Rural Sociology Commons^™

Land Rights Among Subsistence Farmers: An Examination Of Madagascar’S Land Reform And Prevailing Systems Of Land Tenure In Betafo, Taylor Crowl

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In Madagascar, legal systems of land tenure have been inaccessible for the vast majority of the rural population. This has stranded millions of subsistence farmers in a sense of insecurity, as they lack legal rights for the property that they have farmed for generations. Madagascar’s land reform, launched in 2005, attempted to change these exclusionary tenure practices. This reform —known as the Plan National Foncier—created land certificates and local land offices in an attempt to make legal land tenure financially, geographically, and logistically accessible to the local population. This study discusses the successes, failures, and unforeseen consequences of Madagascar’s land …

“I Pray You Enough”: Exploring Rural Early Childhood Development Through The Narratives Of Caregivers., Bethany G. Hart

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Childhood, including the antenatal period, is a time of invaluable physical and mental development – the effects of which last a lifetime. These experiences are shaped by a host of external factors (such as nutrition or mental stimulation) that are heavily affected by socioeconomic status. A study by the United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF) found that South African children in rural areas are more physically and cognitively delayed than their less-rural peers (2007). Thus, the purpose of this study was to gain insight into the rearing and development of young children (5 years and under) in a rural …

The Sociology Of The Home An Autoethnography That Explores House Building In Rural Sandanezwe, Oliver Hayward

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project took me to Sandanezwe, KwaZulu-Natal, a rural village outside of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, where a community member, Mpume Khanyezi, had originally asked me to design and build a new home for her family. I intended to engage in a heuristic inquiry so that I could complete a daily practice of letting go of my own opinions and immersing myself in the community in order to better act as a scribe for the mother and analyze the community objectively. I attempted to gather qualitative data through interviews, active participation, direct observations with village members and building parties. Ultimately, my …

Implications Of Global Peak Population For Canada's Future, Alain P. Bélanger, Barry Edmonston, Kevin Mcquillan, Benoît Laplante, Sharon M. Lee, Martin Cooke, Don Kerr

Population Change and Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge Cluster Discussion Paper Series/ Un Réseau stratégique de connaissances Changements de population et parcours de vie Document de travail

In “Imagining Canada’s Future” the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) engaged various stakeholders to help establish six Future Challenge Areas. This report elaborates on the capacity of the Canadian research community with regard to the Future Challenge Area on “What might the implications of global peak population be for Canada?” It provides answers to sub-questions associated with this theme, namely: (1) What do we need to understand in order to effectively nurture the next generations? (2) What might Canadian families look like in five, 10, and 20 years, and how might they measure their well-being? (3) Life cycle …

Food Insecurity And Psychological Well-Being Among Women Living With Hiv/Aids On Antiretroviral Therapy In The Alabama Black Belt, Andrew A. Zekeri, Youssouf Diabate

Professional Agricultural Workers Journal

The objective of this research was to estimate the prevalence of food insecurity and determine if food insecurity is associated with psychological well-being among women living with HIV/AIDS. Survey data were collected from 268 women living with HIV/AIDS attending two clinics that provide medical and social support services to HIV-positive patients who live in 23 counties in Southeast Alabama. The results indicated that, using USDA food security scale, 54% of the women were food insecure. Multiple regression analysis results indicated that income, depressive symptoms, race, and participation in SNAP were significant predictors of food insecurity; employment and education were not …

A Federal Commission For The Black Belt South, Ronald C. Wimberley, Libby V. Morris, Rosalind Harris

Professional Agricultural Workers Journal

Recent legislation by the U.S. Congress authorized a federal regional commission for the Black Belt South. Three southern social scientists first proposed the commission at Tuskegee University’s Professional Agricultural Workers Conference in 1990. Following congressional seminars on the Black Belt by Ronald Wimberley and Libby Morris, the first legislation for the commission was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994. After a succession of 12 U.S. House and Senate Bills, Congress finally authorized “the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission” in 2008 with support by various, and sometimes competing, groups. This paper traces and updates the chronology of sociological research, …

