Rural Sociology Commons^™

Warren County Kentucky Homemakers Project (Fa 82), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 82. These interviews examine the lives of rural women through their membership in the Warren County Homemakers Extension Program. Former extension agents and members recall their experiences in the organization and the significance of the education programs in preparing them to adapt to new technologies and to move from farm life to public work.

North Dakota’S Oil Boom And Its Effect On North Dakota Politics, Nick "Nick" Nelson

Political Science Theses and Capstones

North Dakota’s oil boom is causing some of its countries to experience significant population increases. I study the effect this is having on the politics of North Dakota. To assess the effect of increased oil production on the population of counties and its effect on the politics of those counties I gathered statistics at the county level in the areas of oil production, populations including total, black, Hispanic, white, and male populations, and voting behavior (Republican or Democrat) from the United State Census, the North Dakota Secretary of State, and the North Dakota Industrial Commission, Department of Natural Resources. My …

The Russian Village, Urban Infrastructure Issues, And The Vertically Integrated Agriculture Model, Phillip Imel

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Russia’s population total has been in decline since 1992 and this is most evident in the villages of Russia. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the large farm collectives, many villages’ raison d'être ceased to exist. Today people continue to leave the villages for what they consider to be the better economic promise of the larger cities. There are serious societal and infrastructure issues related to the village exodus to the larger municipalities. In this paper, a vertically integrated agriculture model is examined as one step towards a more vibrant village economy. A vertically integrated model based upon …

Changing The Very Fabric Of Society: A Case Study Of The Fundación Entre Mujeres Holistic Empowerment Model, Briana Frenchmore

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The women of rural northern Nicaragua live in a context that is shaped by the inequalities of gender and class that originate in machista culture and the dominant economic system. To confront this reality, the non-government organization, Fundación Entre Mujeres (FEM) works from the “Gender and Development” (GAD) approach using a model of holistic women’s empowerment. To create social change, FEM’s programs focus on ideological, economic, and organizational empowerment. This investigation seeks to understand how FEM carries out its holistic empowerment model within communities, while reflecting on the strengths of their methodology and the challenges they face in creating social …

Browning, Jimmy D. (Fa 157), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 157. This collection includes cassette tapes of interviews with eight women used as research for Jimmy D. Browning’s paper “A Tie That Binds: Contemporary Funeral Foodways In A Rural, Central Kentucky Community.” Two copies of the paper are also included in the collection.

Addiction In Alaska: How Alcohol Abuse Is Impacting Community Members In Native Villages Throughout Rural Alaska, Cristina Casillo

Capstone Collection

Across rural Alaska are over 200 Alaska Native villages so isolated, they are only accessible by airplane, boat, and snowmachine. These villages strive to keep their Native culture alive and rich, but continue to struggle against Western influences. Introduced to Alaska Natives by European and Russian explorers in the 1700s, this paper examines how alcohol addiction is affecting community members throughout villages in rural Alaska. The research was conducted in two Iñupiaq Eskimo villages, Point Hope and Selawik, both located above the Arctic Circle in rural Alaska. Drawing from three years of personal observations and a series of interviews, this …

The Influence Of Cognitive-Perceptual Variables On Patterns Of Change Over Time In Rural Midlife And Older Women's Healthy Eating, Bernice C. Yates, Carol H. Pullen, Jonathan Bruce Santo, Linda Boeckner, Patricia A. Hageman, Paul J. Dizona, Susan Noble Walker

Psychology Faculty Publications

Although studies demonstrate that dietary interventions for healthy adults can result in beneficial dietary changes, few studies examine when and how people change in response to these interventions, particularly in rural populations. The purpose of this study was to examine patterns of change over time in healthy eating behaviors in midlife and older women in response to a one-year health-promoting intervention, and to examine what predictors (perceived benefits, barriers, self-efficacy, and family support for healthy eating) influence the changes during the intervention and follow-up. Data for this secondary analysis were from the Wellness for Women community-based trial. Women (N ¼ …

Scarborough, John Arne, 1916-1995 (Fa 50), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 50. “Growing Up in Blue Springs, Alabama” Lecture by Dr. John A. Scarborough to Lynwood Montell’s class on rural adolescence at Western Kentucky University. Includes a copy of Scarborough’s obituary.

Diversification Or Cotton Recovery In The Malian Cotton Zone: Effects On Households And Women, Jeanne Yekeleya Coulibaly

INTSORMIL Scientific Publications

This dissertation investigates income diversification alternatives from the cotton economy and compares those initiatives with present policy measures to restore the cotton sector in Mali. It also derives the welfare implications for women of these various policy measures.

