Rural Scholars Research Articles

Sustainable Livelihoods Sustainable Approach and Contemporary Research on Rural Social-Ecological Systems in Indonesia

As the largest tropical archipelago country in Asia, Indonesia has 84,096 villages. From the human ecology perspective, a village or rural area is a social-ecological system. The sustainable livelihood approach was built by rural scholars and experts, development studies, and human ecology as a framework for looking at aspects of sustainable development in rural areas. This paper uses the literature review method on (1) the trajectory of the sustainable livelihoods approach and (2) its use in contemporary research on rural social-ecological systems in Indonesia. The analysis results show that the sustainable livelihoods approach continues to grow and evolve, including using scientific principles of political ecology. In Indonesia, its use is also used for various research on rural social-ecological systems. This paper specifically shows the important results of six studies of rural social-ecological systems in West Java, South Sulawesi, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, West Kalimantan, and East Kalimantan (New Capital City of Indonesia/IKN) area. The six studies show that aspects of social and ecological systems are closely intertwined, and the sustainable livelihoods approach managed to peel it off.

The exclusive countryside post‐pandemic

AbstractThe processes through which the British countryside has become increasingly socially exclusive have been a theme of rural scholars' research since the 1970s, and these social changes are reflected in experiences of the pandemic. This paper begins by observing the central importance of power relations, and then discusses the pivotal role of housing as a motor of rural social change and exclusivity. Notwithstanding these processes, and indeed largely because of these asymmetric power relations, rural poverty remains. This paper summarises experiences of social exclusion in rural areas during the pandemic and reflects on the social redistribution of risk and the need to rebuild social protection in a continuing ‘permacrisis’. The emergence of the concept of the permacrisis indicates a recognition that the Covid‐19 pandemic is only one of a series of continuing or recurring challenges or potential ‘shocks’ that we face, and this paper concludes by suggesting a research agenda for rural scholars as well as a potential rural policy agenda.

Intersections between rural studies and food justice in the U.S.: some implications for today and the future

ABSTRACT Justice is a term increasingly used in rural studies and agri-food systems research. In this article, we examine how rural studies can gain by more directly integrating food justice and its focus on transformative intervention. First, we identify existing gaps in discussions about social justice in relation to rurality in the United States. Second, we analyze prominent food justice literature and its main conceptualizations, characteristics, and gaps in relation to rurality. Drawing on existing gaps and opportunities in rural studies and food justice, we discuss why and how critical analyses of race/white supremacy, intersectionality, and engaged scholarship can strengthen the study of injustices in rural settings. In prioritizing these aspects, rural scholars might adopt powerful lenses for interrogating the ongoing hegemonies of rural communities while also facilitating greater engagement in social justice within and outside our disciplines.

Developing New Clinical Nurse Specialist Educational Opportunities in Ambulatory Care Settings

Purpose The purpose of this project was to develop an ambulatory clinical practicum for clinical nurse specialist (CNS) students in rural and underserved Eastern North Carolina. Description of the Program A 14-week clinical practicum was designed for CNS students who participated in a Health Resources and Services Administration Advanced Nursing Education Workforce grant–sponsored program entitled “Advanced Practice Registered Nurse RURAL Scholars Program.” The objectives of the clinical practicum were to increase student competence in ambulatory care, identify critical knowledge and competencies in CNS ambulatory care, and determine potential opportunities for CNS practice in ambulatory settings. Outcome Students demonstrated increased awareness and interest in specific health challenges faced by rural and underserved communities and became aware of services available for individuals with complex healthcare needs. Deficiencies in the CNS curricula regarding ambulatory care were identified by students. Although the value of the CNS in ambulatory practice was appreciated by students, staff, and preceptors alike, opportunities for employment in ambulatory settings in rural and underserved communities continue to remain a challenge. Conclusion Student experiences in an ambulatory care CNS clinical practicum support the need for the development of knowledge and competencies in ambulatory care that will allow for the expansion of CNS practice in rural and underserved communities.

