Rural Poverty in the United States

by Ann Tickamyer (Editor), Jennifer Sherman (Editor), Jennifer Warlick (Editor)

Overview

America's rural areas have always held a disproportionate share of the nation's poorest populations. Rural Poverty in the United States examines why. What is it about the geography, demography, and history of rural communities that keeps them poor? In a comprehensive analysis that extends from the Civil War to the present, Rural Poverty in the United States looks at access to human and social capital; food security; healthcare and the environment; homelessness; gender roles and relations; racial inequalities; and immigration trends to isolate the underlying causes of persistent rural poverty.

Contributors to this volume incorporate approaches from multiple disciplines, including sociology, economics, demography, race and gender studies, public health, education, criminal justice, social welfare, and other social science fields. They take a hard look at current and past programs to alleviate rural poverty and use their failures to suggest alternatives that could improve the well-being of rural Americans for years to come. These essays work hard to define rural poverty's specific metrics and markers, a critical step for building better policy and practice. Considering gender, race, and immigration, the book appreciates the overlooked structural and institutional dimensions of ongoing rural poverty and its larger social consequences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231172233
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	08/22/2017
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	987,269
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ann R. Tickamyer is professor of rural sociology in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education in the College of Agricultural Science at Pennsylvania State University. She is the coeditor of Economic Restructuring and Family Well-Being in Rural America (2011) and coauthor of Power, Change, and Gender Relations in Rural Java: A Tale of Two Villages (2012).

Jennifer Sherman is associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Washington State University. She is the author of Those Who Work, Those Who Don’t: Poverty, Morality, and Family in Rural America (2009).

Jennifer Warlick is associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Notre Dame and the director of their Poverty Studies Interdisciplinary Minor. She has also been an economist at the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and a fellow at the Institute for Research on Poverty.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. Geography and Demography of Rural America
1. Where Is Rural America and Who Lives There?, by Kenneth M. Johnson
2. Poverty in Rural America Then and Now, by Bruce Weber and Kathleen Miller
Part II. Key Concepts and Issues for Understanding Rural Poverty
3. Measures of Poverty and Implications for Portraits of Rural Hardship, by Leif Jensen and Danielle Ely
4. How to Explain Poverty?, by Ann R. Tickamyer and Emily J. Wornell
Part III. Vulnerable Populations in Rural Places
5. Changing Gender Roles and Rural Poverty, by Kristin Smith
Case Study: In re Bow, Nevada Supreme Court (1997), by Lisa R. Pruitt
6. Racial Inequalities and Poverty in Rural America, by Mark H. Harvey
Case Study: Engaging Black Geographies—How Racism Continues to Produce Poverty within the Black Belt South, by Rosalind P. Harris
7. Immigration Trends and Immigrant Poverty in Rural America, by Shannon M. Monnat and Raeven Faye Chandler
Case Study: Immigration and New Rural Residents, by J. Celeste Lay
Part IV. Community and Societal Institutions
8. Rural Poverty and Symbolic Capital: A Tale of Two Valleys, by Jennifer Sherman
Case Study: Symbolic Capital and Sources of Division in “Golden Valley,” California, and “Paradise Valley,” Washington, by Jennifer Sherman
9. The Old Versus the New Economies and Their Impacts, by Brian Thiede and Tim Slack
Case Study: Buoyancy on the Bayou—Louisiana Shrimpers Face the Rising Tide of Globalization, by Jill Ann Harrison
10. Food Insecurity and Housing Insecurity, by Alisha Coleman-Jensen and Barry Steffen
Case Study: Food Insecurity and Hunger in the Rural West, by Sarah Whitley
11. The Environment and Health, by Danielle Christine Rhubart and Elyzabeth W. Engle
Case Study: The Environment and Health, by Michael Hendryx
12. Education and Information, by Catharine Biddle and Ian Mette
Case Study: Education, Economic Disadvantage, and Homeless Students in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale Gas Region, by Kai A. Schafft
13. Crime, Punishment, and Spatial Inequality, by John M. Eason, L. Ash Smith, Jason Greenberg, Richard D. Abel, and Corey Sparks
Case Study: Violence Against Women in America’s Heartland, by Walter S. DeKeseredy and Amanda Hall-Sanchez
Part V. Programs, Policy, and Politics
14. The Safety Net in Rural America, by Jennifer Warlick
15. The Opportunities and Limits of Economic Growth, by Gary Paul Green
16. Politics and Policy: Barriers and Opportunities for Rural Peoples, by Ann R. Tickamyer, Jennifer Sherman, and Jennifer Warlick
Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

Rural Poverty in the United States provides the most comprehensive analysis in decades of living conditions among poor people in rural America. It is a superb example of ‘actionable social science.’

Tom Rudel

This edited volume presents a comprehensive, multidisciplinary analysis of rural poverty in the US. . . . Highly recommended.

Choice

The analysis throughout the book is intersectoral, looking at the implications of gender, race, and ethnicity for access to resources, from land and its products to employment opportunities as structural changes made different kinds of extractionism less lucrative.

Contemporary Sociology

This book covers the historical development of rural poverty research and policy, brings together the core theoretical literature, and addresses significant substantive issues including food insecurity, race, migration, and housing. The breadth is remarkable. No other volume exists today that draws the literature together so comprehensively and engagingly.

Linda Lobao