During the decade preceding 2011, farmers’ incomes in the cotton zone of Mali have been significantly affected by the downturn of the cotton economy explained by many factors including the low farm gate cotton price, the declining cotton yields and soil fertility concerns. In 2011, the Malian government substantially increased the farm gate cotton price as a result of the world cotton …

Las Montañas Respiran: La Cosmovisión De La Comunidad De Rayampata Representada A Través Del Mito Pitusiray-Sawasiray, Gillian Thornton

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En las altas montañas de los Andes, donde los árboles crecen lentamente y los vientos están constantemente pulsando a través de la hierba desaliñada, se dice que la tierra respira. Allá, aun los animalitos más pequeños tienen una gran fuerza en el ciclo de vida, y cada uno de los seres vivos, de las plantas, y de las piedras tiene vida. Se dice allá que aun las montañas pueden hablar. En la comunidad alta de Rayampata, la gente se comunica con la tierra para sobrevivir; escucha a los murmullos del río para saber cuando es tiempo a cosechar, lee las …

Reconstructing The Farm: Life Stories Of Dutch Female Farmers, Marisa Turesky

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

My research asks: what are the lived experiences of female farmers within the hegemonic construction of the Dutch farmer and how have their roles shifted through time? Popular culture has implanted stereotypes that most female farmers are uneducated, low-class individuals but the six women whom I interviewed present life stories that complicate this. How did these women come into their roles as farmers? Once they became such entrepreneurs, what were their challenges in a potentially male-dominated profession? While there has been extensive research on rural women’s historical roles in farming, I analyze the personal experiences of a small sample of …

Experiencing Samoa Through Stories: Myths And Legends Of A People And Place, Samantha Lichtenberg

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research will explore oral tradition, indigenous beliefs prior to Christianity, and the significance of place through the study of Samoan myths and legends. The researcher will investigate the tradition of storytelling by hearing the stories from Samoan elders themselves. These stories will be supplemented with details from secondary written resources in order to compile comprehensive versions of the myths and legends. The research will consider the affect that Christianity has on the meaning of the stories and examine whether traces of indigenous belief/religion are preserved today through storytelling and the remembrance of myths. The researcher will spend a significant …

Review Of Immigrants In Prairie Cities: Ethnic Diversity In Twentieth-Century Canada. By Royden Loewen And Gerald Friesen., Lori Wilkinson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Loewen and Friesen trace the origins of public concern about the adverse influence of immigrants in terms of increased competition for jobs, threats to social cohesion, questioning the loyalties of newcomers at the beginning of the 20th century--issues remarkably similar to the mythology describing immigrants in western societies today. Readers may be tempted to ask, "If the situation in the 1900s is so similar to today's, why read this book?" Not only will readers get a sense of the longevity of these and other myths surrounding migration, they will learn about the creation of ethnic culture in the prairies and …

Review Of Hollowing Out The Middle: The Rural Brain Drain And What It Means For America. By Patrick J. Carr And Maria J. Kefalas., Peter F. Korsching

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

"Hollowing out the middle" refers to the loss of the well-educated young adults in rural communities of America's Heartland-the Corn Belt and Great Plains. Declining rural communities invest their meager resources to educate their brightest youth, thereby providing them opportunities for rewarding careers in distant cities. This further contributes to the communities' woes because it guarantees not only population loss, but also loss of expertise and leadership that could help them solve their problems. Carr and Kefalas's contribution to understanding the dilemma of rural communities promoting and supporting the loss of the best and brightest is through an in-depth analysis …

Warren County Citizens For Managed Growth (Mss 355), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 355. By-laws, minutes, newsletters, correspondence and other material related to WCCMG, an organization founded to deter development of the Kentucky Trimodal Transpark, located near the rural community of Oakland in Warren County, Kentucky. Also includes information about Oakland, Kentucky. A bibliography of newspaper articles about the Kentucky Trimodal Transpark is included. To access the bibliography click on "Additional File" below.

Nature, Domestic Labor, And Moral Community In Susan Fenimore Cooper's Rural Hours And Elinor Wyllys, Richard M. Magee

English Faculty Publications

Cooper's argument for a domestic ideal situated within a rural setting reinforces the importance of community connections through a shared sense of morality, as well as understanding of the natural world. Community alone—the human connections—never seems to be enough in Cooper's formulation, but must always exist with an awareness of the world outside the narrow confines of one's own domestic sphere. Concern for one's fellow-beings necessitates a concern for the world in which these beings live, and Cooper understands that when any bonds are broken—such as the bonds that connect us to the natural world—other bonds are threatened. Thus, when …

Preservation Ethics In The Case Of Nebraska's Nationally Registered Historic Properties, Darren Michael Adams

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation focuses on the National Register of Historic Places and considers the geographical implications of valuing particular historic sites over others. Certain historical sites will either gain or lose desirability from one era to the next, this dissertation identifies and explains three unique preservation ethical eras, and it maps the sites which were selected during those eras. These eras are the Settlement Era (1966–1975), the Commercial Architecture Era (1976–1991), and the Progressive Planning Era (1992–2010). The findings show that transformations in the program included an early phase when state authorities listed historical resources pertaining to the settlement of the …

Morgan, John, B. 1944 (Fa 476), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 476. Fieldwork--including oral interviews, videotapes, and secondary information--compiled by John Morgan primarily pertaining to dark-fire tobacco barns in Calloway County, Kentucky and North Carolina. Also includes interviews relating to tugboats, basket making, and ghost stories and supernatural tales from western Kentucky.

