Changes in Social Support Institutions - The Institutional Response

The Basic Issue

Social institutions play a dual role in our democratic society.
  1. They provide social support.
  2. The provide a training ground in skills needed to participate in a democratic society.

When depopulation erodes the membership base of social institutions, both of these functions are also eroded. Terms like "social capital" and "civic competence" are sometimes used to describe a social fabric which is rich in human resource and capability, owing to the broad level of participation of its citizens in a variety of social support institutions. As experience grows in one institution, the residue is transferred to other organizations in the local society. When the population drops, and membership ages to the point where they can no longer participate, the overall level of social capital falls and is not replenished rapidly enough to correct the shortfall. Rural communities often pass a minimum threshold of "critical mass" and are no longer able to sustain healthy community life.

As fewer and fewer citizens are available to fill the leadership roles in a community, its institutions have to restructure or disband. As social support institutions disband, social support for the remaining population drops. With so many members of families migrating to other centers for jobs, and the remaining ones who are still of a working age having to spend much more time on the road in order to fulfil their various obligations, the ability of a community to support its aging seniors and other "dependant" citizens drops. This progressive situation presents a crisis to many smaller towns.

One of the tragedies of such communities is that many of the same seniors who gave their lives to the welfare of the community in their younger days , by serving on boards, and committees; running schools, churches and hospitals; assisting with sports and recreational activities; and providing the plain human contact and interpersonal kindness so common in rural life, find themselves in their senior years cut of by the very institutions they worked through all their lives. Having carried others, when it came to their time to be carried, the system changed. That is the dilemma of those involved in the difficult task of restructuring social support institutions in response to rural social change.

When people are under stress for long periods , they are not often behaving at their best. When these people are in groups of one sort or another, there is a group-wide behavior set which is often quite unpleasant. That brings us to the fifth type of response to rural social change the social-psychological response.

Aspects of Change in Social Support Institutions

           

Rural Development Institute Research Studies

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