Rural Sociology Commons^™

Perceptions Of The Economy And Employment In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: 2022 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Heather Akin, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Bradley Lubben, L. J. Mcelravy, Timothy L. Meyer, Steven A. Schulz, Amanda Tupper

Nebraska Rural Poll

Most rural Nebraskans believe most of the listed economic items will become worse or much worse over the next 12 months when asked in May and June. Almost nine in ten think the following will become worse: inflation, gasoline or diesel fuel prices, grocery prices, and interest rates. In fact, at least four in ten rural Nebraskans believe the following items will become much worse in the next 12 months: gasoline or diesel fuel prices, inflation, grocery prices, and healthcare costs. The two items that had less than one-half believing they would become worse or much worse during the next …

Hiv And Housing Insecurity In Louisiana, Hui-Peng Liew, Leslie E. Green

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This study sought to assign the parishes in Louisiana into distinctive spatial-temporal clusters based on their trends in HIV prevalence and percentages of households with severe housing problems and to assess the parish’s resilience and susceptibility to HIV infection given its pre- existing sociodemographic conditions. Results revealed that trends in the HIV prevalence rates and percentages of households with severe housing problems differed across the five distinct spatial-temporal clusters. The percentage of households with severe housing problems and the percentage of non-Hispanic Black population were positively associated with the HIV prevalence rate while the reverse was true for the percentage …

Using The Capabilities-Opportunity-Motivation-Behavior (Com-B) System To Conceptualize The Legalization Of Sunday Migratory Game Bird Hunting, Elena C. Rubino, Christopher Serenari

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Recent wildlife agency efforts aimed at hunter recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) are examples of behavior change interventions. Therefore, these R3 programs and policies should be strategically designed to meet hunters’ goals and motivations. We analyzed survey responses (n=808) from North Carolina resident migratory bird hunters regarding potential Sunday hunting legalization to serve as an illustrative case demonstrating how the capabilities-opportunity-motivation-behavior (COM-B) system can be used to conceptualize and more effectively test potential hunter behavior changes prompted by debated R3 strategies. Findings provide decision-makers and land managers with an understanding of the potential implications of migratory game bird Sunday hunting …

Evaluating Success Factors And Challenges Among Small-Scale Agricultural Producers: A Texas Case Study, Katie Tritsch, Ken Mix, Michelle L. Edwards, Manuel Piña Jr.

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Literature on small farms in the U.S. is limited though they are the most numerous farm type, generate over twenty percent of agricultural production, and are more likely to be operated by historically underserved (i.e., beginning, minority, veteran, women, young) farmers than large-scale farms. This article details an online survey study of small-scale agricultural producers using a purposive sample from Texas. We used cross tabulations to evaluate qualitative operational and demographic (e.g., age, gender) factors of success, finding several significant variables with moderate effect sizes. Generally, producers regarded quality of life as more important to success than profitability. Producers’ top …

The Arts And Changing Rural Places, Bernadette Quinn Dr

Blog Posts

This blog post reflects on how recent changes to rural Ireland is influencing the arts. It recognises that rural places are very vibrant and dynamic, and that this offers many opportunities and challenges from an arts perspective. The blog also reflects on a panel discussion that the FADE project team hosted on ‘The arts and changing rural places’ at the Arts Council & Local Government’s biennial Places Matter conference in March 2022.

The research activities conducted for this publication were funded by the Irish Research Council.

Health Related Challenges Of Rural Elderly Living In Co-Residential Family Care Arrangements, Kidus Yenealem Mefteh

The Qualitative Report

Family plays an indispensable role in the care and support of the rising number of older people particularly in developing countries like Ethiopia where the system of public transfer is minimal. Previous studies in Ethiopia focus on institutionalized and urban-dwelling elderly with little attention to the elderly in the informal care paradigm and rural areas. This study aims to explore the health-related experiences of dependent rural elderly who get care and support within a family setting. A phenomenology method was used, and in-depth interviews were employed to collect data from purposively sampled elders. Data were inductively coded and developed into …

In Rural America, Older Adult Vaccination Rates Were Higher In Counties With More Aging And Disability Services, Yue Sun, Danielle Rhubart

