Rural Young People Research Articles

Unemployed Strategies in the Youth Labour Market: Rural – Urban Differences in Russia

Background/Objectives: An empirical analysis of strategies in the youth agrarian labour market, to identify the attitude of the rural unemployed youth towards professional training, acquiring a new specialty and choosing job search channels, and to understand their conception of employment. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Our research based on the micro-data of the nationwide survey Comprehensive monitoring of living conditions. Findings: The specific features of the rural young people's behavior on the Russian labour market are identified. The results of the study show that the proportion of young people living both in the city and in the countryside who do not see the point of additional training is high. An important feature of a suitable job, meeting the young people's requirements, is a good wage and the degree to which the work matches the specialty. A certain part of the young unemployed consider any job they would manage to find suitable. Applications/Improvements: Understanding of the age features of behavior of the young people on the agrarian labour market would improve the efficiency of the public employment policies.

Youth mental ill health and secondary school completion in Australia: time to act.

This paper reviews the evidence of youth mental ill health and its impact on secondary school educational attainment. This narrative review presents the current research related to the mental ill health of young people in urban and rural Australia, their educational attainment and the effectiveness of mental health strategies implemented in secondary schools. The prevalence of mental ill health is high for Australian young people and the onset of depression, anxiety, substance-use disorders and first episode psychosis (FEP) commonly occurs when the individual is at school. The prevalence is reported to be higher for rural young people and barriers to treatment exist. Current evidence suggests that 40% of young people experiencing depression or anxiety disorders are not completing secondary school. Further evidence shows that over 50% of individuals who experience FEP do not finish secondary school. Current mental health promotion strategies employed in secondary schools have not been shown to reduce rates of depression or anxiety in adolescence nor identify prodromal or acute FEP. These strategies have not led to interventions that assist young people with mental ill health to finish school. Not completing secondary school can limit employment options, lead to severe levels of disadvantage and increased burden on welfare and healthcare systems. All young people, including those in rural areas, have the right to education and should not be disadvantaged in their educational aspirations because they have an emerging or current mental illness.

Young people navigating political engagement through post-war instability and mobility: A case from rural Nepal

The everyday politics of rural young people who live in post-war settings in the Global South is poorly explored. In the aftermath of a recent civil war in Nepal (1996–2006), villages have been operating without elected bodies, and poorly functioning local governance has been concentrated around party patronage networks and community development. In the lives of many young people, the aspirations and practices of educational and labour mobility have been dominant. Based on fieldwork carried out in the Panchthar District, this article discusses how ordinary young people nevertheless engage in different political dimensions. Guiding the analysis through the narratives of four young men and women, I have accentuated how the tension between socio-political situatedness and young people’s life strategies shapes the versatility of their political engagement. How do those who did not become political activists balance their daily lives, mobility and household obligations with involvement in party and local development politics? By exploring their motivations and engagement, I come to two conclusions. Firstly, young men navigate party politics by juggling the legacy of patronage and rejecting parties, as well as by involving themselves in disruptive events and seeking personal benefit from them. Secondly, young men and women negotiate their political motivations in community development politics primarily through household dynamics adjusted to their mobile lifestyle.

The long-run effects of treated water on education: The rural drinking water program in China

Since little is known about the long-run effect of treated water, we examine the educational benefit to rural youth in China from a major water treatment program started in the 1980s. By employing a data set covering two decades and encompassing more than 4700 individuals between ages 18 and 25, we find that, on average, the program increased the completed grades of education of rural youth by 1.1years. Moreover, the effect was highly heterogeneous across gender and age of exposure. Rural girls benefited from water treatment more than rural boys such that the water treatment program completely eliminated the gender gap in education in treated villages. Young rural people with access to treated water in early childhood experienced significantly higher gains in schooling attainment (i.e., by more than a year) than those that gained access at later stages of life. Our analysis suggests that this program was cost-effective.