Organic Growers Of Alabama Cooperative, A Loosely Fitted Cooperative: Nurturing The Community And Growing Together, Wylin D. Wilson, Jose Gbadamosi, Decetti Taylor, Susan Barnes, Jan Garrett, Asabi Hunter, Cheryl Parker, Wendy Williams, Henry Williams

Professional Agricultural Workers Journal

The age-old connection between the people and the land is something that seven women, who have organized themselves into a loosely fitted cooperative, are reviving. In the process of growing together as members of a cooperative, these women in Macon County, Alabama, are not only promoting healthy living and nurturing community, but are also addressing the issue of food security by making nutritious affordable produce and other agricultural products available to their community. Additionally, they are illustrating alternative strategies of community and economic development. This article examines why they chose the structure of a loosely fitted cooperative over a traditional …

Perceptions Of Crime And Safety In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: 2014 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben

Nebraska Rural Poll

Most rural Nebraskans are not worried or not very worried about either crime in their community or about personally being a victim of crime. However, persons living in or near larger communities are more likely than persons living in or near smaller communities to be worried or very worried about crime. Furthermore, most persons living in or near communities with populations less than 10,000 are not worried or not very worried about crime in their community.

Trust also remains high in the rural areas. Most rural Nebraskans say they count on their neighbors to watch their property while they are …

Life In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: Perceptions Of Well-Being, 2014 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben

Nebraska Rural Poll

By many different measures, rural Nebraskans are positive about their community. Many rural Nebraskans rate their community as friendly, trusting and supportive. Most rural Nebraskans also say it would be difficult to leave their community. In addition, most rural Nebraskans disagree that their community is powerless to control its future.

Differences of opinion exist by the size of their community. Residents of smaller communities are more likely than residents of larger communities to rate their community favorably on its social dimensions. However, residents of larger communities are more likely than residents of smaller communities to say their community has changed …

Presidential Address: Reimagining The Future Of Agriculture: Building Knowledge For Sustainability And Resilience, Keiko Tanaka

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The theme of the 2014 SRSA meeting called attention to the interrelationships between agricultural sustainability and community resilience, which have become interrelated goals in building agriculture and communities that support vibrant local food economies in a rapidly globalizing food economy. In this presidential address, I will start with a story of my aunt, who was a farm wife/woman in Tanba Sasayama, Japan. Then, I will return to William H. Friedland’s critique of rural sociology/rural sociologists from 32 years ago to reflect on the impact of an increased importance of these two concepts on transforming the institutional landscape of agricultural sciences. …

Perceptions Of Community And Place And The Migration Intentions Of At-Risk Youth In Rural Areas, Ann E. Theodori, Gene L. Theodori

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Population decline in rural areas is often attributed to the outmigration of young people, particularly those with high educational and occupational aspirations. This study investigates the perceptions of community and place and the migration intentions of rural at-risk youth, an often-overlooked population in community development efforts. Thematic analysis of more than 60 photoliteracy projects and 23 interviews with young people identified as low-income and at-risk resulted in the identification of two major themes: the rural context and migration intentions. Findings support that limited educational and occupational opportunities contribute to participants’ intentions to migrate away from their home communities after high-school …

On Rural-Urban Differences In Human Capital Formation: Finding The ‘Bottlenecks’, Elton Mykerezi, Genti Kostandini, Jeffery L. Jordan, Ilda Melo

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Studies have found lower levels of educational achievement for students in rural areas focusing mostly on cross-sectional data. Using the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we follow the same youth cohort to examine whether there are metro-nonmetro gaps in high cognitive achievement, high school graduation, college readiness, degree attainment, and earnings. We find that gaps emerge early in life and they remain constant through high school.In addition,results suggest that rural students graduate from high school at the same rate as their urban counterparts, but they fall behind when it comes to college graduation rates. Growing up in a rural …

