Rural Sociology Commons^™

Increasing Community Participation With Self-Organizing Meeting Processes, Philip H. Howard

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Involving many people in community-based research provides many benefits, such as more labor power and increased buy-in. Traditional meeting formats, however, are not well suited to attracting broad engagement. One way to address this challenge is to instead employ self-organizing meeting processes, which are designed to invite active participation from attendees, and do not predefine the agenda. This article describes three such processes, 1) Open Space Technology, 2) World Café, and 3) Dynamic Facilitation, followed by my observations on their advantages and disadvantages when employed in community-based research efforts. Their use requires giving up a great amount of control when …

History As Community-Based Research And The Pedagogy Of Discovery: Teaching Racial Inequality, Documenting Local History, And Building Links Between Students And Communities In Mississippi And Tennessee, Spencer D. Wood, Ricardo Samuel

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

In this article we describe the process of implementing a community-based research project that linked student learning with documenting elements of local histories surrounding the civil rights movement in Mississippi and Tennessee. We show that developing a dialogue among community members, ourselves, and our students worked to democratize the research project, produce strong support among the community members, and contribute to an improved understanding of racial inequality for our students. We rely on our accounts of the process, student journals, and oral histories compiled during the research. Our findings show that there are considerable opportunities for community-based research around documenting …

Imagination Enviro-Station: Students Connecting Students To Ecological Sustainability, David Burley, Natalie Shelton, Chris Daunis, Jessica Cuifi, Jamie Walker, Maria Coleman, Bertha-Fabianna Matheu

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The development of an environmental identity is viewed by many as essential if we are to reorganize our societies toward ecological sustainability (Bell 2009; Clayton and Opotow 2003; Thomashow 2002). That, along with an eye toward environmental justice, was the major impetus for our graduate seminar in applied environmental sociology to partner with an elementary school in our small city of Hammond, LA, during the spring semester of 2010. After conducting focus groups with a group of fourth to sixth grade students and holding decision-making discussions with them for this community-based research (CBR) project, we went about two projects – …

Examining Community-Based Research As An Application For Public Health Training, Jolynn P. Montgomery, Dana L. Thomas

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The University of Michigan School of Public Health provided community-based research (CBR) opportunities to masters-level students through week-long field experiences in two communities in Mississippi through interdisciplinary collaboration with Delta State University. This article examines the learning outcomes of those field experiences in the context of CBR and the value that those experiences added to their public health proficiency. Quantitative and qualitative data from post-deployment evaluations were examined to determine strengths and weaknesses of this approach to the public health learning process. Overall, students found this approach to provide a rich context for research, help put a face to the …

Natural Resources In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: Use And Priorities: 2012 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

Natural resources are vital to Nebraska’s economy and quality of life. Policies to protect these valuable natural resources – such as soil and water – ensure that they will be available for future generations. However, development of natural resources for economic gain must often be balanced with these policies. Developing such a compromise is often difficult. What barriers are preventing rural Nebraskans from recycling more? What collection methods are they using to recycle? How do they feel about some of the issues surrounding the Keystone XL pipeline? What priorities do rural Nebraskans give for various uses of land and natural …

Coös County’S Class Of 2009: Where Are They Now?, Eleanor M. Jaffee

Carsey Publications

This brief reports on the first follow-up survey of the Coös Youth Study participants beyond high school. The focus of the Coös Youth Study, a ten-year panel study following the lives of youth in Coös County, New Hampshire, is the transition of Coös youth into adulthood. Author Eleanor Jaffee reports that approximately half of the Coös County Class of 2009’s follow-up survey participants (49 percent) are living in Coös County the majority of the time. Of those living outside Coös County, 81 percent are attending school full time. The most frequently reported combinations of school and work situations were in …

Forging The Future: Community Leadership And Economic Change In Coös County, New Hampshire, Michele Dillon

Carsey Publications

Author Michele Dillon conducted a case study of community change in Coös County, New Hampshire, for two-and-a-half years (June 2009-December 2011) to investigate how local community leaders in Coös assess the initiatives, challenges, opportunities, and progress in the North Country during this time of economic transition. Her primary data-gathering method included personal interviews with community leaders, supplemented by observation, documentary, and survey data. Dillon discusses how there is a strong consensus among community leaders that Coös needs to work together as a county with a unified vision and voice while respecting the specific character, strengths, and needs of each local …

Beginning Teachers Are More Common In Rural, High-Poverty, And Racially Diverse Schools, Douglas J. Gagnon, Marybeth J. Mattingly

Carsey Publications

This brief considers whether the concentration of beginning teachers in a district is associated with the district's poverty rate, racial composition, or urbanicity. Authors Douglas Gagnon and Marybeth Mattingly report that poor communities have moderately higher percentages of beginning teachers than communities with lower poverty rates and that a higher concentration of minority students in a district is associated with a higher percentage of beginning teachers. Large cities, remote towns, and rural districts have higher percentages of beginning teachers than midsized-small cities, suburbs, and fringe-distant town districts. The combined impact of poverty, race, and urbanicity has a substantial effect on …

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.

