Rural Sociology Commons^™

Green Earth Concepts - Barrett Steam Pump, Lien Centre For Social Innovation

Social Space

Green Earth Concepts hopes to alleviate the perennial problems of farming in countries such as Cambodia by introducing the Barrett Steam Pump System, which will enable farmers to control irrigation and water supply at a low cost through the solar generation of hot water, in a cooperative setting that will encourage farmers to pay for services and products by supplying harvested crops instead of financial payment.

Nasis 2010: Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS) -- Surveys & Methodology Reports

We need your help to learn about how Nebraskans think, feel, and live. Your responses will help shape Nebraska program and policy development now and into the future.

62 questions; 8 pages

Prospects For A Rim County Population Rebound: Can Quality Of Place Lure In-Migrants?, David Vail

Maine Policy Review

David Vail asks whether population will rebound in Maine’s rural “rim” counties and whether investing to enhance “quality of place” can attract large numbers of rural settlers. Review of the evidence suggests that Maine’s rim counties are not experiencing a population rebound and that rural counties vary greatly in their ability to hold onto existing residents or attract new ones. Vail argues that quality-of-place investments should not be considered as a core development tool for rural areas, but that they can complement traditional rural economic policy measures. Since it is difficult to stimulate a major population movement to Maine’s rim …

Rural Community Longevity: Capitalizing On Diversity For Immigrant Residential Stability, Rochelle L. Dalla, Tammy R. Stuhmer, Jennifer G. Deleón, Maria Isabel León Carreño

Faculty Publications, Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies

The premise of this research is that rural immigrants comprise a significant source of untapped human and social capital necessary for community development. However, to capitalize on the growing ethnic diversity in rural America, immigrant newcomers must want to stay in their new rural communities. This investigation was designed to identify factors necessary to enhance rural Latino immigrants’ long-term residential stability. Thus, we sought to: (1) identify perceptions of rural residence, with particular attention to employment opportunities and challenges; (2) assess formal support availability and community issues of greatest concern to rural Latinas; and (3) identify strategies for creating bi-cultural …

“All The Men Here Have The Peter Pan Syndrome— They Don’T Want To Grow Up”: Navajo Adolescent Mothers’ Intimate Partner Relationships—A 15-Year Perspective, Rochelle L. Dalla, Alexandria M. Marchetti, Elizabeth (Beth) A. Sechrest, Jennifer L. White

Faculty Publications, Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies

In 1992 and 1995, data were collected from 29 Navajo Native American adolescent mothers. In 2007 and 2008, data were collected from 21 of the original 29 (72%). Guided by feminist family theory, this investigation sought to (a) examine Navajo adolescent mothers’ intimate partner relationships during the transition to parenthood, (b) identify themes in the young mothers’ intimate partnerships across time, and (c) assess participants’ psychosocial well-being in adulthood. Four themes emerged in the women’s long-term intimate relationships: limited support, substance abuse, infidelity, and intimate partner violence. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Family Members' Influence On Family Meal Vegetable Choices, Tionni R. Wenrich, J. Lynne Brown, Michelle Miller-Day, Kevin J. Kelley, Eugene J. Lengerich

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Objective—Characterize the process of family vegetable selection (especially cruciferous, deep orange, and dark green leafy vegetables); demonstrate the usefulness of Exchange Theory (how family norms and past experiences interact with rewards and costs) for interpreting the data.

Design—Eight focus groups, two with each segment (men/women vegetable-likers/dislikers based on a screening form). Participants completed a vegetable intake form.

Setting—Rural Appalachian Pennsylvania.

Participants—61 low-income, married/cohabiting men (n=28) and women (n=33).

Analysis—Thematic analysis within Exchange Theory framework for qualitative data. Descriptive analysis, t-tests and chi-square tests for quantitative data.

Results—Exchange Theory proved useful for understanding that regardless …

Domestication Alone Does Not Lead To Inequality: Intergenerational Wealth Transmission Among Horticulturalists, Michael Gurven, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Paul L. Hooper, Hillard Kaplan, Robert Quinlan, Rebecca Sear, Eric Schniter, Christopher Von Rueden, Samuel Bowles, Tom Hertz, Adrian Bell

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

We present empirical measures of wealth inequality and its intergenerational transmission among four horticulturalist populations. Wealth is construed broadly as embodied somatic and neural capital, including body size, fertility and cultural knowledge, material capital such as land and household wealth, and relational capital in the form of coalitional support and field labor. Wealth inequality is moderate for most forms of wealth, and intergenerational wealth transmission is low for material resources and moderate for embodied and relational wealth. Our analysis suggests that domestication alone does not transform social structure; rather, the presence of scarce, defensible resources may be required before inequality …

The Beginning Of The End? Agricultural Modernization And Dissolution Of The Peasantry In Contemporary China, Qian Forrest Zhang, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Rural Families With A Child Abuse Report Are More Likely Headed By A Single Parent And Endure Economic And Family Stress, Marybeth J. Mattingly, Wendy A. Walsh

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

This brief, which is based on data from the Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, finds that rural families who have been reported to Child Protective Services are more likely than urban families to have financial difficulties and high family stress, as well as grow up in single-parent households. To effectively address these issues, the brief urges policy makers to look at the lack of accessible and adequate services for struggling rural families.

Out-Of-School Time Matters: Activity Involvement And Positive Development Among Coos County Youth, Erin H. Sharp

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

This brief looks at the connections between how youth spend their free time and positive or negative attitudes about themselves and their future plans. Family studies assistant professor and Carsey faculty fellow Erin Hiley Sharp used data from the Carsey Institute's Coos County Youth Survey to show differences by activity level and students' expectations for positive outcomes in their future.

Low Income And Impoverished Families Pay Disproportionately More For Child Care, Kristin Smith, Kristi Gozjolko

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

According to research based on the 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation, working families with young children living in poverty pay 32 percent of their income on child care, nearly five times more than families living at more than 200 percent of the poverty level. This brief asks policy makers to consider allowing more subsidies to be available to those who could benefit most from them.

Federal Child Nutrition Programs Are Important To Rural Households, Barbara Wauchope, Anne M. Shattuck

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

This brief, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, examines how rural families use four of the major federal child nutrition programs. It finds that 29 percent of rural families with children participate but that there are barriers to these nutrition programs, such as the lack of public transportation and high operating costs for rural schools and child care programs.

Place For Personhood: Individual And Local Character In Lifestyle Migration, Brian A. Hoey

Brian A. Hoey, Ph.D.

While drawing on literature of narrative interpretations of the construction of self and place-based, embodied identity, this article will explore the impact of invasive market forces on intertwined processes of person, self, and place-making. It considers how resources for these projects have changed in the face of translocal market forces and neoliberal ideals. Despite numerous proclamations of an essential placelessness to contemporary American society, place continues to be a basic part of the construction of the person. In fact, a variety of place-making practices are increasingly pursued as ways of negotiating tension between personal experience with material demands in pursuit …