company town
Single-employer community
A company town is a community where virtually all stores, housing, and services are owned by a single employer—typically a mining, lumber, or factory operation.
Workers often had no choice but to rent company housing and shop at company stores, sometimes paid in scrip redeemable only there.
The term now extends to any place dominated by one industry or employer: Seattle was a company town for Boeing before the tech boom.
Controlling others for their good
- corporate governanceCompany direction and control
- monopolyOne seller, no substitutes
- dominanceSuperior influence over others
- oversightSupervision or inadvertent omission
authority · management · regulation · curfew · scrip · surveillance · rules · restrictions
Claim certificate for shares
- subsistenceMinimal means of living
- provisionPreparatory supply or clause
- creditRecognition or payment deferral
- debt bondageCoerced labor repaying loans
welfare · reliance · necessities · amenities · loyalty · exploitation · indentured · trapped
Dwellings or protective covering
- barracksSoldiers' residential building
- dormitoryStudent living building
- row housesAdjoining homes sharing side walls
- tenementMulti-unit urban dwelling
commissary · community · planned · enclave · residential · infrastructure · amenities · church
Extracting earth's resources
- millGrain-crushing facility
- smelterOre-refining plant
- factoryIndustrial production facility
- plantBotanical organism
foundry · lumber · textile · coal · railroad · cannery · refinery · quarry
Distant or controller
- secludedSet apart, private
- self-containedWhole without external parts
- insularNarrow in outlook
- outpostRemote military station
inaccessible · cut-off · geographic · frontier · wilderness · detached · sequestered · confined
paternalism
Controlling others for their good
- corporate governanceCompany direction and control
- monopolyOne seller, no substitutes
- dominanceSuperior influence over others
oversight · authority · management · regulation · curfew · scrip · surveillance · rules · restrictions · eviction
scrip
Claim certificate for shares
- subsistenceMinimal means of living
- provisionPreparatory supply or clause
- creditRecognition or payment deferral
debt bondage · welfare · reliance · necessities · amenities · loyalty · exploitation · indentured · trapped · beholden
housing
Dwellings or protective covering
- barracksSoldiers' residential building
- dormitoryStudent living building
- row housesAdjoining homes sharing side walls
tenement · commissary · community · planned · enclave · residential · infrastructure · amenities · church · school
mining
Extracting earth's resources
plant · foundry · lumber · textile · coal · railroad · cannery · refinery · quarry · steelworks
remote
Distant or controller
- secludedSet apart, private
- self-containedWhole without external parts
- insularNarrow in outlook
outpost · inaccessible · cut-off · geographic · frontier · wilderness · detached · sequestered · confined · enclosed
- communitiesgated community, family, retirement community, neighbors, cohousing
- neighborhoodsneighborhood, suburb, subdivision, Greenwich Village, East Village
- small townshamlet, village, settlement, homestead, village square
- historic settlementsabandoned village, pioneer settlements, pioneer settlement, colonial settlement, mining camp
- industrial townsindustrial city, Gary, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Youngstown
- mill townmill, mill workers, mill pond, mill race, mill wheel
company townmetropolitan area
City plus linked suburbs
major city · economic hub · trade center · cosmopolitan city · commercial district
town, company, companion, downtown, accompany, towns, hometown, accompanying, accompanied