Stephen Halebsky 2009: Small Towns and Big Business: Challenging Wal-Mart Superstores. Plymouth: Lexington Books

摘要

The increasing and apparently unchecked power of global corporations has been scrutinized by social research in recent years. Small Towns and Big Business: Challenging Wal-Mart Superstores contributes to a burgeoning literature on Wal-Mart, one of the major players in this arena, as well as speaking to the wider debates surrounding anti-corporate protest and local community activism. Examining six empirical examples of Wal-Mart siting disputes in small cities in the United States, Halebsky attempts to uncover which factors are most influential in determining the success or failure of localized anti-corporate campaigns. In doing so, he provides a compelling account of the negative impacts of big retailers on small towns, including the disruption of neighbourhoods, damage to small merchants, urban sprawl and the rising 'McDonaldization' of society.