The middle of nowhere : town design and sense of community in rural youth

This thesis tests the theory behind the new urbanist call for "modem version[s] of the traditional town" with respect to one physical design feature: the clearly defined town center. It asks the question: how does the existence of a town center, which, as prescribed by new urbanism, integrates commercial, recreational, and civic facilities in close proximity, affect sense of community in rural youth? The findings of this study, at least in part, support the new urbanist theory. Students in an area with a strong center do appear to display stronger feelings of basic need fulfillment, membership, and more positive feelings in general regarding their community. However, in other respects, students in the area without the center exhibited a much stronger sense of community, feeling much higher degrees of attachment, identity, and influence. The strong sense of community exhibited by the students in an area without a center may well be a product of that area's edges, and may begin to elucidate the role of other physical (and potentially social) boundaries in fostering sense of community.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Donaldson, Helen Coughlin

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Diane E. Davis.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33406

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33406