Abstract
This review article analyzes three major recent books (written by Robert Wuthnow, Arlie R. Hochschild, and James and Deborah Fallows, respectively) concerning ongoing political, economic and social change in United States’ rural communities to probe differing frames and claims among them. We contend these works together point to vital social and political forces that must receive increased attention if the communities they treat are to address the challenges confronting them successfully. Thereafter, we briefly and illustratively underscore the significance of these authors’ arguments using our own ongoing work in two small communities confronting catastrophic economic decline and social fissuring in Central Appalachia. Overall, we argue that an analytical approach that combines elements of Wuthnow’s sensitivity to demographic and scalar polarization and divides, coupled with Hochschild’s emphasis on opportunities to instill and call on empathetic imagination in development efforts, could assist these rural communities’ residents to understand more fully the dynamics at play within them and to craft strategies aimed at addressing those challenges. In particular, we contend that the Fallowses’ call for pragmatic interventions and partnership building must be accompanied by long-term efforts to overcome the fear engendered by the view that rural community life constitutes a consumerist zero-sum game, and the accompanying widespread belief in those jurisdictions that scapegoating and explicit or implicit racialized hierarchies represent reasonable responses to such anxieties.
Highlights
In their book, Our Towns: A 100,000-mile Journey into the Heart of America, journalists James and Deborah Fallows contended that the deep polarization and conflict in our national and state politics today are not much in evidence at the local level [1]
This review essay examines these differing frames and claims concerning ongoing political, economic and social change in United States’ rural communities that we have found illuminating for our ongoing field work in two small Appalachian communities confronting catastrophic economic decline and social fissuring in Southwest Virginia and West Virginia, respectively
We review these three major recent works on community change in the United States and argue that an analytical approach that combines elements of Wuthnow’s sensitivity to demographic and scalar polarization and divides, coupled with Hochschild’s emphasis on opportunities to instill and realize empathetic imagination in development efforts, could assist these communities’ residents to understand more fully the dynamics at play within them and to craft strategies aimed at addressing those challenges
Summary
Our Towns: A 100,000-mile Journey into the Heart of America, journalists James and Deborah Fallows contended that the deep polarization and conflict in our national and state politics today are not much in evidence at the local level [1]. Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild, has offered an analysis of the views of a sample of rural Lake Charles, Louisiana, Tea Party sympathizers that sought to describe the well-springs of their frustration and anger, while arguing that compassionate listening provides a mechanism by which to bridge the “empathy wall” between their views and the perspectives of Americans from urban centers [3] Her analysis stressed that the members of these communities, too, sought to preserve a prevailing social order that often exhibited a specific racial character in the face of ongoing environmental degradation and economic decline.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
