ABSTRACT
During the 1970’s, the combined forces of a rapidly increasing demand for energy and the desire on the part of the United States to achieve greater national self-sufficiency in meeting energy needs resulted in accelerating pressures to develop natural resources such as coal, oil shale, tar sands, and geothermal power sources. The effects of the forces of urbanization and industrialization on the social fabric of communities as well as on the quality of life of individual community residents have long been of concern to social scientists. This chapter begins an analysis of the communities with the assumption that the tangible forces involved in what the sociologist calls “community” have important implications for the everyday quality of life of individuals. Human values, social institutions like the family, the church, government, education, and the economy, cultural symbols, norms, roles, social class, and power, have been among the most important social science concepts that we have used to understand human social behavior.
