Building Community from 'Scratch
Forces at Work among Urban Vietnamese Refugees in Milwaukee
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2274670 |
|---|---|
| Authors | N Mark Shelley, Nancy Shelley (Grand Canyon University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 71 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 473-492 |
| Publication date | 2001-10-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Inquiry (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-0245 • E-ISSN: 1475-682X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1475-682x.2001.tb01128.x |
| OpenAlex | W2035484857 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 8 |
Drawing from extensive participant observation and qualitative interviewing, this paper describes and analyzes the Vietnamese 'community' in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The author concludes that community, both as an element that is sensed by its members and a process identified by actual interaction, is virtually nonexistent. Ten specific forces that inhibit community formation are identified under the overlapping categories of demographics, organizational issues, cultural factors, and class/power interests. The underlying tendencies toward family isolationism and radical individualism are implicated as driving social forces that undermine community building. Lessons learned from this case study about the process of community formation include the insufficiency of a common 'enemy' or ethnic identity for sustainable community, social psychological issues, and environmental influences, as well as survival needs
Aesthetics · Community organization · Ethnic group · Identity (music) · Individualism · Interview · Isolationism · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Refugee · Sociology · Vietnamese · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.14 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2005 - 2015 (11) |
| Highly cited | No |