Doctoral Dissertation Research: Local-level Social and Cultural Change in the Context of National Economic Shifts

Cuny Graduate School University Center, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Doctoral student Chris Grove (The Graduate Center, City University of New York), with the guidance of Dr. Donald Robotham, will undertake ethnographic research on community-level social realignments in a context of national economic and political shifts. This micro-level perspective will allow the researcher to investigage the question of whether contemporary changes evident in national-level statistics actually comprise a departure from historical cultural frameworks and taken-for-granted understandings in ordinary people's lives. The research will be conducted in Elkhart, Indiana, which was chosen for two reasons. The first is that the city has witnessed significant economic change in recent years. The second, is that Elkhart residents can be expected to be particularly conscious of these changes because in 2009, their city was used as the site to announce a new national economic improvement program and thereby was the focus of considerable media attention. Thus if there are true cultural and social changes in the wake of economic transformation, they should be discernible in this "bellweather" city. Grove will conduct 15 months of on-site research. He will gather data with a combination of social science methods, including semi-structured and oral history interviews, participant observation, and archival research. He will locate and explore new formations across the political spectrum, while documenting life histories of participants to understand the appeal, demands, strategies and organization of these formations. This research is important because it will be one of the first social scientific studies to specify the social and cultural prameters of the much used concept of "crisis." Situated in what is often described as the United States heartland, findings from the research will contribute to understanding the complex interests, norms, and histories through which local people, in the United States and elsewhere, engage critical national change. Funding for this research also supports the education of a social scientist.