Restaurant Organizational Forms and Community in the U.S. in 2005

Recent sociological theory and research highlights food, drink, and restaurants as culturally meaningful and related to social identity. An implication of this view holds that the prevalence of corporate chain restaurants affects the sociological character of communities, as many activists, popular–based movements, and theorists contend. The analysis we report here seeks to identify the ecological niche properties of chain and independent restaurants—which kinds of communities support restaurant chains, and which kinds of communities tend to support independent local restaurants and food service providers instead. We analyze data from a 2005 sample of 49 counties across the United States with over 17,000 active restaurants. We argue that demographic stability affects the community composition of organizational forms, and we also investigate arguments about a community's income distribution, age distribution, population trends, geographic sprawl, and commuter population. We find that communities with less stable demographic make–ups support more chain restaurants, but that other factors, including suburban sprawl and public transit commuter, also have some impact. Modalidades organizacionales de los restaurantes y su relación con la comunidad en los Estados Unidos en el 2005 (Glenn R. Carroll y Magnus Thor Torfason) Resumen Las teorías y estudios sociológicos recientes destacan el significado cultural de la comida, las bebidas y los restaurantes y la forma en están conectados con la identidad social. Un corolario de esta perspectiva implica que el predominio de restaurantes pertenecientes a cadenas corporativas afecta el carácter sociológico de las comunidades, como plantean muchos activistas, movimientos de base y académicos. El análisis presentado en este artículo tiene por objetivo identificar las características del nicho ecológico de los restaurantes pertenecientes a cadenas y los restaurantes independientes: qué tipo de comunidades tiende a apoyar el establecimiento de restaurantes de cadenas y qué tipo de comunidades tiende a apoyar el establecimiento de restaurantes y servicios de comida independientes. Analizamos los datos de una muestra realizada en el 2005 de 49 condados a lo largo y ancho de los Estados Unidos incluyendo más de 17,000 restaurantes en operación. Nuestro argumento es que la estabilidad demográfica afecta las modalidades organizacionales presentes en la comunidad. También abordamos planteamientos relativos a la distribución del ingreso, la distribución etaria, las tendencias poblacionales, la expansión de la marcha urbana de cada comunidad al igual que la proporción de personas que viaja todos los días a trabajar a otros lugares. Encontramos que las comunidades con composición demografica menos estable tienden a apoyar más el establecimiento de restaurantes de cadenas pero también hay otros factores como el crecimiento de los suburbios y el transporte público suburbano.

[1]  Harry W. Paul,et al.  When Champagne Became French: Wine and the Making of a National Identity , 2005 .

[2]  N. Anand,et al.  THE PRODUCTION OF CULTURE PERSPECTIVE , 2004 .

[3]  Hugh G. Gauch,et al.  Multivariate analysis in community ecology , 1984 .

[4]  Scienze Politiche.  American Community Survey , 2011 .

[5]  D. J. Oddy,et al.  Revolution at the table , 1988 .

[6]  R. Fantasia.  Fast food in France , 1995 .

[7]  James L. Watson,et al.  Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia , 1999 .

[8]  R. Sampson,et al.  Civil Society Reconsidered: The Durable Nature and Community Structure of Collective Civic Action1 , 2005, American Journal of Sociology.

[9]  C. Ryant.  The South and the Movement Against Chain Stores , 1973 .

[10]  H. Rao,et al.  Institutional Change in Toque Ville: Nouvelle Cuisine as an Identity Movement in French Gastronomy1 , 2003, American Journal of Sociology.

[11]  S. Brint.  Gemeinschaft Revisited: A Critique and Reconstruction of the Community Concept* , 2001 .

[12]  Carol Harris-Shapiro.  Bloody Shankbones and Braided Bread: The Food Voice and the Fashioning of American Jewish Identities , 2006 .

[13]  Japonica Brown-Saracino,et al.  Social Preservationists and the Quest for Authentic Community , 2004 .

[14]  L. Jarosz,et al.  The city in the country: Growing alternative food networks in Metropolitan areas , 2008 .

[15]  Gary Alan Fine.  Kitchens: The Culture of Restaurant Work , 1996 .

[16]  Richard Fardon,et al.  Counterworks: Managing the Diversity of Knowledge , 1995 .

[17]  Tm Blackburn,et al.  Introduction: why macroecology? , 2003 .

[18]  G. Genosko.  Camembert: A National Myth , 2004 .

