Rural Sociology Commons^™

[Un]Common Language: The Corporate Appropriation Of Alternative Agro-Food Frames, Alison E. Adams, Thomas E. Shriver

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Discourses and arguments regarding our increasingly globalized food system include complicated issues such as sustainability, ethical trade, localized sourcing, and food justice. However, recent research has largely glossed over how broader discursive structures can simultaneously facilitate and hinder social movement action in this area. The purpose of this study is to explore broader trends in public discourse and corporate public relations in the alternative agro-food movement (AAF). We conducted a qualitative discourse analysis to identify how powerful corporate agribusinesses use salient AAF frames in organizational literature. Our findings indicate that corporations are selectively using AAF frames to garner public support …

Spatial Contours Of Potential Biomass Crop Production: An Examination Of Variations By U.S. Region, Frank M. Howell, Jeremy R. Porter, Philip B. Mason, Troy C. Blanchard

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The recent and projected status of energy production and consumption in the United States, resulting in substantial dependencies upon foreign oil, has continued to provide pressure on domestic energy security. All told, bio-energy systems, and biomass crop production in particular, will be important elements of national security, economic vitality, and public policy. Using biomass crop estimates based upon models developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Department of Energy (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory, we identify potential biomass crop production zones using spatial analysis methods. The Midwest and the South are, by far, the largest regions of potential …

Place Bonding And Trust: The Case Of Feral Hog Management Surrounding Big Thicket National Preserve, Christopher J. Wynveen, Gerard T. Kyle, Gene L. Theodori

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The management of feral hogs surrounding the Big Thicket National Preserve (BTNP) in Texas calls for managers and stakeholders to work together to manage resource issues. Research has indicated that place bonding can be a common ground upon which managers and stakeholders develop trust in one another to form a basis for collaborative management. However, such research has not examined the different types of trust (e.g., trust in local managers and trust in an entire agency) that exist. This investigation compared several models of trust and then sought to identify the relationship between place bonding and trust. Data were collected …

Type Iii Error In Social Problem Solving: Application Of The Analytic Hierarchy Process (Ahp), Terrence Thomas, Cihat Gunden

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

A diverse group comprising the University of Georgia, Athens; Tuskegee University; and community based organizations undertook to develop an organization modeled after a federal commission to address persistent poverty in the Black Belt Region (BBR). In spite of objective data describing poverty in the region, each stakeholder viewed the problem differently. As a result, two different legislative initiatives were designed to address the problem. Competition and disagreement among the stakeholders fueled a rush to formulate a solution without first investing sufficient effort to define the right problem. Failure to define the right problem could lead to a Type III error: …

Amy Trubek, The Taste Of Place: A Cultural Journey Into Terroir, Stacia Falat, Jayson Otto

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Review of The Taste of Place: A Cultural Journey into Terroir, by Amy Trubek

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 …

Do Scientists Agree About Climate Change? Public Perceptions From A New Hampshire Survey, Lawrence C. Hamilton

Carsey Publications

This report, a collaboration of the Carsey Institute, the UNH Survey Center, and the UNH Office of Sustainability, is the first of a new initiative that will track public perceptions about climate change as they change over time. Questions related to climate change were asked as part of New Hampshire's Granite State Poll, which surveyed 512 New Hampshire residents in April 2010.

How Yoopers See The Future Of Their Communities: Why Residents Leave Or Stay In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Jessica D. Ulrich

Carsey Publications

According to a Community and Environment in Rural America survey, Michigan's Upper Peninsula residents, often called "Yoopers," said that ties to community and the area's natural beauty were significant factors for those who planned on staying in this rural area, which comprises about a third of Michigan's land mass but only 4 percent of its population. Those planning on leaving cited employment opportunities and energy costs as the most important factors in their decision.

Rural Participation In Federal Child Nutrition Programs: Two Studies, Barbara Wauchope

Carsey Publications

Carsey Institute Child Nutrition Briefings, Washington, DC

Rural Children - Rural Communities, William P. O'Hare

Carsey Publications

Carsey Institute Child Nutrition Briefings, Washington, DC

Rural Life Census Data Center Newsletter: South Dakota’S Medically Uninsured, Jake Cummings

