Inequality in homeownership is a major component of ethno-racial stratification. Previous studies demonstrate large ethno-racial differences in access and outcomes throughout the home buying process at both the individual and neighborhood levels. An underlying assumption in these studies is that neighborhood ethno-racial disparities in lending are similar across neighborhood spatial types. However

Rural landscapes are under increasing development pressure from utility-scale solar (USS) energy facilities while public attitudes toward these facilities remain poorly documented and understood. This study explores whether opposition to USS in upstate New York is shaped at least in part by perceived rural burden—the idea that rural people and places are unfairly expected to provide new renewable energy

Despite decades of decline in global malaria rates, trends are beginning to change; in the last few years, progress has stalled and even reversed in some places. The ever-increasing scale of land transformation is likely a factor in contributing to this shift in global malaria progress, as recent research makes links between activities such as agriculture, timber harvest, and aquaculture to mosquito

In this paper we assess the relationship between how women access the land they farm, and their farming identities, roles, and future succession plans. Utilizing a Bourdieusian approach, we conceptualize inheritance of farmland as a long-term process of symbolic and economic investment. We conducted a cohort analysis of women living or working on farms in Scotland, UK who (a) were or were not raised

Most of the research on rural youth has focused on the material conditions that cause their migration to cities, but it has not tended to address sociocultural dimensions, such as those concerning leisure and what might condition the processes of migration among young people. The aim of this study is to contrast the discourse and representations that young people have regarding leisure with the festive

New gene editing techniques, such as CRISPR-Cas9, have created the potential for rapid development of new gene-edited food (GEF) products. Unlike genetically modified organism foods, there is limited research and literature on U.S. public opinions about GEFs. We address this knowledge gap by examining how crop-based GEF adoption is linked to public trust in institutions and values using the Theory

This study aims to explore the contribution of “The New World of Work” to farming, a career often viewed as unattractive among youth, and, as highlighted by the “young farmer problem” in the literature. This paper draws upon research on the role of “new ways of working” in work engagement and farmer identity among young farmers. A mixed-method approach is used based on data from two Mediterranean Islands

After decades of economic restructuring, many rural communities are struggling to provide adequate fire and emergency services across their communities. Subsequent population loss, the destabilization of local tax-bases, and an increased demand from work and family have left local fire departments at a loss for personnel and support. In this context, rural Georgia communities look to nearby prisons

Our paper aims to explore the role of subsistence farming in Hungary by reviewing the literature, analyzing the primary data from a representative survey conducted in 2018 in Hungary and presenting two case-studies. According to European and national-level policy analysis, subsistence farming is a cornerstone of European agriculture, as it is a central element of a positive rural image. The paper is

Even as the 2016 elections brought increased public attention to rural life, stereotypes and misconceptions abound. One of these misperceptions is the generalization that prices are lower in rural areas. This article is a restudy of Zimmerman, Ham, and Frank (2008) research on geographic differences in the costs of living. Asking the same fundamental question—if someone bought the same thing in a rural

Studies of couple's decision-making power consistently show that women disproportionately occupy subordinate positions. Using survey data (N = 400) from an ethnographic study on Ghanaian female fisherfolk, we examine the influences of women's financial contributions, ownership of production assets and gender role attitudes, and how they interact with the bodily capacities required to perform different

Given the turbulent conditions of the early 21st century and the release of data from the 2020 Census, it is an appropriate time to examine contemporary population redistribution trends in nonmetropolitan America. Analysis centers on the major demographic components of population change: migration; and natural increase. The analysis demonstrates that the turbulent economic, social, and now epidemiological

This paper draws from a dataset focusing on two rural communities in Colorado (USA). Data collection occurred over two periods: late-2019 and again during COVID-19 lockdowns in mid-2020. The communities differed demographically: one had a growing minoritized population, especially among its youth; the other was overwhelmingly white. The paper troubles the concept of subjective wellbeing (SWB) as it

