Though the concept of blight clarifies housing and neighborhood changes in rural and small towns experiencing disinvestment and decline, the term is rarely examined outside of urban discourse. This study explores the extent of rural blight and its relationship to community characteristics using survey results from elected officials and staff members of small towns in one southeastern state. We examine the historical background of blight, including its connections to urban renewal, racial bias and stereotyping, and the broken windows theory. Among the small towns in the study, economic blight, particularly dilapidated housing, was prevalent. Social blight, which includes behaviors that are thought to be threatening or criminal in nature, was less common but correlated moderately with economic forms of blight. While social disorganization and collective efficacy theories link a range of demographic characteristics to physical and social disorder, our findings pointed only to a significant relationship between communities with a higher portion of the population who are black and multiple forms of extensive blight. More research is needed to understand the relationship, both observed and perceived, between economic and social blight in rural small towns and how these issues may be remediated through local collective action.

中文翻译：

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那乡村疫病呢？东南小城镇的住房和邻里状况

尽管枯萎病的概念澄清了遭受投资减少和衰退的农村和小城镇的住房和邻里变化，但很少在城市讨论之外研究该术语。这项研究使用东南部一个州小城镇的民选官员和工作人员的调查结果，探索了农村疫病的程度及其与社区特征的关系。我们考察了疫病的历史背景，包括其与城市更新，种族偏见和陈规定型观念的联系以及破窗理论。在研究中的小城镇中，经济衰退尤其是房屋破旧不堪。社会疫病，包括被认为具有威胁性或犯罪性质的行为，虽然较不常见，但与经济形式的疫病有一定关联。尽管社会混乱和集体效力理论将一系列人口特征与身体和社会疾病联系在一起，但我们的研究结果仅表明，黑人人口较多且多种形式的广泛疫病的社区之间存在显着关系。需要更多的研究来了解农村小城镇的经济和社会疫病之间的关系，无论是观察到的还是感知到的，以及如何通过地方集体行动来解决这些问题。