Place anonymization as rural erasure? A methodological inquiry for rural qualitative scholars

Through the lens of critical rural scholarship, this methodological paper offers reflections on the theoretical similarities between the qualitative research practice of place anonymization and the neoliberal project of place erasure. Using empirical data from a year-long ethnographic study of a remote rural community in Northern Wisconsin, I raise methodological tensions related to the choices we make as qualitative researchers related to masking or obscuring the names of rural places. Applying a critical geographic framework, I offer critiques of place anonymization as a protective measure for rural participants and decontextualization as a goal for broader theoretical application of the research findings. I then reflect on place masking as a form of methodological erasure that echoes the neoliberal erasure of rural places. In conclusion, I offer implications and suggestions for rural qualitative scholars concerned with spatial inequalities and place erasure.

Disconnected, Not Polarized: Four Decades of the Rural-urban Interface in Mainstream Country Music

Rural scholars have regularly analyzed media representations of rural communities, but there are a lack of analyses considering whether media representations of the rural-urban interface have transformed over the last 40 years as material connections and political divisions between rural and urban places intensified. This article presents a longitudinal analysis of portrayals of the rural-urban interface in mainstream country music from the 1980s to the 2010s. Examining the lyrics of over 800 weeks of songs that topped the Billboard charts, we find that representations of the material connections between rural and urban places have become less common. Specifically, portrayals of migrants crossing the interface have nearly disappeared from mainstream country. There was also a lack of evidence of growing polarization in mainstream country’s portrayals of rural and urban places. Rural places were generally depicted in idyllic terms in every decade, but urban places were also increasingly represented positively. These results indicate that the rural-urban interface portrayed by mainstream country does not align with previous research concerning the interface. In contrast to studies that highlight growing material connections and political divisions between rural and urban places, the interface depicted by mainstream country has become increasingly disconnected materially without becoming polarized politically.

Participatory research approaches in mining-impacted hydrosocial systems

ABSTRACT As demonstrated by Indigenous and rural scholars, participatory research approaches can facilitate capacity building, promote data accessibility, and accomplish community goals within complex hydrosocial systems. To demonstrate challenges and opportunities for participatory research, we describe hydrosocial territories in a mining-impact region in northern Idaho. We then compare two community-university partnerships in the study region, which included Tribal and non-Tribal rural communities. We find that the Participatory Action Research and Indigenous Research Methodologies frameworks provide a robust set of practices and methods for conducting more equitable and inclusive research. Further, participatory research approaches in research involving mining-impacted hydrosocial systems should: (1) build from established programs, goals, and practices; (2) identify respectful levels of partnership engagement, and (3) recognize partnership limitations. Future inquiry in complex hydrosocial systems should continue to build from the existing collection of participatory scholarship to address power imbalances and cultural differences and implement non-intrusive approaches to evaluate outcomes.

Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans.

Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans.

Policy Process Theory for Rural Studies: Navigating Context and Generalization in Rural Policy

Rural studies and policy process literature are ripe for integration due to their interdisciplinary approaches, empirical‐foci, and importance of values, norms, and heuristics. Policy process theory often ignores the important context‐rich variation within the rural and urban distinction, yet offers qualities rural scholars may find useful, like generalizability. This integration would improve both literature by facilitating empirical inquiry. Process theory “lenses” offer internal consistency, a shared research agenda, and applicability in many settings. These qualities encourage sharing and comparing of diverse research findings, thereby advancing common understanding and exploration of the policy process. In illustration of these ideas, this article reviews five policy process frameworks, the Institutional Development and Analysis framework, the Advocacy Coalition Framework, the Social Construction Framework, the Narrative Policy Framework, and the Multiple Streams Approach, extant rural policy process studies, and provides examples of how the literature may be integrated to explore specific research areas and questions.Related ArticlesCrow, Deserai A., Lydia A. Lawhon, John Berggren, Juhi Huda, Elizabeth Koebele, and Adrianne Kroepsch. 2017. “A Narrative Policy Framework Analysis of Wildfire Policy Discussions in two Colorado Communities.” Politics & Policy 45 (4): 626‐656. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12207Shortall, Sally, and Margaret Alston. 2016. “To Rural Proof or not to Rural Proof: A Comparative Analysis.” Politics & Policy 44 (1): 35‐55. https://doi-org.libproxy.usouthal.edu/10.1111/polp.12144Smith‐Walter, Aaron, Holly L. Peterson, Michael D. Jones, and Ashley Nicole Reynolds Marshall. 2016. “Gun Stories: How Evidence Shapes Firearm Policy in the United States.” Politics & Policy 44 (6): 1053‐1088. https://doi-org.libproxy.usouthal.edu/10.1111/polp.12187

