Introduction

Current studies on relationships in neighborhoods and between acquaintances often assume that these two types of relationship are very similar. Is a neighbor an acquaintance who lives in the vicinity? Are there other aspects, apart from spatial proximity, that indicate differences between neighborhood and acquaintance relationships?

Most authors agree that changes in interpersonal relationships took place at the beginning of the century as a result of industrialization and urbanization. In preindustrial times, neighborhood relationships represented a specific type of relationship that later formed the strongly idealized basis of numerous studies on neighborhoods. The following points were characteristic of this type of study:

1. (1) The neighborhood formed a network providing community support and emergency services and was of fundamental importance to the individual (illness, fire fighting, pump brigades for water supply, etc.). It formed an institutionalized structure with defined limits and precise rules and duties for its members.

2. (2) Neighborhood relationships were close, primary relationships that strongly resembled those with relatives.

In his now-classic essay, Wirth (1938) considered changes in social structure depending on the level of industrialization, population size and density, and duration of settlement, which he viewed as the foundations of urban lifestyle. According to Wirth, the quality of interactions changes as the population increases in size. Increasing population density leads to stronger formalization, symbolized by the clock and traffic signs as a basis of order in urban society (1938, p. 15f).