This research focused on the gap in data and theory on occupational mobility between historians researching the nineteenth century and sociologists researching the twentieth century. City directory listings on Muncie, Indiana provided the source data for a re-assessment of the blocked-mobility thesis asserted by Robert S. and Helen M. Lynd in the Middletown (1928) study of Muncie. The Middletown Index of Association was developed to analyze rates and trends in intra-generational occupational mobility.The results showed that the rate of upward mobility varied on the basis of the rate of industrialization, and both phenomena declined in the period under study. Thus, while upward mobility was decreasing, as reported by the Lynds, that decrease occurred with the deceleration rather than the advent of industrialization.Out-migration significantly increased through time contributing to a decelerating rate of urbanization, but low-status laborers continued to migrate out of the labor force at a significantly greater rate than skilled and white-collar workers. The "floating prolitariat" continued as a phenomenon in Muncie into the twenties. As a city declining in regional dominance, Muncie served as a "stage" in the movement of rural populations into increasingly larger cities.The association of high status to persistence in the labor force was matched with significantly greater residential persistence by skilled and non-manual workers. Social control was found to be more plausible than affluence as an explanation of the strong individualistic faith of the Muncie working class.

This thesis examined the relationship between basic employment and derived employment for the Muncie Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. The study also presented graphically, by use of monthly time series data from 1965 to 1972, employment growth patterns by industrial group. A conceptual model was developed relating the contributions of, basic employment to the growth of derived employment. The model also related the lagged, primary -secondary, and wage scale effects of basic employment upon derived employment. The model assumed that the earnings off workers in basic employment is a major determinant of derived employment growth. Total monthly earnings for each industrial group were specified as explanatory variables in a series of multiple regression equations to determine the various basic industries' contributions to the growth of derived employment. Five-year derived employment projections were computed assuming various growth rates in earnings for each of the significant basic industries. The study concluded that the growth of Ball State University employment (basic government) was the most significant factor effecting the growth of derived employment in the Muncie Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area.

This thesis identifies the housing affordability in Muncie metropolitan areas through the interaction of the major housing market components, of supply and demand for housing units. The purpose of this work has been the investigation of the historical housing performance that Muncie has experienced from 1970 through 1990, in order to determine whether housing affordability problem exists in Muncie and how it has been developed over the study period. Two major approaches are used, cross-sectional and cohort analysis, to examine the relationships among several variables. The main variables are population, households , and housing characteristics which represent the demand and supply of housing stock.The findings from this study have determined that the housing affordability problem in Muncie has escalated more than the other areas within Delaware County since 1970. The major causes of accelerating affordability problem were the real decline of family incomes and the increase of the numbers of low-income populaion, families and households. The lack of employment opportunities, and low payroll were underlying the decline of real income. The decline in number of mortgages was also one of the causes of the afforadability problem over the course of the study period. / Department of Urban Planning