Negotiating rural-urban transformation and life course fluidity: Rural young people and urban sojourn in contemporary Cambodia

Cambodia's politico-economic change in the 1990s has engendered profound rural-urban transformation and pressure on traditional peasant livelihoods. This article examines how rural young people cope with this societal change by migrating to work in the city, in the process renegotiating the life course and transforming rural life. Given rapid urbanisation and uneven growth, rural-urban labour migration has increasingly become a “normal” experience for young peasants entering working life. What is less clear is how these rural-urban migrant workers negotiate the emerging opportunity structures and mobility in the life course and what it means for rural life. Drawing on biographically oriented interviews with rural young people working in the capital of Phnom Penh, this article analyses their life experiences and meanings of urban sojourning to engage in labour work. This demonstrates how structural change and cultural scripts shape the life courses and perspectives of young peasants but also how they articulate their aspirations and agency in negotiating the changing terms of rural existence through a fluid life course.

Wealth for and from Rural Industries of India for Sustainable Development

About 68% of the rural market of India still remains untapped, primarily due to inaccessibility for want of motorable roads, non-availability of electricity and dependable communication. Over 60% of India's rural population lives in darkness. They cook their food on primitive chulha which create tremendous air pollution and have no clean drinking water. This paper throws light on various methods and models that have been successfully developed by some established companies for rural markets' distribution network. This is a monumental task and an untiring effort done by the business community to reach rural people of India to meet their daily needs and uplifting their living standards. This paper highlights Gandhiji's thought about sustainable development focused on rural development. The paper describes, with the help of some examples, possible ways and means to generate wealth for and from rural industries in India by effectively utilizing rural agricultural wastes to generate electricity/ power and employment for the young rural people of India.

The mobility imperative for rural youth: the structural, symbolic and non-representational dimensions rural youth mobilities

ABSTRACTMobilities of money, symbols and young people themselves are central to the formation of the contemporary youth period. While rural young people remain marginal to theoretical development in youth studies, this paper shows that mobilities are especially significant for rural youth, who experience a kind of mobility imperative created by the accelerating concentration of economic and cultural capital in cities. Drawing on theory and evidence from contexts including Europe, Australia, Africa and South America, this paper explores the mobility imperative for rural youth and offers a new theoretical framework for understanding rural youth mobilities. The framework understands mobilities across three dimensions: the structural, the symbolic and the non-representational. These dimensions refer to material inequalities between rural and urban places in a global context; symbolic hierarchies that concentrate the resources for ‘youthfulness’ in cities and the affective entanglements between embodied subjectivities and spaces that emerge as young people move. The paper shows how these dimensions interact in the production and experience of the mobility imperative, offering an ontological and theoretical platform for future research into rural youth mobilities.

Beyond aspirations: addressing the unique barriers faced by rural Australian students contemplating university

Central to the widening participation agenda in Australia is a focus on rural and regional students given their continued underrepresentation in higher education. The ACT University Experience camp is a joint venture by the Country Education Foundation Australia, the University of Canberra and the Australian National University providing academically able rural students a first-hand experience of university and city life. Utilising both quantitative and qualitative methods, the current research explored the unique factors affecting rural students’ transition to higher education. Along with increasingly positive views about university, students reported greater understanding of their post-school options and greater confidence in making this choice. Students’ descriptions of their imagined futures highlighted the strong connection between these young people and their families and communities, emphasising the need for a continued focus on the unique aspects of rural young people in securing their educational and occupational futures.

A generation looking for opportunities and recognition: young rural people and their pathways into irrigated agriculture in North Africa

Young rural people receive little attention in research and state development programs in the Mediterranean, despite their important role in farming and in the rural areas. This special issue focuses on the pathways into irrigated agriculture of young rural people in North Africa. The contributions to this special issue show the emancipation of rural young people, who install themselves, take initiatives and propose technical and institutional innovations that are driving the development of new forms of agriculture, which supply - for example -most of the needs of North African cities in fresh vegetables. The articles of this special issue make visible the agricultural dynamics in which rural youth are active and bring original insights on two main themes: i) the emergence of a social category shaped by a common aspiration to engage with small-scale entrepreneurial agriculture, and ii) the adaptive strategies of rural youth to develop their agricultural project in the face of the many difficulties in the access to productive resources. We discuss the informal nature of the new agricultural dynamics in which young rural people are engaged, in the perspective of new public policies that could explicitly take into account the pathways of young rural people, eager to renew irrigated agriculture in North Africa.

