional, urban and neighbourhood levels by outlining variations in types of amenities and the values they support, such as tradition, self-expression, transgression or local authenticit…
The View of Life: Four Metaphysical Essays with Journal Aphorisms
Published in 1918, The View of Life is Georg Simmel's final work. Famously deemed 'the brightest man in Europe by George Santayana, Simmel addressed a variety of topics across his essayistic writings, which have influenced scholars in aesthetics, ethics, epistemology, and sociology. Nevertheless, a set of core issues emerged over the course of his career, most centrally the genesis, structure, and transcendence of social and cultural forms and th…
Scenes: Social Context in an Age of Contingency
This article builds on an important but underdeveloped social science concept — the “scene” as a cluster of urban amenities — to contribute to social science theory and subspecialties such as urban and rural, class, race and gender studies. Scenes grow more important in less industrial, more expressively-oriented and contingent societies where traditional constraints fall and self-motivated action around consumption, leisure and amenities is a mo…
Some second-generation effects of survival of the Nazi persecution
Nazi concentration camp survivors are known to continue to suffer the adverse physical and psychological effects of their internment. This is a study of the effects on their children. A clinical sample of mid-teenage children of survivors was found to have more behavioral and other disturbances and less adequate coping behavior than did a clinical control group. Parental preoccupation is suggested as a contributing factor
Alienation in a four factor world
This paper aims to reconstruct the concept of alienation as a live topic for active social theorizing. Joining Marxian and Simmelian ideas, it provides a multi‐dimensional, formal, and synthetic theory of alienation. The paper develops a set of theoretical tools for articulating formal elements of action that make alienation possible, without giving conceptual priority to alienation in the sphere of production, or within that sphere to the aliena…
The right tool for the job: Problems and solutions in visualizing sociological theory
The visualization of social theory is an important part of the development and communication of our theoretical ideas. While most theorists use figures of some kind, few if any have formal training, or guiding rules or principles for the representation of theory. This has often led to poor visualization efforts, and the visual culture of sociology continues to lag behind the natural sciences. The intent of this paper is to serve as a practical an…
The American scenescape: Amenities, scenes and the qualities of local life
This paper outlines a new approach to measuring local quality of place. It uses a national database of some 500 types of local amenities to measure the local 'scene' in every US zip code. It provides a brief tour through the American 'scenescape' at the national, regional, urban and neighbourhood levels by outlining variations in types of amenities and the values they support, such as tradition, self-expression, transgression or local authenticit…
From Hungry to Healthy: Simmel, Self-Cultivation and the Transformative Experience of Eating for Beauty
We examine American Cosmopolitan in order to understand how specific foods have been linked to dominant forms of beauty. Three food-beauty nexuses emerge, namely moralism, strategy and holism. To understand how women engaged with these nexuses, we draw on Simmel’s “religiosity.” Simmel traced deeply-felt experiences like self-cultivation (beauty) through cultural objects (food) using religious imagery. In this respect, changing messages about die…
The Dilemmas of Spatializing Social Issues
Cities have established official neighborhood boundaries for targeted social policy in recent decades. The authors propose that a sociological conception of neighborhoods sensitizes us to the potential consequences of imposing categorical divisions onto a largely continuous urban space. The authors specify this idea in three steps. First, they argue that designations affect people's behavior toward target neighborhoods. Second, the heterogeneity …
Cultural scenes and contextual effects on political attitudes
Spatial variation in voting is well documented, but substantively meaningful explanations of how places shape individuals’ politics are lacking. This paper suggests that local cultural ‘scenes’ exert a contextual effect – a spatial effect not driven by demographic differences between individuals in different places – on political attitudes and sensibilities. We measure the local ‘scene’ of Canadian electoral districts (EDs) through an original, n…
Towards a Model of Urban Evolution—Part I: Context
