Nationally recognized professors and urban historians joined panelists and speakers from Ball State and the Muncie area Friday and Saturday for the Second Annual Small Cities Conference.
The event, held in Muncie, was sponsored by The Center for Middletown Studies, Ball State and the Minnetrista Cultural Center. In light of the tragic events of Sept. 11, planning for the event had detoured from its original course.
"This year ended up more relaxed," said Bruce Geelhoed, Ball State history professor and Director of the Center for Middletown Studies.
Historian Kenneth Jackson, who was scheduled to speak at last year's conference but could not attend, served as this year's keynote speaker. Jackson, author of "Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States," spoke Friday on "The Changing Shape of Small Town America."
With an introduction by President Blaine Brownell, Jackson's speech went well past its allotted time due to questions from the audience of more than 50 professional men and women.
In the few moments Brownell spent introducing Jackson, the Ball State president said the Small Cities Conference represents the power of good planning, in addition to a good idea backed by the power of its participants.
"The changes in American life can be fruitfully revealed in small cities," Brownell said.
In his keynote address, Jackson said small cities are not to be confused with the suburbs, which is what most of America has become.
"Small cities are out there by themselves," Jackson said. "You find special patterns, but looking at the shape - they are much of the same.
"You can generalize a little bit."
The focus of Jackson's speech and the conference itself was the exchange of ideas regarding the changing trends of small cities such as Muncie.
"People want community, but they don't know how to get it," Jackson said.
Geelhoed said Muncie was a proper selection for the conference because the city was once the site for the Middletown Studies which were conducted in the early 1920s.
The study of Middletown, or Muncie, began in 1924 when social researchers Robert S. and Helen Merrell Lynd came to Muncie to conduct a series of 12 surveys dealing with life in a mid-sized community.
Theodore Caplow, commonwealth professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, attended the conference and said the most astonishing discovery the Lynds found upon publication of their work was the scandal of class.
Since the time of the Lynds' first study on Middletown, three more studies have been conducted. The two most recent have been lead by Caplow and his colleagues.
"The studies tell about social change in the United States that you wouldn't know otherwise," Caplow said.
Caplow was a panelist in a conference session titled "The Federal Presence in Middletown." He said, over the years that the study has continued, he has found the federal presence to become less visible, but more powerful.
"At Ball State, you don't see the presence of the federal government, but it's all based on federal money," he said. "It's all behind the screens."
Jackson's views on Muncie focused on drawing the community together as a whole. The historian said in order for cities like Muncie to achieve the small town feel of Middletown America, work must begin on the smaller things.
"Do little things to make Muncie a strong center," Jackson said. "Walk, carpool, encourage infield housing - we want higher density population."
Jackson added the Ball State community could contribute to the feel of a small city by walking to classes and the Village more often and driving less.
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