THE URBAN DISTRIBUTION OF VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Lincoln, James R.
- Source
- Social Science Quarterly (University of Texas Press); Dec1977, Vol. 58 Issue 3, p472-480, 9p, 2 Charts
- Subject
- Associations, institutions, etc.
Cities & towns
Volunteer service
Population
Human ecology
United States
- Language
- ISSN
- 00384941
This article examines the prevalence of voluntary organizations in U.S. urban areas during the 1970s. In the case of voluntary organizations, there is a demographic analogy in the probable relationship between population change and organization adaptation. Voluntary units depend on a stable population base from which to recruit and maintain memberships. Ecology theory points to the importance of a community's key functions in accounting for the distribution of such secondary organization forms as municipal government and voluntary organizations. One reason for the dearth of research on organizational prevalence in urban communities is the problem of data collection. The status level of the community does affect the prevalence of certain kinds of voluntary organizations, but such effects are only evident in the case of organizations expressly serving persons in high occupations. The theory that urbanism has a net disorganizing influence on social life receives somewhat more support in the finding that the ratio of organizations to population tends to be greater among smaller cities, but this conclusion is tempered somewhat by the finding that population density fails to show a comparable influence.