Roundup: March 23, 2021
Alec MacGillis (ProPublica) has published what looks to be a fascinating new book - Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America - that profiles the rise of Amazon and the cascading economic transitions the company is causing across America. According to the publisher, the book is a “literary investigation of the America that falls within that company’s growing shadow.” Sounds rural to me.
Zachery Newton (UMich Law student) has published Legal Deserts: Race & Rural America in the Michigan Journal of Race & Law.
The Penn Program on Regulation’s Regulatory Review is in the process of publishing an expansive series of essays on the theme Native Peoples, Tribal Sovereignty, and Regulation. It is a fantastic series so far with a host of scholars and stakeholders participating. Topics so far have ranged from environmental regulation in Indian country to tribal governments’ COVID-19 responses - and much more. The series continues with regular posts through mid-April.
Kristen Hopewell (UBC Global Affairs) has published Heroes of the Developing World? Emerging Powers in WTO Agriculture Negotiations and Dispute Settlement in the Journal of Peasant Studies. This article examines power dynamics in WTO agriculture negotiations and critiques prior claims that China, Indian, and Brazil in particular have served as advocates for developing countries. Instead, the author asserts these emerging powers have often advanced their own interests at the expense of other developing countries.
Tania Murray Li (Toronto Anthropology) has published Commons, Co-ops, and Corporations: Assembling Indonesia’s Twenty-First Century Land Reform, also in the Journal of Peasant Studies. This article tells the story of modern Indonesian land reform efforts with a focus on assembly strategies and the realities of diverse agendas among a wide array of actors.
Ezra Rosser (American University Law) has two new articles posted on housing access broadly: The Euclid Proviso is forthcoming in Washington Law Review, and Shelter, Mobility, and the Voucher Program, is forthcoming in the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Journal. (Ezra is also giving a talk on Navajo land governance issues as part of our Rural Law and Policy seminar series on April 5, details here.)
Anja Jørgensen, Mia Arp Fallov (both of Aalborg University Denmark, Sociology) and Rikke Skovgaard Nielsen (Aalborg University, Built Environment) published ‘Just Ask Eric’: On the Importance of Governance Efficacy, Territorial Ties and Heterogenous Networks for Rural Development in Sociologia Ruralis. This interesting article builds on interviews from a rural Denmark location to explore how social networks are built and activated over time. They argue a concept they define as “governance efficacy” is an important element to rural territorial resilience despite population decline.
The Environmental Working Group has a new science review out on the health effects on residents who live in close proximity to industrial-scale hog farms in North Carolina.
News
Alan Guebert has an interesting opinion piece out on the importance of rural groceries to rural food security, including a call for more Farm Bill focus on this in the future.
Events & Recordings
The Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has revamped its traditional lecture series into a series of accessible (and COVID-safe) podcasts and recorded lectures, including this most recent episode, Mid-Americana, on the history and identity of the Greater Midwest, as told through the lives and stories of individuals.