Evidence suggests police officers are increasingly called upon to respond to incidents related to mental health issues, emotional problems, and substance abuse. Many have raised concerns regarding their involvement in such incidents. Yet, little is known about these encounters in rural and remote communities despite evidence suggesting that the context of non-urban areas should matter. Accordingly

With one-third of rural areas in the United States living in persistently high poverty, churches are some of the most prolific—and often only—sources of resource-provision in rural places. This paper qualitatively examines the complex role that churches play as resource providers in rural areas. Further, we examine the ways churches are helpful and/or harmful in meeting the needs of those experiencing

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether consumers in Scotland's remote areas suffer from food prices that are higher than the average national prices (i.e., whether a “remoteness premium” exists). The question has been raised by several organizations in those communities looking at the high prices in local stores. This paper provides a new perspective using actual purchasing prices of a

With agriculture considered key to generating jobs for Africa's growing population, several studies have explored youth aspirations toward farming. While many factors explaining aspirations have been well studied, little is known about the actors' shaping aspirations. We developed a novel framework that focuses on the factors and actors shaping the formation and actual aspirations of rural youth and

The growth of high-speed Internet access in rural communities is a relatively recent event. In this exploratory study, we contribute to the literature regarding the Internet and local community by analyzing the influence of Internet activity on community experience, measured through community satisfaction and attachment, using the systemic model as controls. After surveying 24 rural communities in

Agroforestry practices offer a compelling addition to conventional agriculture as they provide a broad range of economic, ecological, and social benefits. Despite its recognized potential, broad on-the-ground adoption of U.S. agroforestry remains limited. Factors influencing agroforestry adoption and dissemination bottlenecks by actual practitioners are underexplored. While previous studies have focused

The stories we tell about ourselves and our communities have the power to impact perceptions of marginalized communities, both positively and negatively. Narratives affect how people view themselves, their town, and other members of their community and thus shape personal interactions, local culture, social situations, and even decisions about allocation of resources. When those stories are rooted

This article uses interview data with people who were once skeptical about climate change but have come to accept climate science to assess the factors that contribute to their shifts in perspectives. Our findings show two trajectories of change for skeptics, depending on the nature of their skepticism. For those who move from actively denying climate change, shifting beliefs about climate change occur

Rural shrinking is an ongoing phenomenon in many parts of Europe. Against this backdrop neo-endogenous rural development has been gaining support as a conceptual and policy approach which stress the combination of local and external actors, resources and forces for enhancing an integrated development of rural areas. Within this governance framework rural social enterprises have been stressed as potential

The study aims to analyze inhabitants' perceptions vis-a-vis the actual demographic, economic, functional, and land use transformation taking place in the peripheral area of Kłodzko County in the Sudetes Mountains in southwestern Poland. Recently, new socio-economic processes can be observed in the region, suggesting a revival after a period of stagnation. It employs qualitative data from semi-structured

We use critical race theory (CRT) to examine the involuntary loss of land and homes among Black residents of the southeastern United States and in particular among the Gullah/Geechee. An Afro-indigenous population, the Gullah/Geechee have deep roots in the federally designated Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, an area of sea islands and coastal Lowcountry within 25 coastal counties in North

This qualitative phenomenological study sought to understand rural students' college-going decisions through the lens of socioeconomic status, social capital, and Perna's nested model of college choice. The sample included 18 students who were undergraduates at a selective R1 university in the Southeastern United States. Rural first-generation students reported that they received little practical advice

While research has consistently demonstrated a positive relationship between migration from rural areas and educational attainment, it is unclear whether migration is the driver of educational attainment or merely a mediator. The “rural brain drain” perspective suggests that young people leave rural areas if they have greater academic potential than their peers. A “migration gain” perspective implies

The idea that citizens' support for environmental policies depends on their economic interest and the community that one lives in, has been debated extensively in the environmental attitudes literature. However, this literature has not differentiated between separate policy dimensions that concern measures that affect specific groups in different ways. This paper differentiates between a nature/agriculture

