Constructing "Community" in a Changing Economy: A Case Study Analysis of Local Organizing in the Rural United States

Disaster can sometimes be a time of opportunity: for reflection, reevaluation, and readjustment--for questioning the status quo. Through a case study of Wilmington, Ohio, a small Ohio town in the midst of a self-described economic disaster, I consider how organizational networks and communities constitute each other in efforts to redefine a sense of place and local identity amid large-scale unplanned change. As I explore the ways in which "community" is named and placed in micro, meso, and macro-level discourses, I am guided by the following broad questions: How do component organizations in a transorganizational network demonstrate and defend their legitimacy? How do they communicatively construct and maintain a shared vision for the future towards which to mobilize a collectivity of individuals? What opportunities for and obstacles to collaboration do community organizers encounter in their efforts to redefine the communal spaces of a town? By analyzing transorganizational narratives of crisis, disaster, and opportunity, this study strives to engage communication studies more deeply in understanding the inextricable relationship between individual, organizational, and community identity.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication Studies (Communication)

Grantor dc:publisher

Ohio University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Wiederhold, Anna M.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Black, Laura

• Communication
• organizational communication
• community
• disaster policy
• rural sustainability
• economic development
• mass localism
• rhetoric
• space and place
• qualitative research
• discourse tracing
• narrative

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1363286559

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:ohiou1363286559