Family Studies Center

Sponsered Research

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The Community-Family Interface

The purpose of this study is to fill in the gap in sociological research on community and the relationship it has to the family. It proposes that the family is not simply another institution within the community to be grouped with education, religion, politics, and economics, but the family is a uniquely important component of the community.

The research consists of two objectives:

1. Analysis of existing literature to conceptualize the nature of the relationships between family and community.
2. A series of in-depth interviews in two communities to enrich and correct the conceptualization based in the literature.

The two communities in which the interviews will be conducted are Ephraim, Utah and Trucha, New Mexico. Both communities have traditions that emphasize the centrality of the family, the inseparability of family and community, and offer comparisons from two very different traditions and cultures. The results of this research will examine the family as a central feature of community and the inseparability of the two.