Abstract
This paper analyzes how people define their relation to different forms of community. Interviews with 77 Californians revealed that respondents either chose a community identity as a city person, suburbanite, small-town person, or country person, or rejected such identification as meaningless, stigmatizing, constraining, or a source of identity conflict. Those who identify express a sense of belonging, based on ties of sentiment, interest, value, or knowledge. They also use community imagery to interpret self: Self-designated city people, for instance, characterize themselves as active, liberal, city-wise; small-town people, as friendly, family-oriented, less materialistic, unpermissive; country people, as easy-going, independent, practical, ordinary, outdoor folk; suburbanites, as people of the middle ground. This rich, complex pattern of community identification suggests the limited value of traditional sociological images of community decline and placelessness.
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The author would like to thank Claude Fischer and Lyn Lofland, for their continued support of this work, and Steven Ainley, Peter Conrad, and Royce Singleton, Jr., for their comments on earlier versions of this paper.
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Hummon, D.M. City mouse, country mouse: The persistence of community identity. Qual Sociol 9, 3–25 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00988246
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00988246