The Engines of Change in Rsource-Dependent Communities

Author： Force J.E. Machlis G.E. Zhang L.

Publisher： Society of American Foresters

ISSN： 0015-749X

Source： Forest Science, Vol.46, Iss.3, 2000-08, pp. : 410-422

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Abstract

Social scientists have long attempted to understand change in natural resource-dependent communities. This article examines the relationship of three alternative “engines of change”: local resource production, local historical events, and broad societal trends. Regression models were used to examine the relationships between four dimensions of community social change (size, structure, cohesion, and anomie) and the alternative “engines of change” in seven resource-dependent communities in the Pacific Northwest for over 50 year time periods. Included in the group were four timber towns, as well as communities dependent upon fishing, tourism, and mining. The data suggest that broad societal trends followed by local historical events explain the largest proportion of the variation in community social change dimensions of size and structure. Local resource production has modest explanatory power when combined with the other “engines of change.” FOR. SCI. 46(3): 344–355.