The language of rural: Reflections towards an inclusive rural social science

Abstract While the ‘global countryside’ advocates networked and differentiated rural realities, the platform of discussing and disseminating those is usually, and sometimes inevitably, monolingual. The language of academic research creates its own politics, exclusions and inequalities: ubiquitous and universal uses of the term ‘rural’, particularly in non-Anglophone contexts (through translation for example), mask a series of nuanced, but critical understandings which reduce the quality of debate in rural studies. Drawing on the literature around language politics, we explore interpretations of rurality in Greek and Japanese linguistic contexts and we contrast those with English. We call for more critical approaches on how rural scholars use, and translate, notions of ‘the rural’. In certain contexts, this might mean avoiding the term ‘rural’ altogether and using original and informal terms in the languages of actual fieldwork. We thus support terms that communities use to describe their own spatial identities. Such actions undermine the hegemony of Anglophone ‘rural’ research and introduce nuances that are needed in international debates – despite the challenge of explaining those in a single (in fact, any) language.

IMPROVING GERIATRIC CARE OF INTERPROFESSIONAL PRACTICING PROVIDERS

Practicing providers often struggle with the care of older adults due to knowledge, skill, and attitude barriers. In an attempt to improve employee engagement in the care of older adults, the Geri-EMPOWER (Empowering Medical Providers and Older adults With strategies to Escape Readmission) program was initiated. In this program, case managers and visiting VA rural geriatric scholars participated in a two days of intensive educational sessions including lectures, shadowing inpatient teams and clinic providers, a dementia simulation learning exercise, and an Observed Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) with standardized patient encounters. The 15 initial participating trainees came from a variety of medical backgrounds including physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers, and psychologists. A 10 item knowledge based pretest and posttest was constructed using the learning objectives of the course. Skills of attendees were directly observed during 4 OSCE stations. Attitudes towards older adults were measured before and after the intervention using the Caroline Opinions on Care of Older Adults (COCOA) scale. Geriatric and palliative care knowledge improved with average knowledge test scores improving from 63% to 86% before and after the course. Participants obtained all minimum competencies during their OSCE exam, and rated this session very highly in their course feedback. Attitudes towards older adults were also found to improve with an average COCOA score increase of 9 points before and after the educational sessions. This innovative course based in adult-learning theory demonstrates that employed interprofessional providers can quickly improve knowledge, skills, and attitudes towards older adults.

Comparative analysis of rural poverty and inequality in the UK and the US

Scholars on both sides of the Atlantic have grappled with the difficulties of conducting comparative research on rural issues in general, and on rural poverty and inequality in particular. Shortall and Warner have observed that “The UK-US dialog is highly illustrative of how seemingly similar situations turn out to be full of complexity and difference.” That complexity and difference can serve to turn researchers away from comparative collaborations. We begin our paper with an overview of some of the general differences (and similarities) between how rural scholars in the UK and US have examined poverty and inequality in rural areas. Analysis of the two welfare regimes in these countries provides the backdrop for examining specific aspects of deprivation for rural people and communities. Our paper draws on our experience as members of a trans-Atlantic research group to illustrate the type of organisational infrastructure that can support international, interdisciplinary collaboration. We conclude by offering suggestions for future comparative research. Our paper progresses earlier debates in rural studies on the challenges of doing comparative US-UK analysis.

Property rights and rural justice: A study of U.S. right-to-farm laws

Are property rights merely a tool of the market economy, disempowering those with the least in rural places and further lining the pockets of those with the most? Most rural scholarship, on the aggregate, argues that yes, property rights dispossess the many in favor of the few. We, though, find the situation to be much more nuanced in our analysis of U.S. right-to-farm laws, the first of its kind. An overlooked dimension of property rights—the capacity to claim trespass on property through nuisance—enables rural people to defend their rights to clean air and water and the use and enjoyment of their property in the face of large-scale, industrial agricultural operators. Our analysis of statutes in all 50 U.S. states finds that right-to-farm laws, while largely purported to defend family farmers, reduce rural people's capacity to protect their land through nuisance actions in defense of their environmental, health, and community rights. We argue that property rights, when properly protected from nuisance, can help rural people push back against the market economy in defense of their health and environmental rights when other political means falter. Recognizing as much helps reveal a relationship between property rights and justice that currently is overlooked by rural scholars.

