History repeats itself, but how? City character, urban tradition, and the accomplishment of place

This study shows how places, and by implication other societal units as wel l, achieve and reproduce distinctiveness. It does this by specifying how ac tors in two California urban areas, over approximately 100 years, responded differently to the same exogenous forces. Each place is examined to determ ine how unlike elements conjoin to produce a particular "character" at any given moment and how this character travels through time to constitute a lo cal "tradition." Borrowing from advances in analyses of structure and agenc y, this study displays character and tradition as accomplished interaction and helps make an elusive process empirically evident and accessible for st udy.