Doctoral Dissertation Research: Community Life and Social Change in a Small Midwestern Town

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This project investigates social change in a small town in the same spirit that Chicago-school researchers investigated urban communities in the last century. Although it shares the aims and methods of traditional community studies, it differs in two important ways. First, while most ethnographies from this period investigate the impact of urbanization, bureaucratization, and industrialization on urban life, this ethnography concentrates on a small town. Second, while traditional community studies concentrate on cities where crime and poverty are serious problems, small towns must deal with different problems. They face a declining agricultural economy, threats to locally-owned businesses from chain stores, and shrinking populations and resources. This study therefore examines one town of four thousand people, Viroqua, Wisconsin, that has successfully responded to outside forces that have devastated other small towns. In identifying the conditions that enabled the residents of Viroqua to overcome the town's problems, the project not only offers insights into the nature of community life, but also provides information on improving the quality of life of residents in small towns.