Power, Distinction, Display: Excavating Elites

1940: Functionaries Fragment the Urban Elite

By 1940, a clearly different structure of social neighborhoods has emerged. The network is now far less centralized, and far more fragmented. Capitalist elites increasingly organized their power at the national level, leaving less powerful groups to claim a larger terrain in the social structure of urban networks. 

Continuing the trend from 1900, by 1940 academic affiliations and institutions have become a central in shaping the social neighborhoods of Chicago. Many of these academic oriented social spaces were shaped by women. .Women emerged as a dominant presence in the network structure, and women's clubs of various kinds permeated most of the modularity classes.

Men, however, remained dominant in those regions of the network most closely tied to political power. The "Governing Elite" in 1940 remained an almost exclusively male preserve. 

Significant changes in the religious contous of elite spaces are also visible in 1940. Jewish groups emerge as part of a more open and secular religious order. Whereas Episcopalians had gathered a significant group in 1860, and in 1900 Presbyterians were a prominent presence, by 1940 Jewish associational life played a major presence in Chicago, alongside Methodists and inter-faith assemblages in which Catholics emerged as a presence among the elite.

Other Ways to Explore:

Click here to learn more about how to explore the social neighborhoods of 1940 in 3D.

On a desktop: Use your mouse to explore the network in three dimensions. Double-click to zoom in; right-click to pan; left-click to rotate. To zoom back out again, drag your finger downward on a trackpad. 

Please be patient; this visualization takes a while to load and also takes time to redraw between clicks or mouse moves! Also, while the 3D visualization works on mobile devices, it may be easier to explore the network on a desktop platform. 

Click here to learn more about how to explore the social neighboorhoods of 1940 in VR.