Census Data Center Newsletter Archive: 2007-2010

The status of our nation’s healthcare system has received a considerable amount of attention, particularly over the past two years. One of the most commonly cited areas of concern among stakeholders, such as the Kaiser Foundation, is the number of uninsured individuals nationwide.
In 2008, the Kaiser Family Foundation stated that the percentage of employers providing health insurance decreased from 69% to 60% (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation 2008). Kaiser cited increasing premiums as a primary cause of health coverage being dropped. The Kaiser Foundation added that the uninsured “are four times more likely to delay or forgo needed …

Finding And Affording Healthy Food In Rural America: Study Results From New Hampshire, Sally Ward

Carsey Publications

Carsey Institute Child Nutrition Briefings, Washington, DC

Challenges In Resource Rich Communities: Finding The Path To Redevelopment, Cynthia M. Duncan

Carsey Publications

Northern Forest Higher Education Resource Network Annual Meeting

A Comprehensive Index For Assessing Environmental Stress In Animals, Terry L. Mader, Leslie J. Johnson, John B. Gaghan Dr

Nebraska Cooperative Extension: Faculty and Staff Publications

Numerous models and indices exist that attempt to characterize the effect of environmental factors on the comfort of animals and humans. Heat and cold indices have been utilized to adjust ambient temperature (Ta) for the effects of relative humidity (RH) or wind speed (WS) or both for the purposes of obtaining a “feels-like” or apparent temperature. However, no model has been found that incorporates adjustments for RH, WS, and radiation (RAD) over conditions that encompass hot and cold environmental conditions. The objective of this study was to develop a comprehensive climate index (CCI) that has application under a wide range …

Disproportionality And Learning Disabilities: Parsing Apart Race, Socioeconomic Status, And Language, Dara Shifrer, Chandra Muller, Rebecca Callahan

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The disproportionate identification of learning disabilities among certain sociodemographic subgroups, typically groups that are already disadvantaged, is perceived as a persistent problem within the education system. The academic and social experiences of students who are misidentified with a learning disability may be severely restricted, whereas students with a learning disability who are never identified are less likely to receive the accommodations and modifications necessary to learn at their maximum potential. The authors use the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 to describe national patterns in learning disability identification. Results indicate that sociodemographic characteristics are predictive of identification with a learning disability. …

Rural Life Census Data Center Newsletter: Birth And Infant Mortality In South Dakota, Saileza Khatiwada, Jake Cummings, Diane Kayongo-Male

Census Data Center Newsletter Archive: 2007-2010

The joy of birth and the sorrow of losing a newborn are profoundly personal experiences. Still, to some extent, both infant births and deaths are associated with numerous social and environmental factors. These factors include maternal health and level of access to, and quality of, health care (MacDorman and Mathews 2008). Moreover, infant mortality has been recognized as a relatively reliable marker of societal well-being (Gortmaker and Wise 1997). Therefore, it is important that we examine infant mortality rates throughout the state of South Dakota.

Alessandro Bonanno And Douglas H. Constance, Stories Of Globalization: Transnational Corporations, Resistance, And The State, Ariel Brovont, Emily Reiersgaard

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Review of Stories of Globalization: Transnational Corporations, Resistance, and the State, by Alessandro Bonanno and Douglas H. Constance

Editors' Preface, Gene L. Theodori, Douglas H. Constance

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

introduction to Journal of Rural Social Sciences by new editorial team

How Farmers Learn: Implications For Agricultural Educators, Nancy Franz, Fred Piercy, Joseph Donaldson, Robert Richard, Johnnie Westbrook

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

In this participatory action research, guided by a steering committee of farmers and agricultural educators, we examined how farmers learn and identified implications for agricultural educators. Since most educators teach the way they prefer to learn, this research could shape agricultural educators’ practice with farmers. Focus group interviews and surveys with 115 farmers and agricultural educators helped us understand how and why farmers learn and the role of agricultural educators, especially Extension educators, in farmer learning. Farmers articulated a learning process that relies mostly on first-hand experiences motivated by saving time and money, learning about cutting edge research, and engaging …

Quality Of Life Trends In The Southern Black Belt, 1980-2005: A Research Note, Dale W. Wimberley

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Previous research shows that the Southern Black Belt compares badly to the rest of the U.S., in terms of poverty, median incomes, mortality, unemployment rates, and educational levels. This study updates those earlier studies with 2000 and 2005 data to statistically assess these problems’ recent severity, and examines trends since 1980 to assess the Black Belt’s progress or regress relative to the rest of the South and the NonSouth. I used Census and other federal data for the analysis. The Black Belt’s education levels have improved substantially, nearly catching up with other regions. Yet compared with the rest of the …

