Continued in this thesis is a description of the retail shipping behavior of Muncie, Indiana, residents and residents living in the fringe areas of Muncie, Indiana. In addition to a description of shopping behavior, this study also ascertained the major factors associated with selection of a major shopping location in Muncie by the area and fringe area residents. The major shopping locations included in the study were Downtown, Meadows Shopping Center, Muncie Mall, Northwest Plaza, Southway Plaza, and The Village. Major factor areas tested for association with selection of shopping location were socioeconomic variables, information sources, consumer attitudes toward store selection, and consumer evaluation of the shopping locations.Special attention was given to the influence of driving time on selection of a shopping location. Approximately 2700 license plate numbers were recorded from Muncie’s major shopping locations to determine the geographic dispersion of shoppers patronizing these shopping locations.

The intent of this study was to analyze the geographical and social mobility patterns of Muncie's population within the 1850-1880 period utilizing the "new urban history" methodology. The subject of urban history has assumed a prominent position in the present curricula of many colleges and universities. A major component of urban history is titled "new urban history." Historians working under this rubic have adopted a research methodology distinct from that used in the past. This is a social science methodology which emphasizes the manipulation of quantitative data. It is this methodology which has distinguished the "new urban history" and the urban historians who utilize this approach.Stephan Thernstrom was one of the first "new urban historians" to use social science methodology in the study of large masses of urban dwellers. His purpose was to examine systematically the lives of those people who had previously gone unrecorded, but who, in the past, had automatically been included in commonly held assumptions about Americans. Thernstrom's study of the unskilled laborers in Newburyport, Massachusetts from 1850-1880 (Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century American City, 1850-1880) represented the initial effort in cataloguing the experiences of the common man in an urban setting.Thernstrom's use of social science methodology allowed him to discern the geographical and social mobility patterns of Newburyport's laborers. The results from his analysis did a great deal to dispell the myth that the "rags-to-riches" ideology of the nineteenth century was operative in American society for men regardless of their status.Since Thernstrom's study several other communities and their residents have been similarly examined in terms of geographical and social mobility patterns. The results have not always coincided with the Newburyport example. Dean Esslinger, in a study of the immigrant population of South Bend, Indiana from 1850-1880, (Immigrants and the City: Ethnicity and Mobility in a Nineteenth-Century Midwestern Community) discovered that significant upward social mobility occurred for this group. The development of South Bend as an industrial center did not block the opportunity for upward occupational and economic mobility among the city's foreign-born residents.I discovered in this dissertation that Muncie's population was very physically unstable, but that general upward social mobility was the reward for those who stayed. Less than one-half of Muncie's residents recorded on the federal census in 1850, 1860, and 1870 remained in Muncie for ten years. For the minority who did remain, however, improved status, both occupationally and economically, was the rule.One's place of birth had minimal affect on his ability to improve his job and economic status in Muncie. Muncie's foreignborn residents were able to enjoy nearly equal social mobility overtime as the native-born segment of the population. The unskilled foreign-born workers were the major exception to this pattern. They were not as successful in improving their status.Of major significance in the mobility studies of individual communities is the increased awareness which is gained of a broader, national perspective on population movement and status over time. More knowledge about the mobility patterns of America's urban dwellers leads to a more accurate determination of the nation's urban development and growth. The placement of Muncie in a broader urban context was one of the major accomplishments of this study. Direct comparisons were made between Muncie's mobility patterns and those of Newburyport, Massachusetts and South Bend, Indiana. The results show that Muncie was not unlike other communities in the same era.

This thesis has studied black politics in the City of Muncie, Indiana, in light of Imamu Baraka's concept of developing black politics. Baraka says that, of necessity, black politics is moving from a system of nominal jobs and services via a "brokerage" system toward a strong black institution with the ability to exert a black influence on the local political scene.In order to determine where Muncie fits into this notion of black politics two hypotheses were developed. First, voting patterns in three black precincts were studied to establish whether bloc voting exists there. In order to discover whether the existence of bloc voting results in black voters having impact on local politics, impact was operationalized to mean the appointment of blacks to administrative positions within the city administration and the feelings of political leaders and black community leaders toward the impact of black citizens on Muncie politics.Voting results from the 1967, 1971 and 1975 mayoral primary and general elections were studied. The particular three precincts studied were chosen because their population is more than 70 percent black.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

The purpose of this creative project was to bring about the development and hypothetical implementation of development guidelines for the McGalliard Road commercial corridor in Muncie, Indiana, as an example of how the development guidelines can improve the development character, safety, and creativity within Muncie's urban arterial corridors. The project introduces the development guidelines, explains the existing conditions along McGalliard Road in terms of transportation efficiency, safety, and aesthetics, implements a model design alternative along McGalliard Road based on the guidelines, and presents implementation strategies and recommendations for changes in current development regulation policies which would bring about these changes for arterial commercial developments in the city of Muncie. / Department of Urban Planning

This thesis has explored the opinions of pay-cable television subscribers in Muncie, Indiana relative to the claims of pro- and anti-deregulation forces. These claims include charges that an unregulated cable industry will drive theater owners bankrupt, deprive over-the-air television of revenue base, price low-income groups out of the television entertainment market, and proclaimed pay-cable as an open, willing market for performing arts and other cultural programming. This study disproved all the claims except:(1) that pay-cable is depriving theater owners of significant numbers of patrons, and (2) that there was a significant decrease in the watching of regular network programming as a result of HBO subscription.A secondary purpose of this research was to establish criteria and concepts for an in-depth study of the cable television industry and its relationship and effects on commercial over-the-air television.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.