| The majority of academic literature pertaining to commuting treats it as an outcome. When it is source of study, research that follows traditional economic lines of thought tend to fall short of explaining why people are willing to commute as long as they do. A sociological view of commuting examines characteristics of the social fabric that lead a person to be more or less willing to live in a residence when faced with a longer commute. To this end, I develop an adapted theory of place that specifies material cultural forms that have been assigned social value in the decision to live in certain areas over others, and therefore comprise place. The results of the three studies show that place does matter in both rural and urban areas when it comes to commuting, but that the forms of place are changing. Specifically in rural areas, the studies find that encroaching urban forms change how place is valued. Furthermore, the data show that the exact effects of place in rural areas are strongly dictated by individual characteristics that either free or restrict a person's ability to choose a residence based on preference. Rural residents with greater residential location flexibility are more likely to value traditional forms of rural place. |
