This study demonstrates a novel approach that those engaged in promoting social change in health can use to analyze community power, mobilize it and enhance community capacity to reduce health inequalities. We used community reconnaissance methods to select and interview 33 participants from six leadership sectors in "Milltown", the New…

Like most other Western countries, New Zealand has been undergoing considerable change in its rural communities for some decades. Alongside the changes in rural New Zealand, there has been what many commentators argue, a paradigm shift in education from a "front-loaded" model dominated by schooling to one of lifelong learning. This…

Research on schoolboard and city council elections over a 60-year period in Santa Barbara, California, indicates that the community made roughly simultaneous changes in policy direction in both political areas. The study examines the effects of common ideologies or values on electoral issues and candidates as well as the role of elections as…

A replication of the 1920 Lynd study of everday life in Middletown, a typical America community, is presented. Data reveal that while Middletown did experience rapid change between 1890 and 1920 as the Industrial Revolution swept through middle America, there has been a significantly slower rate of change since then. (Author/RM)

This ethnographic study investigated informal and unregulated child care in a white, ethnic, working class community in a Northeastern city, which is identified by the pseudonym "East Urban." The study includes stories about families of second and third generation descendants of mainly Italian immigrants who live in the close-knit communities…

In order to assess the impact of the growing number of part-time farm families on the nature of social relations in rural communities, part-time and full-time farmers from five counties in South-Central Missouri were compared on three aspects: (1) community integration; (2) perceived benefits from rural living; and (3) goals and priorities they…

Examining the extent to which women were emerging as power actors in rural areas, data were collected from two rural communities (Prairie City at 4,400 and Center Town at 2,000 population) in 1962, 1973, and 1977. The hypotheses examined were: women community power actors will have fewer memberships in voluntary associations than men power actors;…

An impressionistic, interpretative analysis of information from direct observation, known informants, and interviews provides a picture of the life situation of Spanish American youth living in rural Taos County, New Mexico. Northern Taos County has experienced dramatic social change over the last several decades, altering the traditional,…