Rural Sociology Commons^™

Book Review: The Shaming State: How The U.S. Treats Citizens In Need, Steve Matthewman

Critical Disaster Studies

Salman’s book centers two different constituencies, in two different locations, in the 2010s, who have been impacted by two different disasters. The first group are Iraqi refugees who have been resettled in Wayne County, Michigan. Trying to start again over half a world away, they are trapped in the transit lounge of life, never able to move on, never able to properly belong. They found a state in recession, the automobile industry collapsing, the city of Detroit bankrupt. Their particular county had higher unemployment than the state’s average and a poor median income as well. Economically speaking, ‘Michigan fared worse …

Food Policy Council, Alexandra G. Winn, Kirsten Hannah Jaquish, Shelby Lynn Davis, Alexandra N. Ehlers, Joshua Lohnes

Undergraduate Scholarship

Nourishing Networks is a workshop that promotes the development of Food Policy Councils, which are a group of community members that advocate for the Right to Food in their community. Through conversation surrounding food access barriers and strategies in their community, the workshop aims to educate participants on how they can improve food access in their community. This research project sought to conduct Nourishing Networks meetings in a variety of West Virginia counties with the intention of accompanying local community members and organizations to create a Food Policy Council for their region. Using a standardized organization process, curriculum, and reporting …

Taking Flight Or Taking A Pass? Exploring Factors Influencing Consumer Willingness To Pay For Evtol Travel, David C. Ison

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

The Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) industry is experiencing significant growth due to technological advancements and increasing demand for efficient travel experiences. The market is expected to reach $45 billion by 2030, with major players like Joby, Archer, Beta, and Wisk dominating. This study aimed to assess public willingness to pay for AAM services using eVTOLs, using Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform. The survey yielded a response rate of 85.8%, with 1,622 completed surveys. The study found that younger urban consumers were more willing to pay higher prices for AAM electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft trips than older participants, possibly …

Interrogating Households In Anticipation Of Disasters: The Feminization Of Preparedness, Chika Watanabe, Celie Hanson

Critical Disaster Studies

It is now a maxim among scholars and policy-makers alike that disaster preparedness needs to involve community-based approaches in order to be effective. These include preparedness strategies in the household. But how do disaster preparedness policies and public discourses define “the household” in the first place? In this article, we explore how particular gendered notions of the household are reproduced in disaster preparedness policies and activities in Japan and the UK. Drawing on historical and cross-cultural analyses, we suggest that household preparedness efforts place the burden of labor on people coded as women—a phenomenon we call “the feminization of preparedness.” …

Remote Work Is Not Going Away: How Can Rural Communities Take Advantage Of This Opportunity?, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel

Cornhusker Economics

Since the COVID-19 pandemic as of 2020, are we looking at a national remote work “new normal” with a hybrid office and remote work combination as an additional option? This is an important question for rural areas. Discusses remote work trends and steps needed to leverage remote work in the rural context.

Examining Food Insecurity Among Mississippi Community College Students, Laura Jean Kerr

Theses and Dissertations

Food insecurity among postsecondary students and especially community colleges is a persistent social problem, but the prevalence continues despite much research. Postsecondary students experience food insecurity slightly differently from the general population and they are held to different rules to qualify for food support such as the supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP). In this research I examine the prevalence, frequency, and duration of food insecurity experiences among Mississippi community college students. I begin with a discussion of the literature of food insecurity and policy used to address food insecurity. I draw upon Bourdieu’s theory of social fields, capital, and habitus …

Book Review: Under The Weather: Reimagining Mobility In The Climate Crisis., Raymond Murphy

Critical Disaster Studies

Under the Weather: Reimagining Mobility in the Climate Crisis is an insightful, important book that reports on a fine-grained investigation Sodero made of the consequences and response to the disasters resulting from Hurricane Juan in Nova Scotia in 2003 and Hurricane Igor in Newfoundland in 2010, with comparisons to Hurricane Sandy in New York, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, the 1998 ice storm in northeastern North America and the Icelandic ash cloud. One original feature is the focus on mobility, how indispensable it is in modern societies, how it is disrupted by extreme weather, and …

Why Do High-Achieving Women Feel Like Frauds? Intersecting Identities And The Imposter Phenomenon, Nicole Lounsbery