Thomas F. Pawlick, The End Of Food: How The Food Industry Is Destroying Our Food Supply-And What You Can Do About It, Yang Zhang

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Review of The End of Food: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Food Supply-And What You Can Do about It, by Thomas F. Pawlick

Wayne Roberts, The No-Nonsense Guide To World Food, Rachel Kelly, Timothy Ledoux

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Review of The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food, by Wayne Roberts

Extending The Concept Of Community Interaction To Explore Regional Community Fields, Courtney G. Flint, A. E. Luloff, Gene L. Theodori

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Interactional approaches to community development routinely focus on the community field concept at a local level. This paper expands the field concept to a regional level of analysis. It suggests a regional community field emerges through interactions among communities at a regional scale, particularly in rural areas lacking a dominant metropolitan core. Recent contributions by human geographers highlight the emergent characteristics of regions in contrast to the static, bounded regions conceptualized in the past. Such logic is compatible with community field theory. This paper explores the generalizability of the community field concept and assumptions to larger levels of analysis and …

Nonmetropolitan Population Trends: Twenty-First Century Updates, Don E. Albrecht

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Population trends in the nonmetropolitan counties of the United States continue to be erratic. This study used 2008 population estimates to make comparisons of 2000-2008 population changes with those of the decades of the 1980s and 1990s. Findings showed that population changes during the early years of the 21st century were more reminiscent of the 1980s than the 1990s, as overall population growth was minimal and the number of counties losing population exceeded the number of counties with population growth. It appears that the first decade of the 21st century can be labeled as the “Rural Rebound Reversal” decade. The …

Applying Craft For Sociological Practice: Place In Odyssey, George K. Floro

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

In this presentation it is assumed that craft for sociological practice, an applied side of the discipline, could be expanded if sociologists knew how to do the craft or, if they already know, want to engage in the practice. Its potential is illustrated in one sector. The selection, when associated with decisions or action, comes out of public participation in collective life, often in the framework of an entire society or some action center in it. The name often associated with it is Sociological Imagination. An associated task is to identify “contradictions” and to explore ways to resolve them as …

Household Food Insecurity And Depression Among Single Mothers In Rural Alabama, Andrew A. Zekeri

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Although we live in a wealthy nation, food insecurity, whereby individuals and families have limited or uncertain access to food due to lack of financial resources, continues to affect millions of American families. The objective of this study was twofold: to determine the prevalence of food insecurity among single mothers in rural Alabama; and to determine the extent to which food insecurity is associated with depression. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 300 single mothers living in five rural counties in Alabama using the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module and Center for Epidemiologic Study of Depression (CES-D) scale. About 36% …

Economic Restructuring And Education In The Nonmetropolitan United States, Don E. Albrecht, Carol Mulford Albrecht

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Nonmetropolitan communities in the United States have historically depended on natural resources industries and manufacturing for their employment and sustenance. In recent decades, the number of jobs in these goods-producing industries has steadily declined, and this trend is likely to continue. The loss of goods producing jobs has been offset by increased employment in the service sector. A prominent concern resulting from this economic structure transformation is the impending mismatch in the education and skills of nonmetro workers and the education and skills needed to obtain high quality employment in the service sector. The data presented in this manuscript show …

Homeless Teens And Young Adults In New Hampshire, Barbara Wauchope

Carsey Publications

More than 1,000 adolescents and young adults in New Hampshire are homeless, and their numbers are growing. The brief, co-published with the Children's Alliance of New Hampshire, provides an estimate of homeless youth in New Hampshire calculated from and state data and describes the needs of homeless youth based on interviews and a survey of providers of homeless services in the state.

Civic Engagement: Volunteer Opportunities For The Bemidji State University Community, Krista Stowe

Honors Capstones

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

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (Nasis) 2010 Methodology Report, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS)

CONTENTS

Introduction 1

Mode Selection 1

Design & Item Selection 1

Sampling Design 1

Experimental Design Treatment 2

Data Collection Process 2

Response Rate 3

Data-Entry Training, Supervision, and Quality Control 3

Processing of Completed Surveys 3

Data Cleaning 4

Representativeness of the Survey 4

NASIS Sample Weights 5

Questions 5

Appendix A: Cover Letter 9

Appendix B: Formatted Mail Survey 11

Appendix C: Future Research Interest Card 20

Appendix D: Reminder Postcard 21

Appendix E: City and County FIPS Codes 22

Appendix F: Variables and Descriptions 27