Campus Location

Abilene Campus (Residential)

Date of Award

12-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Communication

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Carley Dodd

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Suzanne Macaluso

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Cynthia Roper

Abstract

As the world’s population continues to urbanize, urban studies are increasingly important. Studying the social science behind the rise of the city and its effect on various social phenomena should be a priority for scholars in the field of politics, sociology, and communication, because of the reasonable assumption that the environment of the city alters the way that a person engages people and systems within the city. This is especially true for peripheral and marginalized populations that often lack access to the social institutions necessary to improve their livelihoods. Using Diffusion of Innovation and urban studies theories of Anomie, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, and Mechanical and Organic Solidarity as a beginning theory base, this research studies the role of the city and perceptions of community size in developing local political efficacy. Participants from cities of different sizes (Abilene, Texas and Dallas, Texas) were surveyed on their perceptions of community size, levels of urbanization, and their political efficacy to determine the role that urbanization, city size, and perception plays in shaping political efficacy. The results from this study suggest that neither the city, nor the perceptions of its size and urbanization have a significant relationship with local political efficacy, but age, race, religion, and income all appear to be accurate predictors of political efficacy.

Comments

For any questions, please contact Dylan A. Brugman at dab10a@acu.edu

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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