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Territory Contested Through Property in a Midwestern Post‐Agricultural Community 1
Author(s) -
Salamon Sonya,
Tornatore Jane B.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
rural sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.083
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1549-0831
pISSN - 0036-0112
DOI - 10.1111/j.1549-0831.1994.tb00552.x
Subject(s) - agriculture , restructuring , hamlet (protein complex) , guard (computer science) , sociology , economic restructuring , assertion , ethnography , economic growth , political science , socioeconomics , geography , economics , law , archaeology , anthropology , biology , computer science , genetics , programming language
Post‐agricultural rural communities are emerging in the Midwest as a consequence of regional economic restructuring. Such communities are dominated by residents without economic or social links to those who operate surrounding farms. An ethnographic study of an Illinois hamlet provides a case study for probing the assertion that property issues, more than occupation or family background, shape social relations in post‐agricultural communities. Described is a variant of a post‐agricultural community termed downscale due to an inmigration of working‐poor families attracted by deteriorated, surplus housing. Examined are why and how a village of 200 became a highly contested territory where the struggle between newcomers and the old guard about differing notions of respectability became symbolized by conflict over the appearance and use of private and public property.