Sociology 8th Edition by Margaret Andersen ,Howard Taylor ,Kim Logio

Exercise 1

Sharing the Journey
Modern society is often characterized as remote, alienating, and without much feeling of community or belonging to a group. This image of society has been carefully studied by sociologist Robert Wuthnow, who noticed that people in the United States are increasingly looking to small groups as places where they can find emotional and spiritual support and where they find meaning and commitment, despite the image of society as an increasingly impersonal force.
Research Question: Wuthnow began his research by noting that, even with the individualistic culture of U.S. society, small groups play a major role in this society. He saw the increasing tendency of people to join recovery groups, reading groups, spiritual groups, and myriad other support groups. Wuthnow began his research by asking these specific questions: What motivates people to join support groups? How do these groups function? What do members like most and least about such groups? His broadest question, however, was to wonder how the wider society is influenced by the proliferation of small support groups.
Research Methods: To answer these questions, a large research team of fifteen scholars designed a study that included both a quantitative and a qualitative dimension. They distributed a survey to a representative sample of more than 1000 people in the United States. Supplementing the survey were interviews with more than 100 support group members, group leaders, and clergy. The researchers chose twelve groups for extensive study; researchers spent six months to three years tracing the history of these groups, meeting with members and attending group sessions.
Research Results: Based on this research, Wuthnow concludes that the small group movement is fundamentally altering U.S. society. Forty percent of all Americans belong to some kind of small support group. As the result of people's participation in these groups, social values of community and spirituality are undergoing major transformation. People say they are seeking community when they join small groups, whether the group is a recovery group, a religious group, a civic association, or some other small group. People turn to these small groups for emotional support more than for physical or monetary support.
Conclusions and Implications: Wuthnow argues that large-scale participation in small groups has arisen in a social context in which the traditional support structures in U.S. society, such as the family, no longer provide the sense of belonging and social integration that they provided in the past. Geographic mobility, mass society, and the erosion of local ties all contribute to this trend. People still seek a sense of community, but they create it in groups that also allow them to maintain their individuality. In voluntary small groups, you are free to leave the group if it no longer meets your needs
Wuthnow also concludes that these groups represent a quest for spirituality in a society when, for many, traditional religious values have declined. As a consequence, support groups are redefining what is sacred. They also replace explicit religious tenets imposed from the outside with internal norms that are implicit and devised by individual groups. At the same time, these groups reflect the pluralism and diversity that characterize society. In the end, they buffer the trend toward disintegration and isolation that people often feel in mass societies.
Questions to Consider
Are you a member of a voluntary small group? If so, what sense of community does the group provide for you? How do you maintain your sense of individuality at the same time?