A long line of sociological research has found that rural residents tend to be more conservative than urban residents in the U.S. on a wide range of attitudes and behaviors. Two primary arguments have been utilized to understand why these differences exist. First, rural/urban differences were thought to be largely a function of rural isolation and differences in types of employment. As rural areas

This paper reflects on the conditions that emerge as regional Australia becomes increasingly immersed in international markets, global and local political shifts, and changing environmental conditions. In the Liverpool Plains region, farmers are deeply reliant on global export markets. Meanwhile, global demand for Australian minerals continues to produce both economic development and environmental

There has been a steep rise in overdoses and mortality among people who use opioids or who inject drugs (PWUD), including in North America, the United Kingdom, and parts of Eastern Europe, with some of the sharpest increases amassing in rural communities. Currently, the literature lacks a comparative focus on the views and experiences of rural PWUD and professionals who regularly work and interface

Agrarian distress—the experience wherein sustaining an agricultural livelihood becomes increasingly challenging—is well documented in South Asia. Another regional trend is the feminization of agriculture or an increase in women's work and decision-making in agriculture. Scholars have recently linked these two phenomena, demonstrating that agrarian distress results in the movement of men out of agriculture

Modern agricultural farms offer huge potential in creating employment opportunities, which, in turn, are expected to reduce fertility. The Ethiopian government has recently leased out millions of hectares of farmland to investors under highly concessionary terms. However, little is known regarding women's farm employment effect on their fertility. Using survey data, this paper analyzed this link in

Since 1998, more than 6,000 public schools have closed in rural U.S. counties. Very little research considers how these school closures impact the future growth (or decline) of rural communities. Given rural schools' importance to parents, local labor markets, and civic life, closures could trigger or reinforce population loss. On the other hand, the configuration of schools may simply be a consequence

One in three U.S. households has experienced material hardship. The inadequate provision of basic needs, including food, healthcare, and transportation, is more typical in households with children or persons of color, yet little is known about material hardship in rural spaces. The aim of this study is to describe the prevalence of material hardships in Iowa and examine the relationship between rurality

Forests offer critical social, economic, and ecological benefits. As fifty-five percent of Georgia's forests are family-owned, management decisions of these forest landowners have a considerable impact on the state's environment and beyond. So far, little is known about what drives the conservation intentions of forest landowners and how these drivers vary by gender. However, several studies outside

In this paper, we investigate how rurality is performed in online community groups, attending in particular to outdoor recreation and engagement with local nature. The starting point for our performative approach is that when places are digitally mediated, the technological intermediary is never innocent or neutral. Methodologically, we conducted an online ethnography in 20 rural community groups on

The establishment of local communal organizations is a unique strategy of rural communities to build resilience against economic challenges. Shirvareh is traditionally recognized as an important communal organization of women in Southwestern Iran for managing dairy production and securing their livelihood. Preserving this vital social institution and its associated indigenous knowledge was the main

Despite global scientific consensus, climate change is a highly controversial and politicized issue in the United States. Grounded in two quantitative survey iterations with approximately 446 responses, 28 semi-structured interviews, and 4 focus groups with 60 undergraduate students from six state universities in the Appalachian region, this five-year study explores the role of place-based attachment

Seafood production and trade have expanded dramatically over the last 40 years and comprise one of the fastest growing, and most environmentally impactful, sub-sectors of the global food system. While richer nations have increased their seafood consumption and displaced their environmental load, the marine environmental impact of fishery production has largely shifted to the waters of less-affluent

Rural residents in the United States do not always agree on local development priorities, yet understanding and accounting for their preferences is a step towards more effective and equitable community development. We use survey data spanning different types of rural Intermountain West communities to gauge residents' preference weights for economic and environmental rural development goals. Given that

Affordable housing has declined in recent decades, yet limited research has examined the demographic and economic changes influencing place-level affordability—especially outside of large metros. In this study I examine the effects of county-level population growth and decline, population aging, and natural amenity development on rates of affordable housing, income, and housing costs across four types

