Singlewide: Chasing the American Dream in a Rural Trailer Park

by Sonya Salamon, Katherine MacTavish

Overview

In Singlewide, Sonya Salamon and Katherine MacTavish explore the role of the trailer park as a source of affordable housing. America’s trailer parks, most in rural places, shelter an estimated 12 million people, and the authors show how these parks serve as a private solution to a pressing public need. Singlewide considers the circumstances of families with school-age children in trailer parks serving whites in Illinois, Hispanics in New Mexico, and African Americans in North Carolina. By looking carefully at the daily lives of families who live side by side in rows of manufactured homes, Salamon and MacTavish draw conclusions about the importance of housing, community, and location in the families’ dreams of opportunities and success as signified by eventually owning land and a conventional home.

Working-poor rural families who engage with what Salamon and MacTavish call the "mobile home industrial complex" may become caught in an expensive trap starting with their purchase of a mobile home. A family that must site its trailer in a land-lease trailer park struggles to realize any of the anticipated benefits of homeownership. Seeking to break down stereotypes, Salamon and MacTavish reveal the important place that trailer parks hold within the United States national experience. In so doing, they attempt to integrate and normalize a way of life that many see as outside the mainstream, suggesting that families who live in trailer parks, rather than being "trailer trash," culturally resemble the parks’ neighbors who live in conventional homes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501713217
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	10/15/2017
Pages:	282
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sonya Salamon is Professor Emerita of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Prairie Patrimony and Newcomers to Old Towns. Katherine MacTavish is Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Science at Oregon State University.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. The Mobile Home Industrial Complex
2. Making Ends Meet
3. The Illinois Park
4. The North Carolina Parks
5. The New Mexico Parks
6. Youth and Trailer-Park Life
7. Reforming the Mobile Home Industrial Complex
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendix A
Appendix B
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Lyn C. Macgregor

Singlewide is an important and much-needed contribution to our understandings of rural poverty. Given the numbers of Americans who live in mobile home parks across the country, this is an important book. Sonya Salamon and Katherine MacTavish do an excellent job of situating the demand for trailer park housing in the larger context of rural economic changes and housing policies.

Daniel T. Lichter

In Singlewide, distinguished ethnographers Sonya Salamon and Kate MacTavish tell an extraordinary story of trailer people—segregated, stigmatized, and cut off from mainstream society and the rural communities in which they live.

Ann R. Tickamyer

In Singlewide Sonya Salamon and Kate MacTavish provide a fascinating study of the meanings and implications of trailer park life. Readers will find a thoughtful analysis of the industry as well as a comprehensive and policy-rich account of the difficulties encountered by low-income families ‘chasing the American dream’ through mobile home ownership.

Editorial Reviews

The book realistically portrays trailer living in each unique area chosen by the authors.

Pasatiempo

This extensive study addresses a largely neglected subject and provides an important contribution to our understanding of class and place in America. Recommended for scholars in community, family, and policy studies.

Contemporary Sociology

The authors discuss four research questions involving the lasting effects on a family from living in a trailer park, financial payoffs, sense of belonging in a community, and the possibility that children and youth can improve their life chances. They also summarize the role of mobile home manufacturers, dealers, financers, park operators, and nearby communities.

Choice

Singlewide blazes a trail for future researchers to follow, opening our eyes to the limited housing options available in rural America.

American Journal of Sociology

Singlewide provides a thoughtful sample of the millions of families living and raising children in rural or small-town mobile home parks.

Planning

This book addresses an important aspect of rural communities that have been understudied. Its strength is the in-depth stories drawn from the field studies that detail how families enter into trailer park living, and more importantly, how they become trapped there. It also effectively demonstrates how the stigmatized rural landscapes of trailer parks can impact youth opportunities and social networks.... This book represents a welcome exploration of mobile home park communities, and scholars who focus on a wide array of rural issues will find it interesting and useful.