[19]  M. Hannan,et al.  Social Dynamics: Models and Methods. , 1986 .

[20]  Sharon Zukin.  The Cultures of the Cities , 1995 .

[21]  Corso Gastaldi,et al.  How to Eat , 1905, The Hospital.

[22]  Hayagreeva Rao,et al.  Store Wars: The Enactment and Repeal of Anti‐Chain‐Store Legislation in America1 , 2004, American Journal of Sociology.

[23]  Donna Maurer,et al.  Comfort Foods: An Exploratory Journey Into The Social and Emotional Significance of Food , 2005 .

[24]  G. Carroll,et al.  Why the Microbrewery Movement? Organizational Dynamics of Resource Partitioning in the U.S. Brewing Industry1 , 2000, American Journal of Sociology.

[25]  George Ritzer,et al.  The McDonaldization of Society, 5th edn by George Ritzer , 1994 .

[26]  John F. Love,et al.  McDonald's: Behind The Arches , 1986 .

[27]  Andrew Deener,et al.  Commerce as the Structure and Symbol of Neighborhood Life: Reshaping the Meaning of Community in Venice, California , 2007 .

[28]  E. Searles.  Food and the Making of Modern Inuit Identities , 2002 .

[29]  Krishnendu Ray.  Nation and Cuisine. The Evidence From American Newspapers Ca. 1830–2003 , 2008 .

[30]  Stephen Halebsky.  Superstores and the Politics of Retail Development , 2004 .

[31]  Lidia Marte.  Foodmaps: Tracing Boundaries of ‘Home’ Through Food Relations , 2007 .

[32]  Michael T. Hannan,et al.  Niche Width and the Dynamics of Organizational Populations , 1983, American Journal of Sociology.

[33]  Gary Alan Fine,et al.  The Culture of Production: Aesthetic Choices and Constraints in Culinary Work , 1992, American Journal of Sociology.

[34]  G. Fine.  Wittgenstein's kitchen: Sharing meaning in restaurant work , 1995 .

[35]  Glenn R. Carroll,et al.  The Organizational Construction of Authenticity: An Examination of Contemporary Food and Dining in the U.S. , 2008 .

[36]  D. Reinke.  ASSESSING PLACE CHARACTER IN RESPONSE TO WAL-MART , 2006 .

[37]  L. Crewe,et al.  Gap on the Map? Towards a Geography of Consumption and Identity , 1995 .

[38]  Harvey Molotch,et al.  History Repeats Itself, but How? City Character, Urban Tradition, and the Accomplishment of Place , 2000, American Sociological Review.

[39]  Cynthia Ingram,et al.  Fast Food Nation , 2001 .

[40]  William Sites.  Beyond Trenches and Grassroots? Reflections on Urban Mobilization, Fragmentation, and the Anti-Wal-Mart Campaign in Chicago , 2007 .

[41]  W. Earl Sasser,et al.  The chain-restaurant industry , 1978 .

[42]  Dilip Caonkar,et al.  The Production of Locality , 2004 .

[43]  Sharon Zukin,et al.  Urban Lifestyles: Diversity and Standardisation in Spaces of Consumption , 1998 .

[44]  G. Fine,et al.  The Presentation of Ethnic Authenticity: Chinese Food as a Social Accomplishment , 1995 .

[45]  S. Miles,et al.  Urban Consumption: An Historiographical Note , 1998 .

[46]  M. Borer,et al.  The Location of Culture: The Urban Culturalist Perspective , 2006 .

[47]  H. Levenstein.  Paradox of plenty: a social history of eating in modern America. , 2003 .

[48]  A. Alkon,et al.  Place Matters, But How? Rural Identity, Environmental Decision Making, and the Social Construction of Place , 2008 .

[49]  Rodolphe Durand,et al.  Border Crossing: Bricolage and the Erosion of Categorical Boundaries in French Gastronomy , 2005 .

[50]  T. Clark,et al.  The city as an entertainment machine , 2001 .

[51]  Bertram M. Gordon.  :Accounting for Taste: The Triumph of French Cuisine , 2007 .

[52]  Zachary P. Neal,et al.  Culinary Deserts, Gastronomic Oases: A Classification of US Cities , 2006 .

[53]  Werner S. Landecker,et al.  The American Community. , 1956 .

[54]  A. Trubek.  Haute Cuisine: How the French Invented the Culinary Profession , 2000 .