This paper seeks to develop the core concepts of a model of urban evolution. It proceeds in four major sections. First, we review prior adumbrations of an evolutionary model in urban theory, noting their potential and their limitations. Second, we turn to the general sociocultural evolution literature to draw inspiration for a fresh and more complete application of evolutionary theory to the study of urban life. Third, building upon this backgrou…
Towards a Model of Urban Evolution—Part III: Rules of Evolution
This paper develops a formal model of urban evolution in terms of (1) sources of variations; (2) principles of selection; and (3) mechanisms of retention. More specifically, regarding (1) it defines local and environmental sources of variation and identifies some of their generative processes, such as recombination, migration, mutation, extinction, and transcription errors. Regarding (2), it outlines a series of selection processes as part of an …
Some second-generation effects of survival of the Nazi persecution
Nazi concentration camp survivors are known to continue to suffer the adverse physical and psychological effects of their internment. This is a study of the effects on their children. A clinical sample of mid-teenage children of survivors was found to have more behavioral and other disturbances and less adequate coping behavior than did a clinical control group. Parental preoccupation is suggested as a contributing factor
Scenes: Social Context in an Age of Contingency
This article builds on an important but underdeveloped social science concept — the “scene” as a cluster of urban amenities — to contribute to social science theory and subspecialties such as urban and rural, class, race and gender studies. Scenes grow more important in less industrial, more expressively-oriented and contingent societies where traditional constraints fall and self-motivated action around consumption, leisure and amenities is a mo…
The American scenescape: Amenities, scenes and the qualities of local life
This paper outlines a new approach to measuring local quality of place. It uses a national database of some 500 types of local amenities to measure the local 'scene' in every US zip code. It provides a brief tour through the American 'scenescape' at the national, regional, urban and neighbourhood levels by outlining variations in types of amenities and the values they support, such as tradition, self-expression, transgression or local authenticit…
The View of Life: Four Metaphysical Essays with Journal Aphorisms
Published in 1918, The View of Life is Georg Simmel's final work. Famously deemed 'the brightest man in Europe by George Santayana, Simmel addressed a variety of topics across his essayistic writings, which have influenced scholars in aesthetics, ethics, epistemology, and sociology. Nevertheless, a set of core issues emerged over the course of his career, most centrally the genesis, structure, and transcendence of social and cultural forms and th…
Cultural scenes and contextual effects on political attitudes
Spatial variation in voting is well documented, but substantively meaningful explanations of how places shape individuals’ politics are lacking. This paper suggests that local cultural ‘scenes’ exert a contextual effect – a spatial effect not driven by demographic differences between individuals in different places – on political attitudes and sensibilities. We measure the local ‘scene’ of Canadian electoral districts (EDs) through an original, n…
From Hungry to Healthy: Simmel, Self-Cultivation and the Transformative Experience of Eating for Beauty
We examine American Cosmopolitan in order to understand how specific foods have been linked to dominant forms of beauty. Three food-beauty nexuses emerge, namely moralism, strategy and holism. To understand how women engaged with these nexuses, we draw on Simmel’s “religiosity.” Simmel traced deeply-felt experiences like self-cultivation (beauty) through cultural objects (food) using religious imagery. In this respect, changing messages about die…
Full Issue
Alienation in a four factor world
This paper aims to reconstruct the concept of alienation as a live topic for active social theorizing. Joining Marxian and Simmelian ideas, it provides a multi‐dimensional, formal, and synthetic theory of alienation. The paper develops a set of theoretical tools for articulating formal elements of action that make alienation possible, without giving conceptual priority to alienation in the sphere of production, or within that sphere to the aliena…
The right tool for the job: Problems and solutions in visualizing sociological theory
The visualization of social theory is an important part of the development and communication of our theoretical ideas. While most theorists use figures of some kind, few if any have formal training, or guiding rules or principles for the representation of theory. This has often led to poor visualization efforts, and the visual culture of sociology continues to lag behind the natural sciences. The intent of this paper is to serve as a practical an…