Examining Social Support In A Rural Homeless Population, Afton Jackson, Lisa Shannon

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The purpose of this study was to examine factors associated with social support in a rural, homeless population. Ninety-six (N= 96) individuals voluntarily agreed to participate in an evaluation examining effectiveness of enhanced substance use and mental health services provided to homeless individuals. The primary variables of interest were: demographics, substance use, mental and physical health, and social support. We used bivariate analyses to examine the sample using two different indicators of past-thirty-day social support: (1) family/friend social support [no support/support] and (2) self-help group social support [no support groups/support groups]. We used two multivariate logistic regressions to examine the …

"I Wanna Have My Own Damn Dairy Farm!”: Women Farmers, Legibility, And Femininities In Rural Wisconsin, U.S., Julie C. Keller

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The number of women farming in the United States continues to climb, even as the number of farms has been relatively stable in recent years. Nevertheless, women often face an uphill battle in asserting themselves as farmers, particularly if they are living and working in communities in which masculinities and femininities have been shaped over time by the gendered symbolic categories of farmer and farm wife. In light of the discursive power of the title of farmer this article examines women’s pathways into farming to ask: 1) To what extent do women encounter difficulties in being legible as farmers, and …

6 Myths About The Future Of Small Towns, Heartland Center For Leadership Development

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

Covered myths about the future of small towns.

Featured:

Nenzel, Nebraska • Located in the Sandhills • Population 13 (2014) • Competed for a grant to build a new community center and heritage museum • Public buildings are supposed to last 50 years

Wray, Colorado • Located on Highway 34 across the Nebraska border • Once a major thoroughfare but today only local traffic • New hospital, modern K 12 school, raised money for a recreation center • Won a National Civic League All America City Award, the first rural community to be honored

Emerging From The Shadows: Civil War, Human Rights, And Peacebuilding Among Peasants And Indigenous Peoples In Colombia And Peru In The Late 20th And Early 21st Centuries, Charles A. Flowerday

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Peacebuilding in Colombia and Peru following their late-20^th and early 21^st century civil wars is a challenging proposition. In this study, it becomes necessary as indigenous peoples and peasants resist domination by extractive industries and governments in their thrall. Whether they protest nonviolently or rebel in arms, they are targeted for human-rights violations, especially murder, disappearance and displacement. The armed actors, state, insurgency, paramilitaries or drug traffickers, destroy civic institutions (local or regional government) and the civil (nonprofit) sector and replace them with their own authoritarian versions. Therefore, peacebuilding has emphasized rebuilding civic institutions, civil society and local …

Proposed Eitc Expansion Would Increase Eligibility And Dollars For Rural And Urban “Childless” Workers, Jess Carson, Marybeth J. Mattingly

Carsey Publications

This brief uses data from the 2013 Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey to examine how President Obama’s proposed expanded eligibility and higher credit values might affect tax filers in both rural and urban America. Authors Jessica Carson and Marybeth Mattingly report that proposed changes to the earned income tax credit (EITC) will increase the share of workers without a qualifying child eligible for the EITC equally in rural and urban places, although rural residents are more likely to be eligible under both current and proposed policies. The average increase in the credit is $476, more …

From Within The Abyss: Drug Users In Areas Of Rural Poverty, G. Eric Latham, Jr.

