A small but growing body of empirical research has examined the relationships among characteristics of civic community, civic agriculture, and socioeconomic welfare. This line of research and inquiry dates back
to two studies commissioned by the U.S. Senate during World War II.
One study by C. Wright Mills and Melville Ulmer (1946) examined the
relationship between the economically independent middle class, civic
engagement, and community welfare in six manufacturing cities in the
Midwest and Northeast.