Leaving and returning to the village Non-permanent mobility of rural young people in the Saïss region (Morocco)

This article analyzes the role of the non-permanent mobility of rural youth in the territorial development in the agricultural plain of the Saiss in Morocco. This mobility refers to the frequent moves by young people for relatively short periods, to study and work, with frequent returns to the area. We conducted interviews with 80 young men and women from Ait Ali. The results showed that young people are mobile at an early age as they pursue education and seek professional training elsewhere. Mobility is pursued with the search for work, depending on each person's professional profile. These moves enable young people, especially men, to gain work experience, ensure the transfer of knowledge and skills to the farm, and stimulate private initiatives, such as agricultural projects. However, mobility of young women is limited compared to that of young men and often negatively perceived. Obtaining little social recognition in farming activities, young women seek other economic opportunities for their personal development and to raise their self-esteem. Consequently their mobility does not contribute in the same way to the territorial development as the mobility of young men.

Broken dreams? Youth experiences of agrarian change in Morocco's Saïss region

Important social and agrarian changes are taking place on the agricultural plain of the Saïss in Morocco. Rural young men and women are key players in this process. In this article, we use the experiences, aspirations and dreams of rural young people in the Saïss to describe and discuss current agrarian dynamics to 1) illustrate how these are intimately linked to agrarian transformation; 2) demonstrate how futures and identities are deeply gendered; and 3) provide nuance to structural analyses of agrarian change with ethnographic accounts of how changes are perceived by the people experiencing them. Our analysis shows how young people skillfully and cautiously negotiate space to realize their aspirations. In doing so they carve out new and more modern farming identities and are able to combine rurality with modernity. Nevertheless, they are situated in web of power relations hampering the fulfillment of their aspirations and dreams. This forces some to put their dreams on hold and find alternative futures, a result that will strongly influence and determine the future of the countryside.

Systematic review of barriers and facilitators to accessing and engaging with mental health care among at-risk young people.

This study aims to review the literature on barriers and facilitators to accessing and engaging with mental health care among young people from potentially disadvantaged groups, including young people identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (ATSI); culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD); lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex (LGBTQI); homeless; substance using; and youth residing in rural or remote areas. Fourteen databases were searched to identify qualitative and quantitative researches that examined barriers and/or facilitators to mental health care among the six groups of potentially disadvantaged young people. Out of 62 studies identified, 3 were conducted with ATSI young people, 1 with CALD young people, 4 with LGBTQI young people, 14 with homeless young people, 24 with substance-using young people, and 16 with young people residing in rural or remote areas. Findings generally confirmed barriers already established for all young people, but indicated that some may be heightened for young people in the six identified groups. Findings also pointed to both similarities and differences between these groups, suggesting that ATSI, CALD, LGBTQI, homeless, substance-using, and rural young people have some similar needs with respect to not only mental health care, but also other needs likely to reflect their individual circumstances. This systematic review highlights that young people from potentially disadvantaged groups have distinct needs that must be recognized to improve their experiences with mental health care. Future research of good methodological quality with young people is needed to increase accessibility of, and engagement with, mental health care.

Rural nurses: a convenient co‐location strategy for the rural mental health care of young people

The aim of this research was to understand new ways that young rural people with mental health problems could be helped at an early point in their mental health decline. Rural nurses represent skilled mental health helping capital in their local communities, yet this important mental health helping resource, or helping capital, is both under-recognised and under-used in providing early mental health help in rural communities. In recent years international momentum has gathered in support of a paradigm change to reform the delivery of youth mental health services so that they align more closely to the developmental and social needs of young people with mental health problems. A mixed methods case study design was used to explore the early mental health care needs of young rural people. A cross-sectional survey was conducted and data were analysed with descriptive techniques. In-depth interviews were conducted and the transcribed data were analysed using thematic techniques. The results of this study demonstrate that in general rural people are willing to seek mental health care, and that rural nurses are well suited to provide initial care to young people. Non-traditional venues such as community, school and justice settings are ideal places where more convenient first conversations about mental health with young people and their families, and rural nurses should be deployed to these settings. Rural nurses are able to contribute important initial engagement interventions that enhance the early mental health care for young people when it is needed.

