Sociological theorists have generally emphasized the destructive effects of urbanization on social ties through the community lost perspective. A counterview, which we call the community transformed, has begun to emerge on the basis of other theorizing and empirical research. Yet the relationship of urbanization to social ties is still not well understood. In this article, we explore the total number of social ties, the number of kin and nonkin ties, the density or interconnection, and frequency of contact between ties among individuals residing within various U.S. settlement types. The results indicate that urbanization especially encourages the segmentation of social ties by discouraging density or interconnectedness. In addition, urbanization does have noteworthy effects in encouraging exclusively nonkin ties, which are presumably highly voluntaristic. Of the three definitions of urbanization that are tested, we find that metropolitanization is the most efficacious for understanding variations in social ties, especially exclusively nonkin ties.
Using historical census microdata, we present a unique analysis of racial and gender disparities in destination selection and an exploration of hypotheses regarding tied migration in the historical context of the Great Migration. Black migrants were more likely to move to metropolitan areas and central cities throughout the period, while white migrants were more likely to locate in nonmetropolitan and farm destinations. Gender differences were largely dependent on marital status. Consistent with the "tied-migration" thesis, married women had destination outcomes that were similar to those of men, whereas single women had a greater propensity to reside in metropolitan locations where economic opportunities for women were more plentiful.
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