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This research was completed to deal with many unanswered questions regarding drug use, specifically drug use in areas of rural poverty. Look at any "Faces of Meth" billboard or listen to any corporate-news program and one might assume there is a drug epidemic in rural areas. Without research, this allows the viewer to assume that poverty is the fault of the drug user who happens to live in rural places. This study sought to take a qualitative and ethnographic methodology to "embed" the researcher in this setting to see for himself whether these views were valid or invalid. The questions …

The Increasing Diversity Of America's Youth, Kenneth M. Johnson, Andrew P. Schaefer, Daniel T. Lichter, Luke T. Rogers

Carsey Publications

This brief documents how unfolding demographic forces have placed today’s children and youth at the forefront of America’s new racial and ethnic diversity. Authors Kenneth M. Johnson, Andrew Schaefer, Daniel T. Lichter, and Luke T. Rogers discuss how the rapidly changing racial and ethnic composition of the youth population has important implications for intergroup relations, ethnic identities, and electoral politics. They report that diversity is increasing among America’s youth because there are more minority children and fewer non-Hispanic white children. Minority births exceeded non-Hispanic white births for the first time in U.S. history in 2011 according to Census Bureau estimates. …

Alabama's Women In Agriculture: The Road To Gaps Harmonization And Global Addendum - Tuskegee's Walmart Initiative, Gertrude D. Wall, Walter A. Hill, Barrett Vaughan, Barbara Shipman, Assata Maat, Rose Hill, Shirley Tyson

Professional Agricultural Workers Journal

This paper shares challenges faced and overcome by four African American women on their 2013 journey to secure USDA’s Produce Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) Harmonized Food Safety Standards with the Global Addendum (Global Markets Primary Production Assessments: GMPPA). Collaboration, consistent training, and technical support from the Tuskegee University Extension and Research staff, and the Small Farmers Agricultural Cooperative undergirded the preparation of the farms for GAPs Certification. The timely sharing of staff expertise and experience from commercial partners (Walmart, Purivida, C.H. Robinson, W.P. Rawls), and support from the USDA (Strike Force Initiative) were important contributors to the positive outcomes described. …

A Case Study Analysis Of A Regional Food System: The Sustainable Agriculture Consortium For Historically Disadvantaged Farmers Program, Tasha M. Hargrove, Walter A. Hill, John Brown, Miles Robinson, Iris Cole-Crosby, Elizabeth Myles, Billy Lawton, Karla Martin

Professional Agricultural Workers Journal

The Sustainable Agriculture Consortium for Historically Disadvantaged Farmers Program (SACH) was designed to carry out an experiment by five 1890 Land-Grant Universities in partnership with five farmer based cooperatives in five states to assess marketing fruits and vegetables to Walmart from a regional perspective. Using the Consortium as a case study, this study assessed the Consortium within the framework of implementation evaluation; data were collected using semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The study answered questions such as, what did the Consortium do, and what were some of the accomplishments of the Consortium? The farmers were able to: negotiate price points; …

How European Folk Stories Have Misrepresented Indigenous Women, Jacqueline S. Marotto

Student Publications

An examination of Rayna Green's "The Pocahontas Perplex" in reflection of course material about the role of indigenous women in North America.

Cleft Lip And Palate In India: Determining The Socioeconomic Factors That Influence Quality Of Life And Treatment Received, With A Focus In Rural Nainital District, Uttarakhand State, Ellery Ward

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Cleft lip and cleft palate are birth defects that range in severity, and may cause serious physical and social challenges to those who are born with them. This project sought to determine the socioeconomic factors that influence the lives of people with cleft lip and or cleft palate in India, and the treatment, or lack thereof, which they receive. Specific focus was given to the rural and mountainous area of Nainital district in Uttarakhand state. This study was carried out with the assistance of the Aarohi organization located in the Satoli village in Nainital district. Interviews with one plastic surgeon …

Primitive Accumulation, New Enclosures, And Global Land Grabs: A Theoretical Intervention, Onur Ulas Ince

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Recent critical analyses of global land grabs have variously invoked global capitalism and neocolonialism to account for this trend. One line of inquiry approaches land grabs as instances of "primitive accumulation of capital" whereby lands in the Global South are "enclosed" and brought within the ambit of global capitalism. Another perspective invokes the history of Anglo-American colonialism for critiquing the developmentalist discourse that depicts Africa as the "last frontier" to be tamed by the techno-industrial civilization of the North. This essay integrates these two perspectives by elaborating capitalism as an irreducibly colonial formation with global inceptions. I begin with a …

Active Development Of Tacit Knowledge: Adtk In A World Without Farmers, Roger E. Garrett Jr.

