A revealing examination of small-town life More than thirty million Americans live in small, out-of-the-way places. Many of them could have joined the vast majority of Americans who live in cities and suburbs. They could live closer to more lucrative careers and convenient shopping, a wider range of educational opportunities, and more robust health care. But they have opted to live differently. In Small-Town America, we meet factory workers, shop owners, retirees, teachers, clergy, and mayors—residents who show neighborliness in small ways, but who also worry about everything from school closings and their children's futures to the ups and downs of the local economy. Drawing on more than seven hundred in-depth interviews in hundreds of towns across America and three decades of census data, Robert Wuthnow shows the fragility of community in small towns. He covers a host of topics, including the symbols and rituals of small-town life, the roles of formal and informal leaders, the social role of religious congregations, the perception of moral and economic decline, and the myriad ways residents in small towns make sense of their own lives. Wuthnow also tackles difficult issues such as class and race, abortion, homosexuality, and substance abuse. Small-Town America paints a rich panorama of individuals who reside in small communities, finding that, for many people, living in a small town is an important part of self-identity.

Surveys the types of homes found in twenty American small towns, and discusses house plans, features, and structural forms

Small town life is quite different from life in a big city. There is not as much traffic. People recognize each other at the grocery store. Local sporting events carry a different cultural weight, and it may not be out of the ordinary to wait behind a tractor or get used to the smell of a nearby factory. These communities are unique, and pastoring here is an extraordinary task. Ronnie Martin and Donnie Griggs are well-aware of this reality. In Pastoring Small Towns, their hope is to equip pastors and ministry leaders to take on the different nuances that come with pastoring smaller communities. They point out the cultural realities of these places and give pastors the tools to effectively engage their people with the Gospel.

The importance of small towns is gaining increased recognition as a result of two developments. The first development concerns the possible role of small towns in migration flows and urbanization. Development of small towns, in the form of improved basic services and other amenities, has been promoted in order to abate the impact of urbanization on large urban centres and to alleviate service provision pressures in major urban centers, whilst stimulating rural economies and eventually prompting social transformations. The second development concerns the targets set by the SDGs in 2015. SDG6 requires countries to ensure universal and equitable water services by 2030. This inclusive target requires that the water services needs of small towns are considered in the expansion of sustainable and equitable water services. This book aims to contribute to the study of water services in small towns by critically examining different approaches and experiences of water supply in small towns. It brings together empirical testimonies of how the implementation of reductionist models and the perseverance of certain principles underlying these models in the water sector have yielded suboptimal results. Much remains to be done before achieving universal service coverage in small towns is likely. In order to do that, we should start speaking of small towns as a category on their own and continue the work in elaborating further what these are and how they work. In Focus – a book series that showcases the latest accomplishments in water research. Each book focuses on a specialist area with papers from top experts in the field. It aims to be a vehicle for in-depth understanding and inspire further conversations in the sector.

Small towns have long been a commonplace setting in cozy mysteries, but in recent years writers of realistic crime fiction have discovered fresh possibilities in small town settings. There they can take advantage of distinct facets of small town life--a sense of community, slower pace of life, proximity to nature--and yet deal with social, economic and environmental issues. Because crimes in small communities hit closer to home, the human element can better be emphasized. This book focuses on the work of ten contemporary authors who have placed small towns like Rocksburg, Pennsylvania (K. C. Constantine), West Table, Missouri (Daniel Woodrell), Niniltna, Alaska (Dana Stabenow), Aurora, Minnesota (William Kent Krueger), Paradise, Michigan (Steve Hamilton), Millersburg, Ohio (P. L. Gaus), Heartsdale, Georgia (Karin Slaughter), Millers Kill, New York (Julia Spencer-Fleming), Durant, Wyoming (Craig Johnson), and a number of national parks (Nevada Barr) on the map of American crime fiction.