Rural Communities Study Guide

Jan L. Flora, Cornelia Flora, Elizabeth Houdek, Mark Weinberg

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367286255
• eBook ISBN: 9781000310337
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book examines the process of rural community development and transition—exploring the ways in which history, culture, and policies limit change as well as the extent to which local community resources can mobilize to support efforts for community change.

Part 1
Describing Rural Communities

1
The Rural Landscape

Rural is when you have a parade and nobody is left to watch.

— Fred Schmidt, Director, Center for Rural Studies, University of Vermont

Unit Overview

If you are like most people, the small farming community of Irwin, Iowa, most closely matches the images conjured up by the word rural. However, rural areas include ski slopes, mines, farms, retirement communities, Native American reservations, bedroom communities next to large cities, and much more. Even in what we often assume is an urban society, about one-fourth of the U.S. population lives in rural areas.

Rural areas have great diversity of environment, economics, and cultural traditions

Definitions of rural have changed over time, but most definitions characterize rural by (1) size and (2) location. Many demographers define rural by what is left after subtracting "standard metropolitan areas;" in other words, rural means a county or group of counties that do not contain one central city of at least 50,000 or more inhabitants.

At one time, rural also meant relative isolation from major routes of transportation, from cultural institutions such as concert halls and museums, and considerable distance between communities. Like most stereotypes, it was never entirely true, but today it is even less so. Improved transportation and communication mean that rural people are just as literate, informed, and enriched as their urban counterparts.

Rural areas can be distinguished by their economic bases. The U.S. Department of Agriculture characterizes a rural area in one of seven categories: farming, manufacturing, mining, specialized government, persistent poverty, federal lands, and destination retirement (see Table 1.3 in your textbook).

Rural areas are among the most ethnically diverse as well as the most ethnically homogeneous, depending on the region of the country in which they are located

Traditionally, sociologists thought that location, social system, and common identity were features of rural communities. For some areas, this was (and is) true—half of the fifty counties with the least diverse populations are in Nebraska and Iowa. By contrast, fourteen of the thirty most diverse counties are also rural; six of them are in New Mexico.

Community, as defined in this course, means a place or location, a geographically defined place where people interact

A community may be a political entity, for example a town or village, or it may be a social entity, for example a neighborhood in a large city. The structure and institutions of the community are created by the interactions of the people who live in it. It does not necessarily provide the social system through which its members' needs are met, nor does it necessarily provide a sense of identity for its members.

Social problems and responses to them in rural areas can be linked to three major patterns: rapid growth, persistently poor, or population decline

Rapid growth describes rural counties having growth rates higher than the national average. These counties lie chiefly along the Atlantic seaboard and in the Southwest (see Figure 1.2 in your textbook). Rising costs, increased demand for services and infrastructure, and environmental degradation are concerns for rapid-growth communities.

Persistently poor counties have populations with incomes persistently below the federally defined poverty level. Some may have depended upon a single economic base that has diminished or ceased to exist; others may attract jobs and population, but wages remain too low to provide the tax base needed for community services. Forty-one percent of rural people live in counties with persistent poverty (see Figure 1.3 in your textbook).

Declining population is a significant problem in thirteen states with 27 percent of the U.S. nonmetropolitan population. Many of these communities are located in agricultural areas, and although education and income levels tend to be high, declining population means less tax base to maintain services and infrastructure (see Figure 1.4 in your textbook).

The changes in rural America can be analyzed in terms of the historical relationships between urban and rural communities in a given region, by the economic bases of rural areas and the changes in those economic bases, and by the relationships between rural areas and state and federal political activities.

One of the key assumptions in this course is that rural communities are diverse. Their responses to the problems and changes they confront will be equally diverse and will reflect the particular mix of environment, economics, and cultural traditions. Finally, this course assumes that all rural communities make choices derived from past experiences, and those choices affect the future.

Before You View the Video Program

Learning Objectives

After you have completed the reading and viewed the video program for this unit, you should be able to:

1. List at least three definitions of "rural" used by social scientists. What elements do these definitions have in common?
2. Describe the ways in which rural areas may be different at any point in time in terms of economic base and population characteristics.
3. Describe the ways in which a given rural area may be different over time in terms of economic base and population characteristics.
4. Describe the current economic transition taking place in rural America.
5. Name the three dominant structural conditions that characterize rural areas as a result of economic transition.
6. Recognize how history, environment, culture, economy, and political institutions interact to determine a community's well-being.
7. Identify how past decisions made by individuals, communities, states, and the federal government have affected rural areas and the problems they face.

