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Communities as “Big Small Groups”: Culture and Social Capital

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Book cover Handbook of Community Movements and Local Organizations

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

Since the early days of the American republic, social and political observers have analyzed the role of local associations in promoting civic participation, strengthening democracy, and developing countervailing structures to those of the state. Their commentaries emphasized the importance of group solidarity, voluntarism, and reciprocity in the preservation of republican virtues. During the late nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries, these perspectives played a prominent role in defining the patterns and parameters of social policies designed to assimilate an increasingly diverse U.S. population. Conversely, they also enabled minorities to resist the forces of institutional oppression in their communities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Michigan, Michigan

    Michael Reisch & Dana Guyet

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  1. Michael Reisch
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  2. Dana Guyet
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania, 3701 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Ram A. Cnaan

  2. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, 17837, USA

    Carl Milofsky

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Reisch, M., Guyet, D. (2008). Communities as “Big Small Groups”: Culture and Social Capital. In: Cnaan, R.A., Milofsky, C. (eds) Handbook of Community Movements and Local Organizations. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-32933-8_11

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