Niagara Falling: Globalization in a Small Town

by Carol Miller

Niagara Falling reveals what happens to a small community when it is forced into the global economy. This case study of the effects of "globalization in reverse," when foreign-based companies operate in a community in the United States, takes the reader to Niagara, Wisconsin, where the primary employer is the local paper mill, currently owned by a new, foreign company. Miller examines whether and how local government, civic engagement, education, and the environment are affected by this reverse globalization. Has Niagara changed because its main employer is now a huge, multinational company based in Finland? Or are many of the changes it has experienced simply the result of the natural progression of a small town? Niagara Falling is an accessible work for sociology scholars and students alike.

134 pages, Hardcover

First published August 27, 2007