Towards a Model of Urban Evolution—Part I: Context
This paper seeks to develop the core concepts of a model of urban evolution. It proceeds in four major sections. First, we review prior adumbrations of an evolutionary model in urban theory, noting their potential and their limitations. Second, we turn to the general sociocultural evolution literature to draw inspiration for a fresh and more complete application of evolutionary theory to the study of urban life. Third, building upon this backgrou…
Towards a Model of Urban Evolution Part IV: Evolutionary (Formetic) Distance—An Interpretation of Yelp Review Data
This paper is part IV of “towards a model of urban evolution”. It demonstrates how the Toronto Urban Evolution Model (TUEM) can be used to encode city data, illuminate key features, demonstrate how formetic distance can be used to discover how spatial areas change over time, and identify similar spatial areas within and between cities. The data used in this study are reviews from Yelp. Each review can be interpreted as a formeme where the categor…
Towards a Model of Urban Evolution: Part II: Formal Model
This paper is part II of “Towards A Model of Urban Evolution.” It defines a formal model of the Signature of an urban space, comprised of the information encoded in that space. This information consists of: an urban genome, which captures ideas regarding the groups (i.e., users) and activities (i.e., uses) to which a space’s physical forms are oriented; ideas among human actors regarding who (users) and how (uses) to utilize the space and its for…
Towards a Model of Urban Evolution—Part III: Rules of Evolution
This paper develops a formal model of urban evolution in terms of (1) sources of variations; (2) principles of selection; and (3) mechanisms of retention. More specifically, regarding (1) it defines local and environmental sources of variation and identifies some of their generative processes, such as recombination, migration, mutation, extinction, and transcription errors. Regarding (2), it outlines a series of selection processes as part of an …
The Dilemmas of Spatializing Social Issues
Cities have established official neighborhood boundaries for targeted social policy in recent decades. The authors propose that a sociological conception of neighborhoods sensitizes us to the potential consequences of imposing categorical divisions onto a largely continuous urban space. The authors specify this idea in three steps. First, they argue that designations affect people's behavior toward target neighborhoods. Second, the heterogeneity …
Residential preferences, place alienation, and neighborhood satisfaction: A conjoint survey experiment in Toronto’s inner suburbs
In this article, we study neighborhood preferences among residents of highly diverse, lower income suburban neighborhoods in Toronto, Ontario. By extending the typical application of conjoint designs to the urban domain, we show techniques for measuring place alienation—a sense of disconnection from place—and its impact on neighborhood satisfaction. We find that residents in lower SES neighborhoods share many of the same priorities as residents i…
Urban Referencing Styles and Networks: How Cultural Domination and Local Interests Shape Policy Discourse
In the global arena of municipal policymaking, cities do not merely address local concerns but actively engage with other cities in a global relational space, referencing and being referenced by others. Within these networks, certain “model cities” emerge, linking urban transformation strategies to specific city experiences. Although much research focuses on the production of model cities—how they gain prominence and status—less attention has bee…
To interpret, not just select: Engaging the Chicago School Legacy
This commentary responds to Justus Uitermark's call for renewed engagement with the Chicago School of Sociology, arguing that such engagement should be interpretative as well as selective. While Uitermark urges contemporary urbanists to draw selectively from the School's legacy, I suggest that this risks flattening the internal tensions and conceptual richness that animated its founding figures. Through a close rereading of Robert E. Park, I show…
Mapping Social Change: A Unified Framework for Temporal Clustering
Analyzing social change requires detecting patterns of continuity and difference over time. While time-series clustering offers a valuable approach, existing techniques are often limited by assuming fixed cluster definitions and static assignments of entities to clusters. To address these limitations, we introduce a unified framework of temporal clustering methods that allows for both dynamic cluster definitions and the transition of entities bet…
Sociology (11 works) · Geography (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Social and Cultural Dynamics (6 works) · Economics (4 works) · Land Use and Ecosystem Services (4 works) · Law (4 works)