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Rural Law and Justice

The Impact of Urban Growth on Rural Social Control in Middle Tennessee Zachary Kyle*, Zachary Kyle,

Rural sociological scholars have aptly demonstrated that informal and formal mechanisms of social control are often entangled in smaller communities. Building off rural sociological research on the density of acquaintanceship and rural community growth, this research examines the nexus of formal (i.e. policing) and informal (i.e. watchfulness, surveillance, gossip) mechanisms of social control in rural communities experiencing urban encroachment. It will do so by engaging in ethnographic qualitative research – involving conversations, interviews, and local immersion – with rural communities located around Nashville, Tennessee, which have experienced profound growth in recent years. While some of these surrounding communities have stayed demographically stable, others have more than doubled in size. The goal of this research is to examine the consequences that urban growth into these communities has on informal and formal processes of social control by asking questions such as: How do rural communities engage in informal social control? How has urban sprawl into rural areas impacted informal social control processes? What impact has this had on formal institutions of social control such as the police? How has this affected police-community relations, or the interrelationship of informal/formal controls? Any preliminary insights from participant observation and interviews will be shared.