Social & Cultural Geography

Singlewide is an excellent addition to the rural sociology literature because it provides a rich account of the role of trailer parks in rural areas and of low-income households' housing strategies.... This book is enjoyable to read since it is well researched, well written, and well organized. Beyond rural scholars interested in housing and the wider topics mentioned above, this book should be suitable for many audiences. In particular, it should be approachable for undergraduate students and could be useful in a class on poverty or even in an introduction to sociology class to illustrate social mobility and structure versus agency. This book could also be useful in a graduate research methods seminar because it is a good example of approachable yet rigorous scholarship that draws on multiple data sources and types. Last, with a chapter focused on implications and recommendations, this book should be of interest to housing advocates, service providers, and policy makers.

Rural Sociology

Singlewide provides a rich and valuable picture of mobile-home park life, and the lessons learned spread well beyond these contexts. Scholars of poverty, housing, exploitation, families and communities, and child development will have much to gain from this important work.

Journal of Children and Poverty

Singlewide blazes a trail for future researchers to follow, opening our eyes to the limited housing options available in rural America.

-- "American Journal of Sociology"

Singlewide is an excellent addition to the rural sociology literature because it provides a rich account of the role of trailer parks in rural areas and of low-income households' housing strategies.... This book is enjoyable to read since it is well researched, well written, and well organized. Beyond rural scholars interested in housing and the wider topics mentioned above, this book should be suitable for many audiences. In particular, it should be approachable for undergraduate students and could be useful in a class on poverty or even in an introduction to sociology class to illustrate social mobility and structure versus agency. This book could also be useful in a graduate research methods seminar because it is a good example of approachable yet rigorous scholarship that draws on multiple data sources and types. Last, with a chapter focused on implications and recommendations, this book should be of interest to housing advocates, service providers, and policy makers.

-- "Rural Sociology"

Singlewide provides a rich and valuable picture of mobile-home park life, and the lessons learned spread well beyond these contexts. Scholars of poverty, housing, exploitation, families and communities, and child development will have much to gain from this important work.

-- "Journal of Children and Poverty"

Singlewide provides a thoughtful sample of the millions of families living and raising children in rural or small-town mobile home parks.

-- "Planning"

The authors discuss four research questions involving the lasting effects on a family from living in a trailer park, financial payoffs, sense of belonging in a community, and the possibility that children and youth can improve their life chances. They also summarize the role of mobile home manufacturers, dealers, financers, park operators, and nearby communities.

-- "Choice"

The book realistically portrays trailer living in each unique area chosen by the authors.

-- "Pasatiempo"

This book addresses an important aspect of rural communities that have been understudied. Its strength is the in-depth stories drawn from the field studies that detail how families enter into trailer park living, and more importantly, how they become trapped there. It also effectively demonstrates how the stigmatized rural landscapes of trailer parks can impact youth opportunities and social networks.... This book represents a welcome exploration of mobile home park communities, and scholars who focus on a wide array of rural issues will find it interesting and useful.

-- "Social & Cultural Geography"

This extensive study addresses a largely neglected subject and provides an important contribution to our understanding of class and place in America. Recommended for scholars in community, family, and policy studies.

-- "Contemporary Sociology"

From the Publisher

"In Singlewide Sonya Salamon and Kate MacTavish provide a fascinating study of the meanings and implications of trailer park life. Readers will find a thoughtful analysis of the industry as well as a comprehensive and policy-rich account of the difficulties encountered by low-income families ‘chasing the American dream’ through mobile home ownership."

Ann R. Tickamyer

"In Singlewide, distinguished ethnographers Sonya Salamon and Kate MacTavish tell an extraordinary story of trailer people—segregated, stigmatized, and cut off from mainstream society and the rural communities in which they live."

Daniel T. Lichter

"Singlewide is an important and much-needed contribution to our understandings of rural poverty. Given the numbers of Americans who live in mobile home parks across the country, this is an important book. Sonya Salamon and Katherine MacTavish do an excellent job of situating the demand for trailer park housing in the larger context of rural economic changes and housing policies."

Lyn C. Macgregor

"Singlewide provides a rich and valuable picture of mobile-home park life, and the lessons learned spread well beyond these contexts. Scholars of poverty, housing, exploitation, families and communities, and child development will have much to gain from this important work."

Journal of children and Poverty