Rural Identities and the Politics of Planning: The Case of a Midwestern Destination County

Abstract

This article explores how contemporary dimensions of place and identity influence rural land use politics in a Midwestern amenity destination. Qualitative interviews with community leaders were used to probe negative responses to new planning legislation. The interviews revealed that responses to the legislation took root in leaders' different experiences and relationships to their community. Building from previous research related to place and rural identity, a rural identity typology is constructed to model how distinct identities can be born from opposing migration experiences and orientations toward rural culture. Because these disparate place identities can ultimately align against policy, it is argued that they have direct implications for land use planning in amenity communities. More broadly, by using ethnographic methods the article contrasts individual identity from group identity in order to differentiate rural identities in land use politics from what might be understood at the group level as rural identity politics.