The Politics of Resistance: An Ethnographic Examination of Political Alienation and Radical Disengagement among Rural White Underclass Men

Abstract

ABSTRACT Scholars have renewed interest in the rural working-class in response to the growth of populist politics. However, due to the difficulty of accessing rural underclass communities, their perspectives have yet to be examined in political communication research. This ethnography uses participant observation and semi-structured interviews to understand how the political and social identities of rural White underclass men are formed by observing their lived experiences, group processes, and the ways in which they consume and share information. Participants indicate a loss of faith in the democratic process so powerful that they do not believe it exists. Unlike their populist rural middle- and working-class counterparts, the rural underclass radically disengages from political and civic life. This radical disengagement entails deep distrust in the media and the government, intentional nonparticipation in politics, and routine norms and practices that diverge from greater society. These findings suggest structural alienation, as their cultural identity seems to have formed, in part, by a disregard for and resistance to a society that has pushed them to the margins of economic and social existence.