Great Plains Sociologist

The imposter phenomenon is a concept used to characterize the presence of intense feelings of intellectual fraudulence, particularly among high-achieving women. Researchers have tried to explain not only why this phenomenon occurs, but why it is more prevalent in highly successful women. This study predicts that the intersection of gender with race, class, and parental educational attainment contributes to women’s feelings of fraudulence. Clance Imposter Phenomenon Scale (CIPS) scores were used to determine the effects of identity variables on imposter feelings in a sample of 403 female graduate students. Results indicate a strongly positive relationship between Native American identity and …

Rural Movers Studies ... People Are Moving For Community Attributes And Jobs, Marilyn R. Schlake

Cornhusker Economics

University of Minnesota researchers conducted a Rural Movers Study to determine the motivations of people who moved within one to five years to rural Minnesota communities. Their findings are not unlike earlier research conducted at the University of Nebraska in 2008. The Rural Movers Study showed that 31 % of respondents moved due to a job or job offer. However, this was not one of the primary reasons individuals moved. For those individuals who did not move for employment, 76% wanted to find a good environment for raising their children, 67% moved to be closer to relatives, 64% looked for …

Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics (Stem) Project-Based Learning (Pbl) Education: A New Mexico Case Study For Equity And Inclusion, Kimberly A. Scheerer

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

This research addresses how student participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) project-based learning (PBL) education activities encourages underrepresented minority student achievement in STEM career field trajectories. Seven New Mexico high school counselors and 12 STEM organization personnel were interviewed during this study. Their responses represent the nuanced professional voices where New Mexico public education intersects with STEM student interest and cultural influence.

For students, STEM PBL can foster deep integration across educational disciplines and enhance STEM career trajectory interest and readiness. STEM education converged with PBL methodologies has the ability to leverage community support while broadening student networks. …

"The Pontotoc Dream:" A Case Study Analysis Of Rural Homeownership In Mississippi, Ian Pigg

Honors Theses

Rural communities face issues with affordable housing just like urban communities, but these problems are not often associated with rurality. Using Pontotoc County, Mississippi, as a case study, this thesis seeks to understand the extent of the affordable homeownership issue in rural communities and identify possible policy solutions. This thesis used a qualitative research approach by conducting semi-structured interviews with a diverse group of stakeholders in the communities of interest within and surrounding Pontotoc County, Mississippi. Using the data collected from these interviews, units of meaning were grouped into categories, which were then grouped into themes. The findings of this …

Factores Que Inciden En El Origen De Asentamientos Informales En El Interior Del Pedm Entrenubes, Lina Esperanza Ortiz Mendoza

Economía

Teniendo en cuenta las distintas problemáticas que presentan en la actualidad las áreas protegidas en entornos urbanos, el presente trabajo busca ahondar en los procesos de asentamiento informal en el interior de estas áreas desde el enfoque teórico de los bienes de uso común y las dinámicas de desigualdad. Esto con el fin de identificarse adecuadamente son los factores que incentivan este tipo de asentamientos. Para lograr este objetivo, se emplea una metodología de tipo cualitativo como es el estudio de caso cuyo instrumento empleado es la entrevista semiestructurada en una zona de asentamiento informal en el interior del Parque …

Organizing For Power: Understanding Changing Conceptions Of Power In Rural Community Organizing, Evan R. Morden

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Community organizing is a practice of building and utilizing collective power, often initiated by groups who have little or no preexisting social or economic power. By acting together in a disciplined, organized, and targeted fashion, organizing is used to exert influence in the public square to achieve policy outcomes, provide mutual aid, and reweave the fabric of social relations in communities, frequently in direct opposition to existing power structures. Thus, creating a shared understanding of power that is fundamentally liberative is key to the success of organizing efforts and moreover, to creating lasting community cohesion that can continue to mount …

Support For Rural Practice: Female Physicians And The Life–Career Interface, Kimberly Stutzman, Ruth Ray Karpen, Pragna Naidoo, Sarah E. Toevs, Amanda Weidner, Ed Baker, David Schmitz

Public Health and Population Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Introduction: The need for family physicians in rural areas across the USA and Canada is a longstanding issue that has been well documented. Since family physicians constitute the largest population of rural practitioners, the problem has been exacerbated by a sharp decline in medical students’ interest in the field of family medicine and the aging of the current rural workforce. Previous research has shown that female physicians in rural areas need strong support networks to maintain a healthy work–life balance. The purpose of this study was to better understand the types of support they need and how they find it, …

Community Development Financial Institutions (Cdfis): An Analysis Within The Political And Economic Context Of Neoliberalism, Tracie Victoria Wynand