"So Long As I Can Read": Farm Women's Reading Experiences In Depression-Era South Dakota, Lisa Lindell

Hilton M. Briggs Library Faculty Publications

During the Great Depression, with conditions grim, entertainment scarce, and educational opportunities limited, many South Dakota farm women relied on reading to fill emotional, social, and informational needs. To read to any degree, these rural women had to overcome multiple obstacles. Extensive reading (whether books, farm journals, or newspapers) was limited to those who had access to publications and could make time to read. The South Dakota Free Library Commission was valuable in circulating reading materials to the state's rural population. In the 1930s the commission collaborated with the USDA's Extension Service in a popular reading project geared toward South …

Implications For Child Welfare Teaching And Human Services Personnel Perspectives Experiences Of Children With Special Needs, Sarah Huesmann

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Stress, Status, And Sociability: Exploring Residential Satisfaction In The Rural Midwest Following Rapid Immigration, James Potter, Rodrigo Cantarero, Amy E. Boren

Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

This investigation examined predictors of residential satisfaction among newly arrived residents (NAR) and long-term residents (LTR) of a rural community following a rapid influx of immigrants into the community. The physical environment, social/cultural aspects of life, and resources and public services were hypothesized to affect perceptions of residential satisfaction. Both LTR and NAR were pleased with environmental attributes, sociocultural attributes, and public services. An inverse relationship was revealed between stress and residential satisfaction. The primary sources of stress for LTR related to economics and social status issues, whereas the primary sources of stress among NAR involved issues concerning family and …

Edmonson County, Kentucky - New Deal Program Files (Mss 95), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and list of Civilian Conservation Corps applicants (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 95. Administrative files, chiefly applications and correspondence, for three Edmonson County, Kentucky New Deal programs: the Civilian Conservation Corps, the National Youth Administration, and the Works Progress Administration.

Neagle, Sue (Fa 242), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 242. Paper: "Then and Now" written by Sue Neagle for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Thigpen, Lorna Moore (Sc 1581), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1581. Transcription of a taped interview with Gale Hudnall, Riverside, Warren County, Kentucky conducted as part of the oral history project "Riverside Remembrances." Hudnall discusses his family and the social life and history of Riverside and Richardsville, Kentucky. Interview conducted by Lorna Moore Thigpen.

Cross-Training Christians For Rural Servant-Leadership : An Exploration Of The Role Of A Congregation In Nurturing Leadership In The Community Of Wessington Springs, South Dakota, John H. Paulson

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This study explores the relationship between what is learned and experienced in the Christian faith community and people’s involvement in collaborative leadership within the rural community of Wessington Springs, South Dakota. The author makes use of Martin Luther’s theology of the cross and his teachings regarding Christian vocation, including the calling of parents as family leaders. This approach to leadership development employs a missional ecclesiology, with attention to the Triune God’s transformative, sending work in the world, and examines contributions from knowledge about civil society and human and social capital. Asset mapping is examined as a tool for leadership development.

"Brown Flight": Secondary Movement Among Mexican Immigrants, Carlos Garcia

Faculty Publications, Sociology

The past ten years have seen the continued growth of the Mexican origin population in the United States. This growth has been accompanied by the movement of immigrants away from their traditional settlement locations in the Southwest. Using data collected in a small community in Northeastern Oklahoma I explore factors that motivate the movement of Mexican immigrants to nontraditional locations. I find these movements are motivated by a search for a higher quality of life. In effect this movement represents a form of "Brown flight" away from urban centers to rural locations. In areas such as these, respondents find many …

The Impacts Of Migration On Establishment Of Social Capital And Environmental Degradation In Kibwezi, Kenya, Eveily Freeman

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Educational Decision-Making, Gender, And The Question Of Sustainable Development In Rural Kenya, Nathan Ziegler

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

A Demographic Approach To Race And Ethnicity In Metropolitan And Non-Metropolitan Regions Of Arkansas, 1990 And 1999, Todd W. Hodgson, Frank L. Farmer, Wayne P. Miller, Donald D. Voth

AAES Research Reports and Research Bulletins

This manuscript provides an empirical portrait of emergent trends in the growth, distribution, and racial and ethnic composition of Arkansas’ resident population. Particular attention is given to variation in the racial and ethnic composition of the estimated population among different regions of the state. During the 1990’s, racial and ethnic diversity increased statewide due in large part to Hispanic population growth in all regions. Black population growth was greatest in central Arkansas while Asian and Native American population growth increased most rapidly in the northwest metropolitan regions of the state. Overall, both metropolitan and non-metropolitan Arkansas communities have a more …

God's Will? Violence In Intimate Relationships : Appalachian Women, Domestic Violence, And Religious Attitudes, Marlene D. Teed

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

No abstract provided.