The reproduction of rural spaces through education: Abstraction of the rural and the creation of new differential spaces

Abstract

This paper examines the situating of rural communities in the United States within the neoliberal global context. It will focus on Henri Lefebvre's concept of abstract space, as well as additional theories on the ways space is produced and understood. The paper will use these theories to create an understanding of the ways rural communities are shaped and the role education plays in reproducing neoliberal ideology specifically through rural school consolidation. Abstracted rural space and schools are leading rural youth to internalize neoliberal ideology wherein they see themselves as economic actors rather than active engaged members of their community, and the best way to be successful is to gain the mobility to move to an urban center. Under this line of thought, rural exists only to serve capital as a site of resource extraction and low wage labor. The paper will conclude with a discussion on the way rural education can provide rural youth with the knowledge in which to produce rural spaces that represent what a modern rural community should be, focusing on improving the quality of life for residents, rather than what neoliberal capitalism needs it to be through the creation of common schools. This type of education can lead to the development of a right to the rural, a play off of Lefebvre's right to the city, wherein rural youth can critically examine their place and the place of rural communities in the world.