Population Health Research Brief Series

Aging and disability services (ADS) played an important role for older adults in the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, including sharing information, providing transportation, and serving as vaccination sites. Using data from the National Neighborhood Data Archive and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this data slice describes the relationship between county ADS availability and older adult (ages 65+) vaccination rates. It finds that rural counties with higher ADS density have higher older adult vaccination rates. Because of the high risk of COVID-19 mortality and hospitalization for older adults and the large shares of older adults in rural areas, rural county …

Cottagecore And Rural Gentrification, Zoe Johnston

The Compass

The internet has become filled with images of stone cottages covered in ivy, sepia-tinted tea parties abundant with home-baked pastries, women in peasant dresses trailing their fingers across tall grasses, and flower bouquets set into mason jars. Each of these scenes is categorized under the aesthetic of “cottagecore,” which is growing in popularity. This aesthetic movement draws upon people’s desires for simplicity and a nostalgia for a pre-industrial lifestyle. However, an unexamined consequence of this idyllic fantasy is the subsequent gentrification of rural communities. Gentrification is the process of funneling capital into low-income neighborhoods to make them more attractive to …

An Intergenerational Study Of The Entrepreneurial Nature Of Agritourism Operators, Will Culler

All Dissertations

Economic and non-economic trends have left farm operators of all ages contemplating enterprise diversification strategies to create advantages and to ensure their farms' sustainability for future generations. One such strategy is agritourism, in which a visitor to a working farm or other agricultural setting interacts with the farm landscape or participates in an agricultural process for tourism or leisure purposes. This study aims to contribute to academics, researchers, extension educators, practitioners, and farm service providers who offer training and resources to better equip current and future agritourism operators. The study tested the general hypothesis that agritourism operators' entrepreneurial goals and …

Revisiting Rural Education Access, Elizabeth Wargo, Ian Hoke

Educational Considerations

Drawing on a contemporary construction of rurality, which acknowledges rural education amplified by technology, we capture two examples where online mathematics resources were used in a rural middle school setting. As such we examine issues and consider rural education access as it is changed with technology towards a more nuanced understanding of rural contexts necessary to inform future rural education policy, practice, and research.

Community Self-Reliance Of Rural Tourism In Indonesia: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Husen Hutagalung, Dedi Purwana, Usep Suhud, Amirul Mukminin, Hamidah Hamidah, Nurti Rahayu

The Qualitative Report

Community-based tourism villages have now become a worldwide concern because of their tremendous impact on strengthening the empowerment of local communities as well as on enhancing social responsibility in a sustainable manner. This study aims to explore the meaning of self-reliance in tourism village communities since it is a key indicator of the progress of community-based tourism villages. This study adopted a qualitative approach with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to investigate the meaning of people's experiences from inter-subjective activities in a double-hermeneutic process between researchers and people who experience them. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight (8) research subjects from …

Anxiety Symptoms Among Extension Professionals' During The Covid-19 Pandemic With The Gad-2, Glenn D. Israel, Colleen E. Gariton, Harsha E. James

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders are a common mental health disorder but often remain undetected and undertreated. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Extension professionals have worked hard to address emerging issues that communities face, possibly impacting the amount of anxiety they experience. This study determined the prevalence of anxiety symptoms among Extension professionals in the United States. Participants from 24 states completed a survey containing the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 2-item (GAD-2) screener. Almost one-quarter of Extension professionals had a GAD-2 score greater than three, an indicator of anxiety with a possibility of generalized anxiety disorder, which …

Preventive Behaviors Along The Rural-Urban Continuum In Utah During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jessica D. Ulrich-Schad, Jennifer E. Givens, Mitchell Beacham

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Rural individuals and places face major vulnerabilities in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, yet how and why rural residents adopted preventive behaviors as a result is not well understood. Using cross-sectional data from an online panel survey of Utahans along the rural-urban continuum collected in June of 2020, we find that, overall, rural Utahans were less likely than their more urban counterparts to adopt preventive behaviors. Those who perceived less risk, knew someone sick with COVID-19, thought former President Trump was doing a good job handling the pandemic, had false optimism about the pandemic, had less formal education, and belonged …

Rural-Urban And Within-Rural Differences In Covid-19 Mortality Rates, Yue Sun, Kent Jason G. Cheng, Shannon M. Monnat