Romance in the cowshed: Challenging and reaffirming the rural idyll in the Dutch reality TV show Farmer Wants a Wife

This paper examines the representation of rural life in the immensely popular Dutch version of the reality TV show Farmer Wants a Wife (2004-present). It asks whether this representation manages to move beyond the persistent association of rural life with the idyll, which, as many rural scholars have noted, prevents important aspects of contemporary rural life from being seen and understood. A comparative visual and narrative analysis of the first series (2004–2005) and the eighth series (2014–2015) of Farmer Wants a Wife reveals how it initially challenges but ultimately reaffirms this association. The first series emphasises the profound dissonance between the idyllic expectations of the rural on the part of those seeking to find love with the farmers and the decidedly non-idyllic realities of twenty-first-century farming. By the eighth series, the show has largely abandoned its commitment to documenting the realities of Dutch rural life, instead privileging the love stories, for which idyllic portrayals of the rural function as an unquestioned backdrop. The ambivalent, changing way in which the rural idyll is mobilised in Farmer Wants a Wife is conceptualised through the genre theories of Mikhail Bakhtin and Lauren Berlant, which yield new insights into why the association between rural life and the rural idyll is so persistent and how it might be loosened.

The Epistolary Brush: Letter Writing and Power in Chosŏn Korea

This article explores how new modes of writing and reading that developed in epistolary culture brought about intellectual, social, and political changes in Chosŏn society. From the sixteenth century onwards, the diverse uses of letters transformed the lifestyle and the mode of political participation of Confucian intellectuals. Letters became the main reading materials for neo-Confucian studies and self-cultivation as well as a medium for political action, especially for rural scholars, who innovated various epistolary genres to raise their political voices. New epistolary practices facilitated their collective activism, the spread of radical opinions, and the mobilization of new political groups. Toward the end of the dynasty, even nonelites emulated these practices for their activism. In this period, “spiral letters” developed in both vernacular Korean and literary Chinese letters. These new letter forms, used by both male elites and women, reflected and subverted the existing gender dynamics and power relations associated with the norms of reading and writing. The rise and fall of spiral letters demonstrate the mutual influence between the written culture and sociopolitical changes. The versatility and resourcefulness of epistolary practices characterized Chosŏn letter writers' fashionable choice of a radical lifestyle, which geared their social life to yield actual political power.

Retrofitting rurality: Embodiment and emplacement in disability narratives

In this paper I examine the ways in which people with physical and sensory disabilities challenge normative (even ableist) constructions of the body-environment dyad. Drawing on insight from eco-phenomenologists and rural scholars, I analyze autobiographical narratives by people with disabilities to illustrate the complex entanglement between embodiment and emplacement. Collectively, these disability life narratives present a series of reconstructive strategies – what I call retrofit tactics – that address some of the commonplaces regarding normative rural embodiment and that make corrective adjustments to rurality (retrofits) to accommodate a wider range of embodied experiences. In the course of the article, I identify four such retrofit strategies, which include (1) expanding conceptions of rural embodiment beyond normative definitions, (2) underscoring the importance of attentiveness to one’s body-in-nature, (3) emphasizing and embracing the interdependency of bodies (rather than an isolationist paradigm), and (4) highlighting the importance of language and narrative in the place-making process, particularly within rural environments that traditionally privilege mobility. I am especially interested in demonstrating how the category of disability both challenges and sharpens our understanding of what it means to inhabit rural places and to move between rural and urban spaces.

Sense and Non-Sense of Local–Global Food Chain Comparison, Empirical Evidence from Dutch and Italian Pork Case Studies

Priority setting between local versus global food chains continues to be subject of debate among food, rural and agricultural scholars with an interest in how to support more sustainable food provision and consumption patterns. Recently the FP7 European GLAMUR project targeted to assess and compare the performances of local versus global food chains in a systematic way covering multiple performance dimensions. Especially drawing on empirical research on the performances of three Italian and three Dutch pork chains, it will be argued that meaningful performance comparison needs to acknowledge the complex, multi-facetted and time and place specific interaction patterns between (more) global and (more) local pork chains. Therefore, as regards these pork chains, local–global performance comparison is thought to have hardly significance in isolation from complementary “horizontal” (place-based) and “circular” (waste or by-product valorization oriented) assessments. As will be concluded, this methodological complexity of food chain performance comparison doesn’t allow for simple statements regarding the pros and cons of (more) global versus (more) local pork chains. Hence, it is recommended to avoid such less fruitful local–global dichotomy and to concentrate on more policy relevant questions as: how to facilitate fundamentally different resource-use-efficiency strategies and how to optimize the place-specific interaction between more “local” versus more “global” food systems?