Capstone Collection

Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) and extensions such as Transformative Learning Theory offer significant potential for skill development later in life – reskilling. Despite wide acceptance and deployment, practitioners are still obliged to design their own methods and activities in order to implement these theories. This paper introduces a novel curricular model, Active Development of Tacit Knowledge (ADTK). Educators can use ADTK to effectively implement and scale ELT. Agricultural Education, specifically the training of new farmers, is used as a sample context to demonstrate ADTK. In new-farmer education, it is necessary to compress the educational cycles of dozens of years of …

Planning Sustainable Food Hubs: Thinking Beyond Economic Viability To Democratize Local Food Access, Ashley Bahlkow

Capstone Collection

In light of an increasing awareness of the detrimental public health impacts of conventional food systems, the New Hampshire Endowment for Health (NHEH) funded a food hub feasibility study to develop a local food hub in the southeastern region of New Hampshire. The study centered on conceptualizing a food hub that would be both viable from a small business standpoint as well one that would increase access to local food, especially for marginalized communities in the city of Manchester--the major population center in the region.

The project work plan contained several activities for determining feasibility, which were completed over the …

Nebraska Risk And Protective Factor Student Survey Results For 2014. Profile Report: State Of Nebraska, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Student Health and Risk Prevention Surveillance System (SHARP)

This report summarizes the findings from the 2014 Nebraska Risk and Protective Factor Student Survey (NRPFSS). The 2014 survey represents the sixth implementation of the NRPFSS and the third implementation of the survey under the Nebraska Student Health and Risk Prevention (SHARP) Surveillance System.

The NRPFSS targets Nebraska students in grades 8, 10, and 12 with a goal of providing schools and communities with local-level data. As a result, the NRPFSS is implemented as a census survey, meaning that every public and non-public school with an eligible grade can choose to participate. Therefore data presented in this report are not …

Earning A Living In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: 2014 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben

Nebraska Rural Poll

Most rural Nebraskan households have full-time employment and many employed households derive part of their household income from self-employment. Self-employment is more prevalent in smaller communities. Most rural Nebraskans living in or near the smallest communities have self-employment in their household.

Some rural Nebraska households also have multiple job holding by members of the household. Again, this is more likely to occur in the smallest communities.

Most self-employed rural Nebraskan households get less than one-half of their total household income from self-employment. However, over one-quarter (29%) of self-employed rural Nebraskans get almost all of their household income from self-employment. Many …

Strengthening Services For Lgbtq Clients: Best Practice Recommendations For Rural Low-Income Service Providers, Elizabeth Holman, Ramona Oswald, Dina Izenstark, Shawn Mendez, Kimberly Greder

Faculty Publications

People who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer (LGBTQ), are more likely to be poor than heterosexualpeople. While they face the same general risk factors for poverty as others, LGBTQ people may experienceadditional discrimination in hiring, employment, and compensation, as well as face rejection from friends and family members who potentially could provide financial support in times of need. For LGBTQ people who live outside of large cities, the risk for poverty is even greater7. Thus, it is important that low-income service providers in rural communities provide culturally competent services to sexual minorities and their families.The purpose of this …

The Influence Of Social Identity On Rural Consumers’ Intent To Shop Locally, Rachel A. Addis, Marko Grunhagen

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Rural consumers’ in- and out-shopping intention has been a research topic for many years. This study investigates the relationship between social identity and rural consumers’ intent to shop within their local community, along with a number of moderating demographic variables. Using a sample of respondents from the Midwest, this study found a significant and positive relationship between rural consumers who socially identify with people in their local community and their intent to inshop. The influence of several demographic moderators is also explored, and implications for practice and future re-search are discussed.