Roundup: November 10, 2023
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
In Can Infrastructure Help ‘Left Behind’ Places ‘Catch Up?’ Theorizing the Role of Built Infrastructure in Regional Development, Grete Gansauer, Julia H. Haggerty, Kelli F. Roemer (all Earth Sciences, Montana State University), Kristin K. Smith (Headwaters Economics, Montana), and Mark N. Haggerty (Center for American Progress, Washington, DC) draw upon economic geography, regional studies, and critical infrastructure studies to consider the contradictions of infrastructure as a regional development strategy and its efficacy in helping transform the economies of peripheral regions of the United States (published in the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society).
Rural Sociology published “Do you Know What's Underneath your Feet?”: Underground Landscapes & Place-Based Risk Perceptions of Proposed Shale Gas Sites in Rural British Communities by Stacia S. Ryder (Sociology and Anthropology, Utah State University), Jennifer A. Dickie (Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling), and Patrick Devine-Wright (Geography, University of Exeter). The authors emphasize that resource extraction often occurs near rural communities and relies on human interaction with the underground. In light of this, the authors highlight the importance of place in localized risk perceptions of proposed shale exploration in two rural communities in the United Kingdom and demonstrate how senses of place in each community are embedded in local rural culture stretching back through generations.
Researchers Sabhatyata Lamichhane, Jacek Siry, Bin Mei (all Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia) and Tyler Reeves (Forisk Consulting, Georgia) create a working guide for landowners and easement-holding organizations to locate and strategically target conservation easements in their article, Spatial Analysis of the Attributes of Working Forest Conservation Easements in the State of Georgia, published in Society & Natural Resources. Troubled by the millions of acres lost to urbanization in the US South alone, the authors consider how conservation easements function as a tool to achieve conservation objectives on privately-owned lands in the US.
Contested Agri‑food Futures: Introduction to the Special Issue of Agriculture and Human Values by Mascha Gugganig (Life Sciences in Society, University of Munich), Karly Ann Burch (Sociology, Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland), Julie Guthman (Sociology, University of California), and Kelly Bronson (Sociological and Anthropological Studies, University of Ottawa) offers an overview of science and technology studies and critical agri-food studies scholarship. In particular, the authors illustrate how interdisciplinary engagement across these fields has contributed to the emergent field of agri-food technoscience scholarship.
News & Commentary
This recent article in Grist examines the social and cultural consequences of the end of coal culture in regions where fossil fuels historically dominated local economies and defined local traditions. For example, the town of Marissa, Illinois—once considered the capital of coal mining in the Midwest—still hosts an annual Coal Festival parade, showcasing a mix of pride and nostalgia with relief and anxiety about a future without coal.
Before the coal industry redefined the social and economic fabric of Eastern Kentucky and Appalachia regions, many residents made their livelihoods through subsistence farming. An article in the Lexington Herald Leader covers recent efforts to reestablish gardening and meal preparation practices as a means of alleviating food insecurity for local residents.
The Wall Street Journal reported on the high cost of making high-speed internet connection available in some remote communities where the price tag can exceed the assessed value of the area’s homes. Despite the cost, rural fiber lines can be an essential form of infrastructure, allowing for upgraded cell service and job opportunities.
A recent article in Agri-View compared monarch butterflies to marathon runners as their migration from northern Wisconsin through the Midwest and on to Mexico spans nearly 2,000 miles. To help on their journey, experts recommend turning unproductive farmland into habitat plantings and giving monarchs a place to rest and refuel.
In a piece in the Daily Yonder, an author shares her deep-seated ambivalence about returning to her rural Appalachian hometown. Despite a longing to return to friends and family, and in addition to other challenges facing rural areas—housing, employment, healthcare, education—the author questions the value she could bring to her community.
A Writers on the Range column considered how goats can help mitigate the risk of dangerous fires in the American West. By allowing goats to graze on property where they make quick meals of weeds, brushes, and small trees, residents can reduce dangerous “ladder fuels” that transfer fire from the ground into the overstory. The article cites two regional businesses providing goat-based services.
The New Yorker published an exploration of the myth of rural America, centered around Grant Wood’s famous “American Gothic,” a painting Wood declared a sympathetic representation of the rural places whose cultural primacy had—in 1930s America—been usurped by cities. But, the article suggests, both urban and rural America are largely mythic constructs.
Events & Recordings
Reporting on Addiction is a collaborative project working to decrease addiction stigmas by providing best practices for reporting on all types of addiction. A guide for journalists sharing resources for how to best use photo portrayals of addiction in their coverage is available here. Watch a recording of the launch of the guide “How to Reduce Stigma in Visual Journalism” with Dr. Martha Tillson, Jessica Hulsey, and Jesse Wright here.
The University of Iowa College of Law’s Hubbell Environmental Law Initiative recently held a Water in the 21st Century Fireside Chat with Dean Kevin Washburn and Tanya Trujillo, former Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the US Department of the Interior, discussing her experience with nonprofit work on water stakeholder negotiations in the West and efforts to implement science-based climate policy. A recording of the event is available here.
Rural LISC, a national program created to expand the Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s reach to include rural communities, is hosting their annual seminar, Rural Talks Innovation and Investment, on December 11-14, 2023, in Coachella Valley, California, and virtually. The seminar is an opportunity to share and learn innovative approaches to rural community and economic development. Register and find out more here.
The Rural Remix podcast, partnering with the Daily Yonder and Center for Rural Strategies, is sharing unexpected rural stories that talk back to the stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding rural communities. The third of their 5-part debut series, The Rural Horror Picture Show, is now available. Perfect for the dark and dreary nights of the fall season, the series explores the depiction of rural people and places in horror films. Listen in, if you dare!