Review of the Umthombo Youth Development Foundation scholarship scheme, 1999-2013.

IntroductionStaffing of rural and remote facilities is a challenge throughout the world. Umthombo Youth Development Foundation (UYDF) has been running a rurally based scholarship scheme since 1999. The aim of this review is to present data on the number of students selected, their progress, graduation and work placement from inception of the scheme until 2013.MethodsData were extracted from the UYDF data base using a data collection template to ensure all important information was captured.ResultsSince 1999, 430 rural students across 15 health disciplines have been supported by UYDF. The annual pass rate has been greater than 89%, and less than 10% of students have been excluded from university. All graduates have spent time working in rural areas (excluding the 32 currently doing internships) and 72% (52/73) of those with no work-back obligation continue to work in rural areas.Discussion and conclusionThe UYDF model is built around local selection, compulsory academic and peer mentoring and social support, comprehensive financial support and experiential holiday work. The results are encouraging and highlight the fact that rural students can succeed at university and will come back and work in rural areas. With 46% of the South African population situated rurally, greater thought and effort must be put into the recruitment and training of rural scholars as a possible solution to the staffing of rural healthcare facilities. The UYDF provides a model which could be replicated in other parts of South Africa.

Creative destruction or creative enhancement? Understanding the transformation of rural spaces

For more than fifty years, rural scholars have demonstrated the increasing fluidity and dynamism of rural spaces. In select locales, quotidian activity has given way to hedonic ventures as stakeholders have introduced innovative functions to attract the pleasure-seeking consumer. I have described this scenario as a type of ‘creative destruction’. This process, however, does not apply to all rural communities undergoing functional change. To address this issue, I present an alternative neologism, ‘creative enhancement,’ to account for the varied evolutionary trajectories that non-metropolitan spaces are taking. I re-examine three Canadian villages (Elora, St. Jacobs and Ferryland) to illustrate how these twin processes unfold in amenity-rich locales. My findings enrich our understanding of how rural landscapes change as they transition from a productivist-based to potentially multi-functional state.

High Blood Pressure, Overweight and Obesity Among Rural Scholars from the Vela Project

Many studies have shown that high blood pressure and overweight begins in childhood. Consequently, it is useful to know blood pressure and body mass index (BMI) values from an early age. There are few data about blood pressure control in children and adolescents from rural populations in South America. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of high blood pressure and its association with sedentary habits and overweight/obesity in scholars from a rural population in Argentina. The study population for this cross-sectional study was composed of rural children and adolescent scholars from Maria Ignacia Vela. Pre-hypertension and hypertension were defined on the basis of percentiles from the average of three blood pressure measurements taken on a single occasion. In patients with three blood pressure measurements above the 90th percentile, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring was performed to confirm hypertension or pre-hypertension. BMI was categorized by using the 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention growth charts. We studied 334 scholars (aged 5-18 years). Mean age was 11.4 years. In 70% of the subjects, blood pressure had never been measured. The prevalence of high blood pressure was 4.4%. Students with sedentary habits were 3.67-fold more likely to develop high blood pressure than their physically active counterparts (odds ratio [OR] 3.67; 95% CI 1.08, 12.46; p = 0.037). Obese students were more likely to develop hypertension than the students with normal weight (OR = 5.17; 95% CI 1.52, 17.60; p = 0.02). Male students had a 3.4-fold higher risk of developing high blood pressure than females. In our rural population, the evaluation of blood pressure in children and adolescents is not a routine measure. Our data indicate a low prevalence of high blood pressure. These data could argue differences between rural and urban scholars. Our data demonstrate a close relationship between increased overweight, obesity and sedentary lifestyle with the development of high blood pressure. We emphasize the importance of blood pressure controls and the need to implement programmes to modify sedentary lifestyle in rural populations.