The Small Highway Business on U.S. 30 in Nebraska

Bibliographic Data

ID7757224
AuthorsJohn M Roberts (0000-0003-3146-7853), Robert M Kozelka, Mary L Kiehl, Thomas M Newman (0000-0002-8803-3485)
Year1956
Volume32
Issue2
Pages139
Publication date1956-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomic Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0095 • E-ISSN: 1944-8287
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/141985
OpenAlexW2322546526
LanguageEN
Citations received8

T . nHE modern transcontinental highway is associated with a complex social system which in all of its ramifications orders a rich and distinctive culture. In the United States the highway complex is a matter of such intense concern at local, state, regional, and national levels that there is general acceptance of the view that highway research might yield practical results. In addition, however, the social scientist is interested in the description of a social system which together with its ordered culture is characteristic of contemporary, industrialized, and highly organized societies and which except under conditions of acculturation is not found in the more simply organized groups. The social scientific study of this modern highway complex promises to contribute to the description of our own culture and to theories of structure, function, communication, values, and cultural change. The full description of the highway social system and its ordered culture is a massive undertaking requiring substantial research means. When such resources are lacking, it is necessary to use a series of small research designs which successively contribute to the larger research aim. In this inquiry, the first sub-study was directed toward a description of the small highway business. From the viewpoint of field design, an investigation of the small highway business is a convenient beginning toward the study of the entire highway system and culture. It is true that the very core of the highway social system is the ever-present and ever-changing traffic flow avid that ideally social scientific research might begin with an analysis of the traffic flow. Exploratory work, however, indicated that the description of the traffic flow in anthropological terms cannot be easily accomplished because of difficult problems both in method and technique. In contrast, conventional methods and techniques can be used to study the small highway business establishment at low cost. Moreover, these businesses which service and maintain the traffic flow, occupy positions of strategic importance in the total system. It is not accidental that the distinctive buildings occupied by these businesses are among the most characteristic features of the man-made highway environment. The study of the small highway business will yield data which are not only needed for an understanding of the larger system and culture, but which have descriptive value and interest in their own right. The choice of U.S. 30 as the highway of study in Nebraska was dictated both by theoretical and practical considerations. U.S. 30 is, of course, a major

Business · Public Spaces through Art · Rhetoric and Communication Studies

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