Roundup: March 1, 2024
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 opportunities to contribute to the Rural Review can be found here.
Recent Publications
Researchers Brita A. Goldstein, Erin Clover Kelly (both Forestry, Fire, and Rangeland Management, California State Polytechnic University), and Mindy S. Crandall (Forest Engineering, Resources, and Management, Oregon State University) shared insights from interviews with 33 family forest landowners in By the Book: Examining California’s Private Forest Regulations from the Perspectives of Family Forest Landowners in Society & Natural Resources. Their work examined tensions between private property rights and the role of government in protecting natural resources.
In Personal, Peaceful, Progressive: Integration Workers’ Narratives of Refugee Settlement and the Rural, published in Sociologia Ruralis, Turid Sætermo (Diversity and Inclusion, Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and Guro Korsnes Kristensen (Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, Norwegian University of Science and Technology) explore how integration narratives shape the outcomes of national efforts to counter depopulation and revitalize rural areas through refugee resettlement. The article focuses on two Norwegian rural-coastal municipalities and identifies two distinct narratives of rurality: the rural as future-oriented and dynamic, and the rural as close-knit and peaceful.
The Journal of Peasant Studies recently published Corn and the Range: Rethinking Ranching, Agriculture and the Feedlot by Nathan F. Sayre (Geography, University of California-Berkeley), an examination of how the emergence of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in the 1950s broke the nutrient cycle of the original feedlot and created a dysfunctional relationship between ranching and agriculture. The article emphasizes the importance of recognizing that corn feeding has been integral to beef cattle production in the US for over 200 years and that historically, the feedlot relied on a closed-loop nutrient cycle that was able to maintain soil fertility.
News & Commentary
The New York Times reported on Maine’s struggle to establish smaller, secure alternatives to youth prisons and other community-based intervention programs that remain scarce. In rural areas, intensive services intended to keep adolescents from entering the justice system are often unavailable and behavioral health programs and therapists have long waiting lists.
A Colorado Sun article reported on a New York billionaire who owns hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in Kansas, eastern Colorado, and New Mexico and plans to rent the farmland back to local farmers. Flatwater Free Press published an article detailing Bill Gates’s financial investments in Nebraska farmland.
The Daily Yonder published a Q&A with historian Keith Orejel contextualizing rural voting behaviors as informed by the political implications of rural industrialization, not based simply on “culture war” issues. Orejel shares his perspectives on assumptions about rural “resentment” and “rage” and the lasting effects of the Great Recession of 2008.
Western Confluence shared an article on the long history and enduring appeal of dude ranches, a small but significant tourism industry in the American West. Since visitors expect unblemished and familiar landscapes, dude ranches offer potential insights for balancing recreational economic opportunities with conservation efforts and sustainability.
Events & Recordings
The joint Brookings-AEI event series On the Front Porch with Tony Pipa and Brent Orrell recently featured a conversation with Kathy Edin and Tim Nelson, authors of The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America, about their research exploring why and how most of the disadvantaged places in the United States are rural. A recording of their conversation on the history of resource extraction and human exploitation and what it would take to restore rural communities is available here.
The Honoring Dakota Project is leading an online conversation with Katherine Beane (Flandreau Santee Sioux Dakota and Muscogee Creek) on Indigenous historic preservation on March 28, 2024. Beane is the Executive Director of the Minnesota Museum of American Art and helps oversee preservation and development in downtown St. Paul. Beane has also advocated for Indigenous involvement in and interpretation of historic sites throughout Minnesota. More information and the Zoom link for this free event here.