Rural young people's perspectives on online sociality: crossing geography and exhibiting self through Facebook

Rural deficit discourses maintain that young people are disadvantaged by the rurality of where they live. Consistent with this is an assumption the Internet will alleviate isolation through its ability to collapse physical and temporal constraints. This article challenges such modes of understanding by privileging young Australian rural people’s voices and perspectives about online social environments. Focusing on the social networking site Facebook, the question of whether rural young people make use of the site to cross geography is posed. In order to cut through rhetoric positing a redemptive, transcending online space, Hogan’s revision of Goffman’s ‘presentation of self’ thesis is utlised to analyse how rural young people talk about using Facebook. Rather than realising the total collapse of geographic boundaries, young rural people talked about using the site to mold careful, but representative images of themselves to interact with their friends at a place and time of their choosing.

Play on the mother-ground: children’s games in rural Odisha

In rural northern Odisha, children’s outdoor peer play is a pervasive, though barely considered, form of village activity. This essay foregrounds elementary school-aged children’s play as a form of social interaction with landscapes. Specifically, it examines how children at play develop embodied experience and knowledge of place vis-à-vis adult constructions of space and place. The article draws on ethnographic research with children from paddy cultivator and forester families to answer questions around how the village environment and its core resources and symbolic motifs shape play and how peer play shapes children’s sense of their environment. Earth, or soil, for instance, was found to have a central place in both adult-determined productive and symbolic spheres, as well as in children’s imaginative play and games, highlighting connections between the symbolic motifs of a wider spatial context and the internal spatiality of children’s play. As well as a site of symbolic continuity, children’s play was found to be both an index and a site of transformation within Odishan villages. First, as environments change, so do the central motifs and resources with which children play – for play is foremost an exercise of adaptive flexibility. Second, games were found to provide rural young people with an open-ended context within which to develop their own peer responses to their social and spatial circumstances through dialogues, arguments, embodied exchanges and critical sense-making, which accompany their play. These, in turn, impact and transform local spatial contexts, by imbibing them with generational significances. The study raises important questions for further research into the play-environment connection.

Affective Topologies of Rural Youth Embodiment

AbstractThis article explores the affective, embodied dimensions of young rural people's relationship with space and place. Relationship with space and place has been recognised as a significant dimension of rural youths' subjectivities but it has been primarily understood through representational perspectives which focus on young people's perceptions, images, or discursive constructions of their local places. In contrast, this article draws on non‐representational approaches to subjectivity and space to highlight the embodied, sensuous entanglements between young people's subjectivities and the spaces they have inhabited and experienced. Qualitative data gathered as part of a project exploring youths' subjectivities in regional Australia shows that young people's experience of their rural locale, as well as their relationship to the city, reflect an affective topology of relations of proximity and rhythmic tempo which emerges from the relationship between the space of their bodily hexis and the spaces and places they are situated within. These non‐representational, embodied processes are intrinsic to rural youths' subjectivities and structure how young people approach and navigate their futures.

Suicide bereavement and stigma for young people in rural Australia: a mixed methods study

This paper describes a mixed methods study undertaken to describe the experience of suicide bereavement for young people in rural Australian communities. The study involved 18 rural young people who were aged between 14 and 21 years when they experienced the suicide death of a friend. The young people completed a standardised stigma questionnaire and qualitative interview. Quantitative results suggested that young people were less likely to view suicide as stemming from isolation and depression, and they tended to consider suicide in glorifying and normalising terms. Qualitative findings included young peoples’ perceptions of stigma associated with suicide in their rural communities. Most of the young people described reluctance in their community to talk about or acknowledge suicide, as suicide was a taboo subject. The findings support the need to combat stigma and silence that surrounds suicide in rural Australia in order to assist young suicide-bereaved people.