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Since late-2020, COVID-19 mortality rates have been higher in rural than in urban America, but there has also been substantial within-rural heterogeneity. Using CDC data, we compare COVID-19 mortality rates across the rural-urban continuum as well as within rural counties across different types of labor markets and by metropolitan adjacency. As of October 1, 2021, the cumulative COVID-19 mortality rate was 247.0 per 100,000 population in rural counties compared to 200.7 in urban counties. Higher COVID-19 mortality rates in rural counties are explained by lower average educational attainment and lower median household income. Within rural counties, mortality rates have been …

Factors Explaining Variations In Covid-19 Deaths In Rural America, Don E. Albrecht

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, case and death rates from the disease in rural counties were significantly lower than in urban counties. This pattern changed during the summer and fall of 2020, and by December, death rates in rural counties were higher than in urban counties. This article uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau and voting and COVID-19 data from The New York Times to explore factors related to the increase in COVID-19 deaths in rural counties in the United States. Further analysis is conducted to understand variations in death rates across different types of rural counties. Multivariate regression …

Space, Place, And Covid-19: Introduction To The Special Issue, Vanessa Parks, Ronald E. Cossman, John J. Green

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The COVID-19 pandemic alerted the U.S. populace to spatial patterns of health outcomes. Trusted sources of information such as the Johns Hopkins University and The New York Times mapped COVID-19 indicators at the county-level, bringing widespread attention to the timing and clustering of case rates, mortality, and vaccine uptake. The severity of the pandemic has motivated the research community to share data and conduct analyses to illuminate and project trends that would be useful for healthcare providers and policy makers in their communities. This special issue of the Journal of Rural Social Sciences explores the roles space and place have …

Unique Conference Design Showcases Small Towns, Highlights Entrepreneurs, And Strengthens Capacity, Carey Andrew Northrop Mr., Katherine M. Jamieson Mrs., Parker B. Jones, Mary A. Reilly, Tyler Augst

The Journal of Extension

Michigan State University Extension (MSUE)’s annual conference, Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities (CEC), has served as a catalyst for entrepreneurial ecosystems across Michigan since 2012. Designed by MSUE for small towns, CEC has gained national interest as evidenced by the adoption of this conference model by four other Extension services. This article outlines the unique conference design, details the partnership between Extension and host communities, and explores conference evaluation data validating the need to continue this programming. Lessons learned and successes to date are provided to ensure readers learn the value this unique conference format has in Extension entrepreneurship programming nationally.

Making The Rural Urban: Inter-Class Dynamics To Protect The Environment In The Colombian Countryside, Sebastián F. Villamizar Santamaría

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For the past thirty years, the small rural town of La Calera in the outskirts of the Colombian capital of Bogotá has received an influx of upper-middle class residents that want to live “in nature.” These ex-urban newcomers arrived in the Andean highlands to live next to the long-time residents, who are descendants of peasants and mining workers that live “off nature.” The different visions of what nature or its uses should create a series of interactions among residents that will decide how will this area’s ecological resources be used in the face of further urban expansion.

Yet, contrary to …

Beyond Religiosity: Examining The Relative Effects Of Religiosity And Religious Ideation On Climate Skepticism (A Research Note), Kristin Haltinner, Dilshani Sarathchandra

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Much of the existing scholarship on climate change uses religiosity to measure the effects of religion on climate skepticism and results in inconsistent findings. Drawing on insights from the study of religion and environmentalism more broadly, we suggest that scholars should seek a deeper understanding of religion’s impacts by considering the influence of specific religious beliefs on perceptions of climate change. We further contend that researchers should consider how these factors shape attitudes within and between segments of the public who hold varying positions on climate change. We test these contentions using a novel sample of 1,000 self-declared “climate skeptics” …

Results Of The 2022 Vermont Farmer Conservation & Payment For Ecosystem Services Survey. Vermont Payment For Ecosystem Services Technical Research Report #3a, Alissa C. White

Reports and Policy Briefs

This survey was commissioned by the Vermont Soil Health and Payment for Ecosystem Services Working Group (VT PES Working Group) to gather farmer input on the development of payment for ecosystem services (PES) in Vermont for agriculture. In particular, the survey was intended to help set appropriate levels of compensation for participation in a soil health PES program, although additional information was gathered in the survey to inform the development of a new incentive program. The VT PES Working Group has explored the potential for a performance-based soil health PES program that would compensate farmers on the basis of environmental …