Small Town in Mass Society: Class, Power, and Religion in a Rural Community

Small Town in Mass Society is one of the best and best known community studies produced during the era when that kind of research was a staple in sociology and political science. Beginning with the Lynd's Middletown studies in the '20's and '30's, community studies of varying quality were produced in comparatively large numbers through the '70's. Unfortunately, social scientists have lost interest in doing this kind of research, perhaps because it is methodlogically ethnographic, archival, and very time consuming. When, as a master's student, I made casual reference to a specific finding from a particular community study in a conversation with my advisor, he became uncharacterisically dismissive and sarcastic: "They've done hundreds of those things and what have they learned?" The unspoken answer was "nothing." Nevertheless, and though I would never have admitted it to my advisor, I learned a great deal from reading community studies. Contrary to the prevailing and fallacious ethos of equality and participatory democracy, community studies taught me that sharply stratified social systems were pervasive, and power tended to me concentrated in the hands of upper middle class professionals and the wealthy. Furthermore, stratification was not fluid from generation to generation. Instead wrong or right side of the tracks in one gentration, meant much the same in the next generation. Given the time during which most community studes were done, moreover, race played a predictable role. Discrimination against minorities, especially Blacks, was institutionalized in virtually countless ways. And women of all colors knew their place. Community studies vividly portrayed social systems that were essentially partiarchical. A man's world, indeed. Seemingly innocuous observations from Small Town in Mass Society have made a lasting impression, in large measure because they took full toll of my youthful and oblivious naivete'. The principal of the local high school had a regular column in the town's newspaper titled, "After Five O'Clock." For the first time, disconnected dolt that I was, I realized that educational administration was not just a functional administrative task, but it was intensely political. The conclusion that Vidich and Bensamen illustrated and emphasized again and again, was that, contrary to residents' view, their town was thoroughly suffused with influences from the larger, urbanized, modern and complex society in which they were located. The authors' made their case in skillful and compelling fashion, and it reminded me of interviews I had done with 4th, 5th, and 6th graders in the very rural West Virgina counties of Lincoln, Logan, and Mason. I had expected students to describe spending their free time running the ridges and hollers with a .22 rifle and a hunting dog. How naive! Instead, they reported long hours of wathching TV, playing video games, and, if one had been built, hanging out at the local strip mall. Small

Small Town in Mass Society is one of the best and best known community studies produced during the era when that kind of research was a staple in sociology and political science. Beginning with the Lynd's Middletown studies in the '20's and '30's, community studies of varying quality were produced in comparatively large numbers through the '70's. Unfortunately, social scientists have lost interest in doing this kind of research, perhaps because it is methodlogically ethnographic, archival, and very time consuming. When, as a master's student, I made casual reference to a specific finding from a particular community study in a conversation with my advisor, he became uncharacterisically dismissive and sarcastic: "They've done hundreds of those things and what have they learned?" The unspoken answer was "nothing." Nevertheless, and though I would never have admitted it to my advisor, I learned a great deal from reading community studies. Contrary to the prevailing and fallacious ethos of equality and participatory democracy, community studies taught me that sharply stratified social systems were pervasive, and power tended to me concentrated in the hands of upper middle class professionals and the wealthy. Furthermore, stratification was not fluid from generation to generation. Instead wrong or right side of the tracks in one gentration, meant much the same in the next generation. Given the time during which most community studes were done, moreover, race played a predictable role. Discrimination against minorities, especially Blacks, was institutionalized in virtually countless ways. And women of all colors knew their place. Community studies vividly portrayed social systems that were essentially partiarchical. A man's world, indeed. Seemingly innocuous observations from Small Town in Mass Society have made a lasting impression, in large measure because they took full toll of my youthful and oblivious naivete'. The principal of the local high school had a regular column in the town's newspaper titled, "After Five O'Clock." For the first time, disconnected dolt that I was, I realized that educational administration was not just a functional administrative task, but it was intensely political. The conclusion that Vidich and Bensamen illustrated and emphasized again and again, was that, contrary to residents' view, their town was thoroughly suffused with influences from the larger, urbanized, modern and complex society in which they were located. The authors' made their case in skillful and compelling fashion, and it reminded me of interviews I had done with 4th, 5th, and 6th graders in the very rural West Virgina counties of Lincoln, Logan, and Mason. I had expected students to describe spending their free time running the ridges and hollers with a .22 rifle and a hunting dog. How naive! Instead, they reported long hours of wathching TV, playing video games, and, if one had been built, hanging out at the local strip mall. Small

Having lived in a number of small towns, I am continually amazed at the relevance of this classic study to contemporary local politics and social relationships. Long before "investigative reporting", a grad student goes undercover for a year in a small town and reports his findings -- social groups, power, politics and tradition. This is not a dry scientific analysis, but a fascinating description of American life outside the city.