Newcomers to old towns : suburbanization of the heartland / Sonya Salamon with the collaboration of Karen Davis-Brown ... [and others].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Salamon, Sonya.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Urban-rural migration--Middle West.

Urban-rural migration.

Urban-rural migration--Illinois--Case studies.

Sociology, Rural--Middle West.

Sociology, Rural.

Sociology, Rural--Illinois.

Rural conditions.

Middle West--Rural conditions.

Middle West.

Illinois--Rural conditions.

Illinois.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

xv, 245 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Summary:

Although the death of the small town has been predicted for decades, during the 1990s the population of rural America actually increased by more than three million people. In this book, Sonya Salamon explores these rural newcomers and the impact they have on the social relationships, public spaces, and community resources of small town America.

Salamon draws on richly detailed ethnographic studies of six small towns in central Illinois, including a town with upscale subdivisions that lured wealthy professionals as well as towns whose agribusinesses drew working-class Mexicano migrants and immigrants. She finds that regardless of the class or ethnicity of the newcomers, if their social status differs relative to that of oldtimers, their effect on a town has been the same: suburbanization that erodes the close-knit small town community, with especially severe consequences for small town youth. To successfully combat the homogenization of the heartland, Salamon argues, newcomers must work with oldtimers so that together they sustain the vital aspects of community life and identity that first drew them to small towns.

An illustration of the recent revitalization of interest in the small town, Salamon's work provides a significant addition to the growing literature on the subject. Social scientists, sociologists, policymakers, and urban planners will appreciate this important contribution to the ongoing discussion of social capital and the transformation in the study and definition of communities.

Contents:

Part I Changes in the Heartland

1 Community Connections, Resources, and People 3

2 Dynamics of Small-Town Change 32

Part II Newcomers, Old Towns

3 A Persistent Agrarian Town: Smallville 59

4 Upscale Suburbanization: Prairieview 74

5 Boosterism Breeds Suburbanization: Bunkerton 93

6 Blue-Collar Ethnic Accommodation: Corntown 113

7 Ethnic Succession in Process: Arbordale 132

8 A Shabby, Dying Town: Splitville 153

Part III The Postagrarian Countryside

9 Whither the Rural Heartland? 177

Appendix A The Regional Suburbanization Neighborhood Hypothesis (with Matteo B. Marini) 197

Appendix B Community Sample Characteristics and Study Methods 208.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [225]-236) and index.

ISBN:

0226734129

OCLC:

49683593