New Challenges and Opportunities for Mountain Agri-Food Economy in South Eastern Europe. A Scenario for Efficient and Sustainable Use of Mountain Product, Based on the Family Farm, in an Innovative, Adapted Cooperative Associative System – Horizon 2040

The Romanian mountains’ agri-food economy (74,000 km2) is provided by family farms, based on about 2.3 million hectares of grasslands and hayfields, ruminant livestock breeding and organic fertilizers. The high quality of “mountain products” (dairy, meat, etc.) is given by the floral polymorphism of grasslands, the absence of use of chemicals, unpolluted environment. The fast demographic growth and the existence of a significant market segment interested in ‘mountain products“, which are healthy, may ensure sustainability. The “key” is to ensure motivating prices, especially for milk and meat – raw materials. The type of “savage” capitalism installed - through “processors” and other middlemen, have ridiculously low prices that induced discouragement, poverty, abandonment of agriculture, migration of rural young people and serious damage of the functional biodiversity of grasslands in mountain areas - this system being compromised and “toxic” for the mountain economy. It urgently requires an alternative, by which to ensure a separation of ‘mountain product”, significant volume and continuity throughout the year, quality and health guarantees for consumers. An innovative associative-cooperative system adapted to realities, organized at the level of traditional bio-areas for “niche mountain products ‘and niche consumers”, with local brands - could provide recovery and sustainable growth, through self-reproduction. The area that is interested: the less-favored mountain area from Romania and other countries with mountains, especially from in South-Eastern Europe – EU members and countries accessing the EU.

Farm, place and identity construction among Irish farm youth who migrate

While studies of rural young people's relationship to place continue to provide illuminating insights into experiences of belonging and identity construction, this paper specifically focuses on farm youth to explore the connection between involvement in the farm and its influence on their relationship and connection with their local community. The paper is based on qualitative narrative research with a group of thirty university students who grew up on the farm but are highly unlikely to pursue farming as a career or return to the farm. Their farm experiences reflect different levels of farming engagement since their childhood. The paper outlines how the nature of roles and farm involvement inform wider social recognition and identifications, which significantly shape their connections with the places they were ‘born and bred’. Early farm role allocations into ‘worker/'helper’ positions are shown to influence interactions with the wider locality and farming community and have a distinct impact on how young people build their identities. The findings of this research show that the kinds of gendered work roles and farm involvement while growing up influenced their wider social recognition and identifications, which significantly shaped and continues to shape their feelings of connection to where they were ‘born and bred’. Despite having moved to urban locations – and relatively varied ‘internal’ relationships with farm/rural community culture – a more abstract ‘rural’ identification persists in opposition to a negatively imagined external urban ‘other’. A key conclusion from this is that young people from this background, who are socially and spatially mobile, continue to affirm farm identities as they build a life away from their homeplace and local community.

The Priorities of Young Rural Population Enterprise Activity

In rural areas, there is a the enormous potential in human resources, natural environment and its biodiversity, raw materials and other economic resources, of great importance in the life of the community in the European Union and its development. EU Committee of the Regions recognizes the importance of the conservation measures of the rural areas social, cultural, natural, environmental and economic viability. The young rural population entrepreneurship increase is one of the priorities of the EU agricultural and rural development policy for the period 2014-2020. In order to successfully implement the EU's regional and rural development strategic provisions it is necessary to find ways to involve young rural people in the commercial activities. The purpose of the investigation is to provide insights and suggestions for the shape of entrepreneurship priorities promotion among young rural population in Lithuania. The young Lithuanian rural population enterprise activity priorities and their importance of finding solutions to problems in promoting of entrepreneurship defined by an empirical study are presented in the publication. Publication was prepared according to 19 to 25 year old Lithuanian rural population entrepreneurship research which was conducted in 2011-2013.