Rural Sociology Commons^™

Measuring White Privilege In South Dakota, Brianna Allington

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

In 1989, Peggy McIntosh introduced the “White Privilege” survey, which was a research instrument designed to indicate day-to-day incidences of small advantages which exist in our society attached to being white. Those enrolled in the class, on average, strongly agreed more with the survey compared to the general population. This could be attributed to differences in education and the effects of race. By looking at data collected individually and across racial groups, it can be seen that there are extreme differences in outlooks on white privilege between those who are white (76% of the total sample) and those who are …

Health Care Reform: Perceptions Of Nonmetropolitan Nebraskans, 2013 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben

Nebraska Rural Poll

Most rural Nebraskans currently have health insurance. Only nine percent of rural Nebraskans do not have health insurance while the majority of residents have health insurance through job benefits. These responses are nearly identical to 2004 when this question was last asked.

Persons living in the North Central region, persons with lower household incomes, persons who have never married, persons with lower education levels and persons with food service or personal care occupations are the groups most likely to be uninsured.

Most rural Nebraskans expect to have health insurance next year. Only two percent of residents do not plan on …

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 …

A Bottle Half Empty: Bottled Water, Commodification, And Contestation, Daniel Jaffee, Soren Newman

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Bottled water has rapidly been transformed from an elite niche market into a ubiquitous consumer object. Yet the literature on drinking water privatization has largely neglected the growth of bottled water and its emergence as a global commodity. This article draws on Harvey’s analytic of accumulation by dispossession to explore how commodification unfolds differently across multiple forms of water. Based on ethnographic interviews with participants in two conflicts over spring water extraction in rural U.S. communities by the industry leader Nestlé, we make three arguments. First, contestation over bottled water commodification is refracted through competing framings regarding control over local …

Parental Influence On Inhalant Use, Alina M. Baltazar, Gary L. Hopkins, Duane C. Mcbride, Curtis J. Vanderwaal, Sara Pepper, Sarah Mackey

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to examine the dynamics of the relationship between parents and their adolescent children and their association with lifetime and past-month inhalant usage. The population studied was seventh- through ninth-grade students in rural Idaho (N = 570). The authors found a small, but consistent, significant inverse correlation between parental bonding and monitoring of behavior and inhalant usage. There was also a significant positive correlation between verbally aggressive behavior in the family and inhalant use. The data imply that family interaction may play a significant role in the use of inhalants and that the family can …

Growing Up In Rural India: An Exploration Into The Lives Of Younger And Older Adolescents In Madhya Pradesh And Uttar Pradesh, K.G. Santhya, Shireen J. Jejeebhoy, Iram Saeed, Archana Sarkar

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This technical report describes the situation of adolescents according to a baseline assessment conducted in selected villages in India. The objectives of the assessment were to explore the attitudes, practices, and behaviors of adolescent girls, their adolescent brothers and if married, their husbands, with regard to sexual and reproductive matters, including HIV; their perspectives on adolescent girls’ and boys’ vulnerability to HIV and ways in which it can be mitigated; and the perspectives of parents and other critical adults in the community on the vulnerability of adolescent girls and boys to HIV. Results will be used to: (1) enhance adolescent …

Demographic Trends In Nonmetropolitan America: Implications For Land Use Development And Conservation., Kenneth M. Johnson

Sociology

This research contributes new information delineating the rapidity and geographic scale at which demographic change is occurring in non-metropolitan America. Rural areas are being buffeted by economic, social, and governmental transformations from far beyond their borders. These structural transformations are reflected in the demographic trends playing out across the vast rural landscape in the first decade of the twenty-first century. The patterns of demographic change in rural America are complex and subtle, but their impact is not. Population change has significant implications for the people, places, and institutions of rural America; for the natural environment that is a fundamental part …

Untangling Neoliberalism’S Gordian Knot: Cancer Prevention And Control Services For Rural Appalachian Populations, George F. Bills

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

In eastern Kentucky, as in much of central Appalachia, current local storylines narrate the frictions and contradictions involved in the structural transition from a post-WWII Fordist industrial economy and a Keynesian welfare state to a Post-Fordist service economy and Neoliberal hollow state, starving for energy to sustain consumer indulgence (Jessop, 1993; Harvey, 2003; 2005). Neoliberalism is the ideological force redefining the “societal infrastructure of language” that legitimates this transition, in part by redefining the key terms of democracy and citizenship, as well as valorizing the market, the individual, and technocratic innovation (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999; Harvey, 2005). This project develops …

Food Webs And Food Sovereignty: Research Agenda For Sustainability, Charles A. Francis, Michelle Miller, Molly Anderson, Nancy Creamer, Michelle Wander, Jacob Park, Thomas Green, Brent Mccown

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Future food production will be constrained by the scarcity of fossil fuel and fresh water as well as increasing intensity and unpredictability of weather events and climate changes. The assurance of food security and equity for many consumers is complicated by concentration of ownership of land and other production resources, as well as a global corporate food systems model that is driven by profit at the expense of people and the environment. To assess potential alternatives to the contemporary global food chain, well focused research is needed on local food production and food webs where small- and midscale family farms …

Rural-Urban Migration And Mental And Sexual Health: A Case Study In Southwestern China, Xiushi Yang

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Massive rural–urban temporary migration has taken place amid China's rapid economic growth and development. Much has been written about the economic causes and consequences of this massive migration; less studied are the potential health and behavioral impacts of migration on migrants. Using data from a population-based sample survey conducted in southwestern China, this paper examines the potential impact of rural–urban migration and post-migration urban living on migrants' mental health and sexual risk behavior. The results suggest that regardless of places of origin and destination temporary migrants had on average poorer mental health and riskier sexual behavior than non-migrants. Compared to …

Comparing Local Models Of Agrarian Transition In China, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The development of markets and the penetration of capital into agriculture have started the agrarian transition in rural China, which is transforming smallholding, household-based agriculture into various forms of capitalistic production. This again raises in a new historical and social context the long-debated question in the agrarian transition literature: Can family farms survive the onslaught of capitalist agriculture based on wage labor and what shapes the confrontation between family farms and agro-capital? I argue that it is the local political economy—rather than some natural obstacles in agriculture to the penetration of capitalism—that shapes this confrontation and gives rise to a …

An Exploration Of The Motivations Behind Committee Membership In Food Networks, Denise O'Leary, Mary Rose Stafford

Conference papers

Food Tourism has been recognised as a fast growing niche area where Ireland can gain competitive advantage. In recognition of the importance of collaboration among diverse stakeholders in the development of food tourism, networks have been identified as essential. This article presents findings from research conducted with three networks and reveals the motivations for committee membership. Data was gathered in 2012 through participant observation and interviews with steering committee members on three food networks using an action research approach.

A framework for examining motivations for collaboration is offered in this article which will contribute to effective network management. Motivations are …

A More Perfect Commodity: Bottled Water, Global Accumulation, And Local Contestation, Daniel Jaffee, Soren Newman

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Bottled water sits at the intersection of debates regarding the social and environmental effects of the commodification of nature and the ways neoliberal globalization alters the provision of public services. Utilizing Polanyi's concept of fictitious commodities and Harvey's work on accumulation by dispossession, this article traces bottled water's transformation from elite niche item to a product consumed by three fourths of U.S. households. Drawing on ethnographic research with participants in two cases of proposed spring water extraction from rural communities by industry leader Nestlé Waters, we make two principal arguments. First, the case of bottled water necessitates a reevaluation of …