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This thesis explores Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) business models by examining the organizational structures, procedural operations, services, and geography. It aims to understand its overall behavior as a financial institution providing low-income communities financial services and ultimately the role it plays within the neoliberal context. The research identifies that CDFIs ultimately hold a mission that promotes economic prosperity from within the neoliberal project by expanding free-market capitalist beliefs and practices when servicing low-income communities. Additionally, the findings suggest that CDFIs take on the role of the neoliberal state by operating in tandem with the Nonprofit Industrial Complex (NPIC), which …

Clues To Rural Community Survival, Milan Wall

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

Myths about the future of small towns:

- Towns that are "too small" have no future

- A community's location is key to its survival

- Industrial recruitment is the best strategy for economic development

- Small towns can't compete in the global economy

- The "best people" leave small towns as soon as they can

- The rural and urban economies are not independent

Onaga, Kansas, Heartland Center For Leadership Development

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

Leadership, entrepreneurship, wealth retention and youth development are all pieces of the recent successes of Onaga, Kansas, a very rural community of 704 people. Driving down Kansas Highway 16 and seeing the sign “Onaga, next five exits” would make you think it’s a large town. Indeed, it isn’t. But it’s the brainstorm of community developers who propose that adding such a series of signs would encourage more travelers to stop in.

“Onaga has a lot of assets that other communities would die for!” That is the sentiment of the part-time community development specialist for Onaga. This kind of sentiment is …

St. Paris, Ohio, Heartland Center For Leadership Development

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

On the surface, St. Paris, Ohio, (population about 2,000) looks like hundreds of other small Midwestern farm towns—quiet and pleasant—a nice town to drive through on a Sunday afternoon. Like many communities, the town has enjoyed a “gentle growth” of about 4 % over the past ten years.

But underneath that traditional exterior, a persistent entrepreneurial spirit breeds new business with an aggressiveness that can be felt from the coffee shop to the farms that surround the town. Like many small towns in west-central Ohio, St. Paris enjoys a very diverse economic base that would be the envy of other …

Flathead Reservation, Montana, Heartland Center For Leadership Development

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

Looking out the window of a crowded office in Polson, Montana, one can picture a tipi village where the employee parking lot is now—a combination tourist attraction and outdoor sales show room for the traditional Plains-style tipis made by a local company that markets them throughout the nation. The company owner, and the person with the idea for selling the tipis, is a Native American who is a “serial” entrepreneur—someone who has started several businesses over time, then sells them off and starts another.

The Flathead Indian Reservation, which occupies more than one million acres from Montana’s scenic Flathead Lake …

The Oppressive Pressures Of Globalization And Neoliberalism On Mexican Maquiladora Garment Workers, Jenna Demeter

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

The international economic trends of globalization and neoliberalism have exposed and enabled the exploitation of Mexican workers, especially women in the maquiladora garment industry. During the 1950s, globalization gave rise to the new international division of labor and transnational corporations (TNCs) that have offshored labor-intensive phases of production to developing countries, many of which have pursued export-led industrialization. Export processing in Mexico was encouraged in the 1960s by Item 807 of the U.S. Tariff Code and Mexico’s Border Industrialization Program. Especially following the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s, advanced capitalist countries and International Financial Institutions foisted neoliberal structural …

3rd Place Contest Entry: Aesthetic Activism: Protest Art In The Delano Grape Strike, Felicia Viano

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Felicia Viano's submission for the 2019 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won third place. It contains her essay on using library resources, a three-page sample of her research project on the use of art as a social movement tactic by the United Farm Workers during the Delano Grape Strike, and her works cited list.

Felicia is a senior at Chapman University, majoring in History and Peace Studies. Her faculty mentor is Dr. Robert Slayton.

Needs-Based Training And Online Resource For Managers Of Rural Festivals, Fairs, And Events, Eric D. Olson, Lakshman Rajagopal

Eric D. Olson

Festivals, fairs, and events (FFEs) provide rural communities with economic and noneconomic benefits. For the project described in this article, we conducted a needs assessment of Iowa FFE managers by surveying them about the challenges they face in event management and then used the results of the assessment as the basis for training sessions provided to rural FFE managers in five areas of the state and development of an associated event management resource. The resource can be used by Extension and outreach offices to provide local FFE managers guidance on managing FFEs. We discuss broader implications for Extension as well.

