Abstract:
This book on urban low-income neighborhoods mainly focuses on the 1983 riot affected areas in
the city of Colombo. Various kind of information proved that, except the Tamil peop le living in the
low-income neighborhoods, a significant number of the Tamils in the Colombo City were affected
by the violence or harassed by mobs in July 1983. The study mainly focuses attention on the way in
which the low-income people manage to live together despite ethnic differences in their
neighborhoods. The ethnic strife in this small country has produced tension and stressful life among
various social classes of residents in the city. However, the overall data and findings suggests that a
urban neighborhood life has a variety of dimensions, and where these features of neighborhood –
personal, social, physical, geographical, and institutional – offer strong inducements for
involvement, community feelings will be high. There are several positive forces bringing social
cohesion affecting friendly environment in the neighborhoods. The positive forms of social
cohesion that identified in the research locations will help others to understand why these forms did
not appear in the areas of violent and confl ict in other parts of the country. The lessons learnt from
this study can be applied even to develop a national social integration among different ethnic
communities in the country. The understanding of such neighborhood relationships will help to
enrich future city or town planning, urban housing policies, relocate the families and achieving
communal harmony.