Quality Of Life In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: Perceptions Of Well-Being And Church Life: 2012 Nebraska Rural Poll Results: A Research Report, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben, Philip Schwadel

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

Nebraska’s unemployment rate has been one of the lowest in the nation in recent years. The agricultural economy has also been strong with record levels of farm income in 2011. Given the challenges and uncertainties of recent years, how do rural Nebraskans believe they are doing and how do they view their future? Have these views changed over the past seventeen years? How satisfied are they with various items that influence their well-being? Most rural Nebraskans have also reported high satisfaction levels with their religion/spirituality in previous polls. How often do they attend church? How do they view their church? …

Understanding Child Abuse In Rural And Urban America: Risk Factors And Maltreatment Substantiation, Wendy A. Walsh, Marybeth J. Mattingly

Carsey Publications

Using a large national sample of child maltreatment reports, this brief compares the outcomes of child maltreatment cases in rural versus urban places and identifies the characteristics associated with substantiation. Child abuse cases substantiated in rural and urban areas share many caregiver risk factors, such as drug and alcohol abuse, and many family stressors. Substantiation is equally likely across income levels; approximately one-fourth of cases in each income level are substantiated. However, when place is taken into account, a greater share (36 percent) of higher-income families (that is, families with incomes greater than 200 percent of the federal poverty level) …

Reversing The Brain Drain, Milan Wall

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

Reversing the Brain Drain, presentation slides.

Includes a summary of demographic research conducted by Ben Winchester of the University of Minnesota, including information about the "newcomer trend." Also covers Buffalo Commons research conducted by Randy Cantrell or the University of Nebraska.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations: Hazards, Environmental And Health Risks As The Latent Products Of Late Modernity, Bryan R. Clarey

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

CAFOs raise tens of thousands of animals in confined cages and feedlots, feed them high calorie diets, and ship them to slaughter in record time. These factory farms (as they are sometimes called) devastate neighboring environments with the releases of toxic methane gas and animal waste. Progress in modernized agricultural production has enabled us to feed the growing population but unintended consequences for human health and neighboring communities are happening. This study examines environmental and human health impacts of CAFOs on Central Mississippi residents. Through analyses of existing studies and data and telephone surveys, the objectives will be met. Risk …

Utilizing Community Resources To Reduce The Presence Of Type 2 Diabetes In Rural Youth, Antonia S. Mead, M. C. Nagy, Stephen Nagy

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

The purpose of this study was to implement a program designed to promote diabetes prevention activities among preadolescents in a rural southern setting using a day camp intervention. Participants in the study were eleven youth from a rural Alabama county who participated in a week-long half-day camp administered by local and community volunteers. Change scores were used to compare pre- to post- to follow-up measures for camp participant responses. Program results consistently demonstrated that the day camp was theoretically sound and that program activities positively impacted behavioral antecedents. This study demonstrated the feasibility of conducting a diabetes prevention day camp …

Coos County Teens’ Family Relationships, Corinna J. Tucker, Desiree Wiesen-Martin

Carsey Publications

This fact sheet examines Coos County, New Hampshire teens’ perceptions of their family relationship experiences using data from the Coos Youth Study collected in 2011 from 418 eleventh graders in all Coos County public schools. Authors Corinna Jenkins Tucker and Desiree Wiesen-Martin report that Coos older adolescents feel close to their parents and siblings but also argue with them. A small group of youths report perpetrating violence on a family member.

An Examination Of Perceived Stress Levels And Coping Styles Among Rural Law Enforcement Officers, Marcos Luis Misis

Dissertations

Policing is a very stressful job. Despite the extensive body of research on police stress, the majority of studies have focused solely on officers within urban police departments. Research on stress within rural law enforcement departments is virtually non-existent even though the majority of police agencies in America serve towns and areas under 50,000 residents.

This study had four main goals: (1) to examine how work-related stress affects the levels of perceived stress, anxiety, and depression for rural law enforcement officers; (2) to explore the specific stressors affecting rural law enforcement officers; (3) to investigate how rural law enforcement officers …

Southwest Nebraska Community Builders, Graduate Reunion Meeting, May 1, 2012, Craig Schroeder

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

Introduction:

2012 marks 20 years since Dr. Bob Manley brought Community Builder to Southwest Nebraska, as the region emerged from the devastation of the 1980's Ag Crisis. On May 1st, a group of former participants from communities through out the region came together to reflect on the impact Community Builders had on them personally, and on their communities and the region overall. Based upon this reflection it was unanimously determine that a new generation of emerging leaders would greatly benefit from Community Builders. The group then went through the process of evaluating what had been most valuable in the original …

Influences Of Farming Background On Farm Women’S Employment Motivations, Alexis Swendener

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

An important change in the dynamics of family farming is the financial difficulties they have encountered and the resulting solution of sending a family member to earn a wage in off-farm employment. This study utilizes survey data from Washington family farm women to explore how they navigate their unique social context concerning the decision and reasons they choose to work off-farm. In particular, I examine whether women who grew upon a farm or have spent a large percentage of their lives on farms are more or less likely to work off-farm. An identity theory approach is utilized to hypothesize that …

A Comparison Of Metro And Nonmetro Incomes In A Twenty-First Century Economy, Don E. Albrecht

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Recent developments in information and communication technology have reduced the relevance of location and created optimism that the historic economic advantages of metro areas relative to nonmetro areas may be diminished. This manuscript utilized data from the 2009 Current Population Survey to compare the incomes of the residents of metro compared with nonmetro counties. It was found that nonmetro incomes remain significantly lower than metro incomes even when considering the effects of intervening variables. Metro/nonmetro income differences were especially pronounced among persons with advanced educations and those employed in high-pay service industries. Consequently, many people who choose to live in …

Mapping Food Insecurity And Food Sources In New Hampshire Cities And Towns, Barbara Wauchope, Sally Ward

Carsey Publications

Using a series of detailed New Hampshire maps, this brief presents a geographic picture of the towns and cities at risk for food insecurity as well as the food resources available across the state. By detailing places with high food insecurity risk and comparing them to places where food is available, these maps show areas of unmet need. This information will enable organizations partnering with New Hampshire Hunger Solutions to identify where initiatives addressing food insecurity and hunger could have the greatest potential impact.