How does the city dweller know what the information he gathers as he moves through urban public space means? How does he learn to connect certain appearances, locations, or behavior with certain categories of being? The answer is both simple and profound. Like all humans, he is taught. From the moment of birth, he is bombarded with instructions. Breasts mean food. Little girls wear dresses. Big people are adults. Black people are poor (or happy or revolutionaries, or whatever). White people are rich (or dishonest or bosses, or whatever). Nice people don't go there. Nice girls don't do that. Only the best people come to this place.

XREF: Connects to sociological theories of learned perception and cultural conditioning of how people read urban environments.

DEFINE: Defines how city dwellers learn to interpret urban space: through social instruction rather than innate perception.

Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order a…, loc. 549