Reading Assignment

Chapter 1, "The Rural Landscape"

Key Terms and Concepts

The following terms, which are defined in your textbook, will be useful in viewing "Who Cares?"

Community

Gemeinschaft

Gesellschaft

Nonmetropolitan counties

Standard Metropolitan Areas

Rapid-growth area

Population-decline area

Persistent-poverty area

The Video Program

The word "rural" conjures up many images—wide open spaces, closeness with nature, freedom, privacy, solitude. Americans share a common romantic dream of living in the country, imagining a place where community is strong and life is peaceful. This vision of rural captures values that we as a nation hold as most important for our communities. In "Who Cares?" we hear the voices of rural people describe their understanding of rural as we view the beauty of rural landscapes. Since over 90 percent of our nation's land base is rural, any questions of protecting our environment and the best use of natural resources is, by definition, an examination of the importance of rural communities.

What are the real images of rural life today? In fact, many rural communities are in crisis, all are in transition. Traditionally, rural communities have relied on resource-based economies, focused on a single economic activity such as farming, mining or fishing to provide a living and a way of life. Mill workers in Oregon, farmers in Iowa, and miners in West Virginia share the same experience of growing up with the expectation of following their parents' way of life and work. Today, they share a despair about the loss of that legacy.

Other rural communities like Garden City, Kansas, and Mammoth Lakes, California, are coping with rapid growth. Mammoth Lakes has become a major ski resort area and is thriving. While residents enjoy the prosperity, the pressures of growth include high property taxes, environmental degradation from development, and the influx of seasonal workers with limited resources. Garden City is the site of major meat packing plants, and the rural area could not supply adequate labor. Immigrants from Southeast Asia flocked to Kansas, bringing labor and a new and complicated diversity.

Change in rural America is not isolated from changes in the world marketplace. The impact of technologies is obvious in Lee Reeves' modern farm as well as the changes in the Brooks Shoe factory. When the forces of the global markets are included, we see how towns like Nelsonville, Ohio, are very directly tied into a world economy.

In a rapidly changing world, rural communities are often forced to cope with increasing responsibilities and very technical matters with part-time and volunteer leaders. As responsibilities are moved from federal and state levels to the local level, towns experience the further impact of decreasing revenues. These challenges also offer opportunities for communities to take charge and develop their resources, especially their "people power." Community leaders in Nevada and Vermont express frustration about the demands put on them from outside agencies and state power brokers. Leaders in Virginia, Alabama, and New Mexico assert the right of their community to determine their future.

The mythical small town of the past may be gone forever. It may have never existed! Rural people are now, and always have been, diverse, hardworking Americans who care deeply about their communities and the future of the land. How successful rural communities are in finding solutions to their problems will influence not only their chances for long-term survival, but the legacy they are able to leave all of us.

After You View the Video Program

From the Video Program

1. Briefly describe some of the various definitions of rural. Why are there so many definitions?
2. Is the perception that rural communities are culturally homogeneous a myth? How does the history of the various counties affect homogeneity? Give examples.
3. How is the social character of rural communities shaped by the local economy? Is this changing from the past? Use specific examples.
4. Briefly discuss how Mammoth Lakes has changed in the last 100 years. What has been the effect of new rapid growth on the community and its members?
5. Briefly discuss the changes in the economic character of McDowell County. What have been the most significant consequences of these changes on the community and its members?
6. What events have contributed to population decline in Irwin, Iowa? What effect does this decline have on the community, economically and socially?

Essay/Study Questions

1. What are some of the images that have been portrayed of rural communities because of their size and isolation? Are these images true? Have they changed?
2. Are rural communities isolated? Discuss two major factors that have affected the isolation of rural communities.
3. How do the authors of your text define community? Do rural and urban communities become more similar or more dissimilar when this definition is used?
4. What are the three main structural patterns within rural communities that may c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Course Overview: Rural Communities: Legacy and Change
• PART ONE DESCRIBING RURAL COMMUNITIES
• PART TWO COMMUNITY AND THE ECONOMY
• PART THREE MEDIATING CHANGE: COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE
• PART FOUR COMMUNITY POWER AND GRASSROOTS CHANGE
• Appendix: Answers to Self-Test Questions