Building Community from Scratch: Forces at Work among Urban Vietnamese Refugees in Milwaukee |
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| Authors: | N. Mark Shelley |
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| Affiliation: | associate professor of sociology at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona. In addition to his study of the Vietnamese community in Milwaukee, he has written on Southeast Asian groups in the Encyclopedia of American Immigration. Other recent work includes The Dark Engine of Illinois Education: A Sociological Critique of a Well-CraRed (Testing) Machine, (Educational PoZicy, with Drs. William Rau and Frank Beck, Illinois State University), and an article in progress on gender differences in voice (singing) instruction (with Dr. Kerry Walters, Bradley University). Other current research interests focus around urban issues: race, ethnicity, education, inequality, homelessness, and inner city communities. |
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| Abstract: | Drawing from extensive participant observation and qualitative interviewing, this paper describes and analyzes the Vietnamese community in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The author concludes that community, both as an element that is sensed by its members and a process identified by actual interaction, is virtually nonexistent. Ten specific forces that inhibit community formation are identified under the overlapping categories of demographics, organizational issues, cultural factors, and class/power interests. The underlying tendencies toward family isolationism and radical individualism are implicated as driving social forces that undermine community building. Lessons learned from this case study about the process of community formation include the insufficiency of a common enemy or ethnic identity for sustainable community, social psychological issues, and environmental influences, as well as survival needs. |
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