Many scholars agree that both expert and lay knowledge are needed to gain a fuller understanding of environmental problems, both to find answers to the problems and to improve relations between experts and laypeople. When experts ignore lay knowledge, laypeople can resist by accusing experts of arrogance or conspiracy. Rural people who live among large carnivores like wolves and grizzly bears sometimes

Rural indebtedness is a major development challenge confronting India. In 2018, scores of farmers protested rising household debt, and the popular coverage of the time asserted that farmers were under crushing debt. Combining data from the All-India Debt and Investment Survey with other sources and using a class analysis, I interrogate this “crushing debt” narrative. Rural households, depending on

The “leaky pipeline” metaphor has been used to describe the dearth of women in science, technology, and leadership roles. For colleges of agriculture within land grant universities (LGUs), college leadership and tenured faculty in agricultural science disciplines have historically been disproportionately male, even though women earn nearly an equal number of doctorates. Conscious gender discrimination

Remote communities alleviate economic hardship by renting their crops to others, and these transactions are often informal and exploitative. Because farmland is an important income source for rural areas, understanding the participation in distress rentals of cashew nut farms is critical for sustainable development. Previous studies have highlighted relationships between socioeconomic factors and participation

Natural resource development, both extractive (oil, gas, mining, and timber) and non-extractive (tourism, real estate, outdoor recreation), has been found to negatively impact economic prosperity in rural America. One mechanism recently proposed for why this occurs is high levels of labor market concentration, or oligopsony. Oligopsony occurs when there are few employers within a labor market and can

This paper aims to identify how rural digitalization influences social innovation in the context of the Global South. Using qualitative research methods, we examine two cases of digitalization in rural areas in Indonesia, which represent differing types of digital technologies and economic activities. Our findings show that the use of digital technologies in livelihood strategies stimulates new social

Many rural communities throughout the United States have experienced brain drain or the out-migration of educated young people. Explanations for why college-educated adults leave rural communities have relied on economic rationales; however, the effects of social identities, community context, and place attachment have also been shown to influence migration decisions. Using data from the National Longitudinal

In recent years, performance metrics and digital technologies have gained substantial support to advance on-farm sustainability. The combined use of metrics and digital technologies represents a potentially important shift in agricultural sustainability governance, which has largely been dominated by the use of standards and certification. Focusing on the U.S. context, this paper examines the operationalization

Senior citizens could benefit from Information technology (IT), especially in rural areas where the lack of agglomeration makes services more expensive. The aim of the study is to examine the older adults perception and preferences of IT, while referring to spatial, social, and cultural contexts. The research was conducted in the rural periphery of Israel, relating to the diversity of the population

This article discusses the growing political divide in the United States and how ideological polarization has increasingly assumed spatial dimensions, as rural areas have become strongly associated with Republican support, and urban areas have become associated with strong Democratic support. In the context of the recent Trump administration, marked not only by authoritarian tendencies, ethno-nationalism

This article, which also serves as the introduction for this special guest-edited issue, examines the history of Rural Sociology's scholarly engagement with rurality, race, and ethnicity. We examine the historical patterns of how Rural Sociology has addressed race and ethnicity, and then present results from a meta-analysis of empirical articles published between 1971 and 2020. Over time, the methodological

The ethnoracial diversification of rural America is gaining more attention in scholarly and policy circles, but its impact on rural school districts is often overlooked. We use federal data sources to explore the magnitude and structure of rural ethnoracial diversity and to analyze variation in how U.S. rural school district demographics have changed nationally from 2000 to 2019. Employing a majority

Despite Rural Sociology’s long history of publishing rigorous research about rurality, one notable area for improvement is attention to race and racial issues. As Tieken and Wright argue, this special issue is an important first step toward expanding the journal’s scope and reckoning with its historical failings. This issue introduction summarizes the critical insights the issue’s articles offer the

The spread of radical-right populist movements across Europe in recent years have been explained from a geographical perspective by a differentiated political behavior in rural areas, rooted in socio-economic differences and a theory of a “revenge of the places that do not matter”. The objective of the article is to contribute to the characterization of the current populist narratives on rurality and