Small Places, Big Successes: Rural Towns Revitalizing Themselves, Milan Wall

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

Key Indicators of Transformative Change

Income Taxes 2000-2016

- Federal Adjusted Gross Income 20%

- State Adjusted Gross Income 56%

Property Tax Valuations 2000 2018

- Ord 131%

- Valley County 280%

Community Strengths And Opportunities, Heartland Center For Leadership Development

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

Community Strengths and Opportunities

The following is a list of twenty characteristics found among thriving communities, based on research conducted by the Heartland Center for Leadership Development. The Heartland Center found that thriving communities will tend to possess a variety of these characteristics, but not all twenty characteristics. Review these characteristics. Based on your community, rate each characteristic as a (1) agree, (2) neutral or (3), disagree.

Wind River Reservation, Wyoming, Heartland Center For Leadership Development

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

The people of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming view entrepreneurship as the key to future survival. Entrepreneurship, they say, will encourage more people to shop locally, while attracting more outside dollars into the community. Locally owned businesses are important for a community that faces such challenges as a 54% unemployment rate, 28% living on per-capita payments to tribal members, and 62% living below the poverty level. While there are many opportunities for economic development, the twist is finding the right strategy and maintaining traditional cultural and tribal values that are important to the two tribes that share this reservation.

Spinning Charlotte's Web: Resident Perceptions And Neutralizations Of A Slaughterhouse Town, Ashley L. Flaherty

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Meat production, consumption, and slaughterhouses significantly affect the environment, public health, and non-human animals. Those who live in communities that house slaughterhouses must negotiate what it means to live and work in this community, and be financially supported by the industry. Understanding how people negotiate the roles that the industry plays in their community through semi-structured interviews was the primary purpose of this study. To reconcile the issues the town faces, the respondents in this study used excuses and justifications, specifically techniques of neutralization, to account for both the company's actions and the social issues the city itself faces.

Enhancing Visitors Experiences At Artisan Businesses: A Case Study Of The Économusée® Business Model In British Columbia, John Predyk, Nicole L. Vaugeois

TTRA Canada 2018 Conference

ÉCONOMUSÉE© is a non-profit organization founded in 1992 in Quebec, Canada which now includes over 70 Artisans from across Canada and Europe. The model promotes the preservation of traditional knowledge and local entrepreneurship by utilizing cultural tourism to showcase artisans and encourage the consumption of locally produced artisanal products. This study was completed in order to provide data on the growth and effectiveness of the ÉCONOMUSÉE program in British Columbia since it was first introduced in 2012. This paper highlights the results of the impact of the model on overall visitor experience. At this point in time, it appears that …

The Use Of Mentoring To Effect Cultural Change: Irish Farm Deaths And Injuries, Maurice Murphy, Kieran O'Connell

Dept. of Management & Enterprise Conference Material

Agriculture is the most dangerous occupation in Ireland. For every fatality in the sector, more than 125 farm workers are injured, many of them so seriously that the viability of the farm is undermined. These terrible and largely hidden figures have remained constant for the past decade, despite legal requirements, awareness-raising events and inspections by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA). The agricultural sector accounts for just 6% of the working population of Ireland, yet it consistently has the highest proportion of fatal incidents of any sector. This was again evident in 2017 where 51% (24 of the 47) of …

Systemic Behaviour Change: Irish Farm Deaths And Injuries, Maurice Murphy, Kieran O'Connell

Dept. of Management & Enterprise Conference Material

While the Irish agricultural sector accounts for just 6% of the working population of Ireland, it consistently has the highest proportion of fatal incidents of any sector - generally ranging from between 35% and 45% of all workplace fatalities in any given year. This was again evident in 2014 where 55% (30 of the 56) of the fatal workplace incidents were in the agricultural sector. Agriculture has an ageing workforce with the average age of an Irish farmer now standing at fifty-seven and farmers are eight times more likely to be fatally injured in a farm accident than the general …

Bringing About Community Change, Connie Loden, Sharon Gulick, Norm Walzer

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

Community Change Initiative

• A Community Change Network was formed in 2010 to understand ways to help small communities bring about effective change. It incorporates past experiences of mainly university outreach programs with histories of successful outcomes plus a survey of thirty-five programs with documented outcomes.

• CCN held sessions in annual CDS and IACD Conferences in New Orleans, Louisiana, Boise, Idaho, Cincinnati, Ohio, Charleston, South Carolina, Dubuque, Iowa, and Glasgow, Scotland.

• Several special issues of Community Development, Journal of the Community Development Society and articles focused on innovative approaches to change and related topics. Edited volume in the …