Political conservatism has become a major presence in American life, and this project by a cultural anthropologist studies how political beliefs work in the daily affairs of people who regard themselves as conservative. The project will investigate political ideologies of a rural county in the mountains of North Carolina, in order to understand the beliefs that inform local affairs. The project will investigate two forms of conservatism, traditionalist (reflecting the personalistic and egalitarian patterns of small-town life) and progressive (reflecting the patterns of mainstream middle-class American society). By studying the trend away from Democratic party affiliation towards conservatism over the past 30 years, through the medium of analysis of several local controversies about which people will have formed opinions, and relating the local issues to the national context, the study will advance our understanding of this political viewpoint in a representative social situation. Methods include participant observation, in-depth interviews of a range of respondents, and a random sample of households. The new knowledge to be created by this project will be valuable for the insight it will give into the complex and fluid political positions taken by people along the spectrum of conservative belief and action.
