Roundup: November 22, 2022
A regular feature of our growing online journal, The Rural Review, these roundup posts collect notable recent research, analysis, and related rural news and commentary. Feel free to send suggestions for future collections to us here. And, more details on other contribution opportunities in The Rural Review can be found here.
Recent Publications
In The Link Between Internet Activity and Community Experience in Rural Utah, Kayci M. Muirbrook, Michael R. Cope, and Scott R. Sanders (all of the Sociology Department, BYU) conduct an in-depth analysis of the influence of Internet activity on physical communities by surveying 24 rural towns in Utah first in 2009 and again in 2017.
In a possibly related new piece, authors Nick Mathews (Communication & Journalism, Missouri-Kansas City) and Christopher Ali (Communications, Pennsylvania State) use the concept of “digital dignity” to reconsider issues of rural (and other) broadband access. The piece is “Come on f—er, just load!” Powerlessness, Waiting, and Life Without Broadband, and it emphasizes power imbalances between those waiting for fixed broadband connection and those who have the power to address these issues, including government officials, policymakers, and broadband providers. As a reminder, the Project hosted Dr. Christopher Ali in our Rural Infrastructure Series, details (including a recording and summary of Dr. Ali’s talk) here.
In False Gospels of Efficiency: Contested Knowledge, Determined Experts, and Unfaithful Lands in Rural Utah, author David D. Vail (History, Nebraska-Kearney) examines the conflicts over knowledge, expertise, spiritual promises, and agroecological realities in the construction of an early-1900s rural water conservation district in Cache Valley, Utah.
In Food Anarchy and the State Monopoly on Hunger, author Hannah Kass (Geography & Environmental Studies, Wisconsin) applies an anarchist lens to the food sovereignty movement. She argues that State monopoly on hunger justifies a new offshoot of the larger food sovereignty movement, a prefigurative praxis which dismantles all food regimes to build new counter-worlds: food anarchy. This article provides an interesting perspective when compared to President Biden’s recent 40-page strategy for ending hunger. Conversely, other authors advocate for considerably more, rather than less, state intervention in agricultural and food production in The Fragmenting Countryside and the Challenge of Retaining Agricultural Land: The Vermont Case by authors Thomas L. Daniels (City & Regional Planning, Pennsylvania, Kyle McCarthy (Master’s Student, Pennsylvania), and Mark B. Lapping (Policy, Planning, & Management, Southern Maine).
In Tariffs, Agricultural Subsidies, and the 2020 US Presidential Election, authors Jaerim Choi (Economics, Hawaii) and Sunghun Lim (Agricultural Economics & Agribusiness, Louisiana State) discuss the effects of US and Chinese trade policies on the 2020 US presidential election, which they deem to have exacerbated political polarization in the US, especially along the rural-urban divide.
Making and Mastering Violent Environments: Following the Infrastructures of Accumulation in Coastal Louisiana by Rachael Phillips (Geography, British Columbia-Vancouver) and Susanne Soederberg (Global Development Studies, Queen’s University) presents an argument that the making and mastering infrastructural violence has always been part of the historical unfolding of the socio-spatial dynamics of capitalism and that infrastructural development has played an integral role in this duality at every historical turn. To do so, they focus on Louisiana’s coastal wetlands – an area full of rural, poor, and racialized residents.
In Can Micropolitan Areas Bridge the Urban/Rural Divide?, authors Shiela Foster (Law & Public Policy, Georgetown) and Clayton P. Gillette (NYU Law) explore the “divide” between urban and rural areas in the United States and argue that micropolitan areas are an important window into understanding the relationship between urban and rural economies.
In With, Not for, Money: Ranch Management Trajectories of the Super-Rich in Greater Yellowstone, authors Kathleen Epstein and Julia H. Haggerty (both from the Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State) and Hannah Gosnell (Earth, Ocean, & Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State) evaluate the interactions between the contemporary global super-rich and systems of environmental management – particularly, the social and ecological implications of ranches owned by the very wealthy in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.
Saviors and Services: The Interface of Neoliberal Deprivation, Hegemonic Christianity, Social Exclusion, and Rural Church Resource Provision by authors Amy M. Magnus (Political Science & Criminal Justice, California State) and Alyse Sherrick (Criminology & Criminal Justice, Maryland), examines the complex role that churches play as resource providers in rural areas and underscores the complexity of resource provision, church influence, and rurality.
News & Commentary
A lot to cover related to rural votes and the recent midterm elections: This NBC News poll showed sky-high election enthusiasm among Republican and rural America. However, others have noticed how Democrat John Fetterman of Pennsylvania sealed a victory this midterm cycle at least in part by literally bringing his campaign to rural counties that did not traditionally support Democratic candidates, and many have credited this to his victory. In addition, this election was still impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Read how this Nebraska community still voted by mail.
On the ongoing theme of access to rural healthcare, this New York Times article tells a story of one rural doctor who gave it her all, and then her heart broke. Rural staffing challenges occur nationwide, but this report by The Rural Monitor highlights how one rural Maine community took action. Transportation assistance (often provided by volunteers) may also be declining, leaving many rural communities without access to healthcare, as discussed in this Kaiser Health News article.
Renewable energy and innovations surrounding it continue to grow in the United States. Solar energy in rural farmland has been a battle for years; however, researchers at Purdue are looking for methods to have the best of both worlds through an “agrivoltaic” approach. Virginia, meanwhile, just approved its first land-based wind farm. Other states, such as Georgia, have been participating in renewable energy for quite some time but are now facing pushback from more than just angry landowners – but also the environment.
This New York Times article connects schools’ social services to rural housing and homelessness.
Lisa Pruitt (UC-Davis) ponders the phenomenon of “rural bashing” in this MinnPost op-ed. Pruitt argues the country is better off focusing on how the two sectors are interdependent. You can listen to Pruitt discuss more on mending the rural-urban rift in this Westminster Town Hall Forum. Counter-responses to such ideas can be seen in articles such as Wonking Out: Facts, Feelings, and Rural Politics. Pruitt’s longtime work on rural issues is also recounted in this talk, our first in the Project’s programming series!
Finally, as part of longstanding conversations about keeping youth in their rural hometowns, the University of Georgia has introduced their approach with the PROPEL Rural Scholars program. As this Georgia county recounts, losing rural youth to schools and jobs in other cities and states can break a succession of community leadership that is important to future success.