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

这个项目调查了一个小镇的社会变化，其精神与芝加哥学派的研究人员在上个世纪调查城市社区的精神相同。 虽然它与传统社区研究的目的和方法相同，但它在两个重要方面有所不同。 首先，这一时期的大多数民族志研究的是城市化、官僚化和工业化对城市生活的影响，而这一民族志集中在一个小城镇。 其次，传统的社区研究集中在犯罪和贫困问题严重的城市，而小城镇必须处理不同的问题。 他们面临着农业经济衰退，连锁店对当地企业的威胁，以及人口和资源的减少。 因此，本研究考察了威斯康星州的一个拥有4000人口的城镇，它成功地应对了摧毁其他小城镇的外部力量。 在查明使Viroqua居民能够克服该镇问题的条件时，该项目不仅提供了对社区生活性质的深入了解，而且还提供了关于改善小城镇居民生活质量的信息。

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.