Social change in natural resource-based rural communities: the evolution of sociological research and knowledge as influenced by William R. Freudenburg

Abstract

This article provides a selective review of William Freudenburg’s key contributions to the sociological literature addressing social consequences of resource-based growth and development in rural communities. The review starts by examining Freudenburg’s earliest work on energy “boomtown” impacts that appeared in the late 1970s. From there, it moves to consideration of some later works pertaining to the social impacts of resource development as well as several more broadly focused works addressing resource dependency and community social change that he developed throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Freudenburg’s intellectual insights and legacy are highlighted in terms of five key areas of contribution: (1) his efforts to raise sociological consciousness about the occurrence and seriousness of social impacts in communities affected by large-scale resource development activity; (2) his provision of methodological guidance and leadership; (3) his effectiveness in promoting and demonstrating analytic rigor and depth of interpretation in his own empirical work; (4) his provision of major conceptual and theoretical direction to studies of resource dependency and social change; and (5) the foundations that his contributions have provided as points of departure for future research.