Volunteer Fire Departments and Community Mobilization

Abstract

Anthropological research in northern West Virginia suggests that the volunteer fire department is a cultural institution of special importance, both symbolically and actually, in the community process. Ethnography is provided in four sections dealing with exchange or mutual aid (1) within local VFDs; (2) between a VFD and its local public; (3) between and among VFDs which compose the fire service; and (4) between the fire service as a relatively organized collectivity and the regional public. A fifth section derives implications for practical strategy in community development, suggesting specifically that performance standards and other expectations applying to local VFDs arise and are sanctioned in supralocal social structures such as the fire service. The indicated strategy emphasizes development of supralocal communications and exchanges, forging and sustaining the phenomenon of community at a supralocal level.