tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/urban-rural-divide-35277/articlesUrban/rural divide – The Conversation2023-05-25T12:05:43Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2020582023-05-25T12:05:43Z2023-05-25T12:05:43ZHow online grocery shopping is making Britain’s urban-rural inequality worse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528225/original/file-20230525-25-4slr26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/Nvo5xeoccVg">Jan Kopriva/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Before the pandemic, online grocery shopping was typically something younger and more affluent people living in cities indulged in. When COVID hit, though, <a href="https://theconversation.com/two-years-into-the-pandemic-which-of-our-newly-formed-habits-are-here-to-stay-178204">the market exploded</a>. </p>
<p>In the first week of the first UK lockdown, demand for Ocado home deliveries was reportedly <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-supermarke-idUSKBN21H210">ten times higher</a> than it had been the week before. But when COVID restrictions were re-imposed in September 2020, the online supermarket, like its competitors, was <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8750427/Ocado-warns-running-delivery-slots-second-lockdown-looms-Britain.html">still warning customers</a> that slots were selling out fast. So fast, in fact, one staffer <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-supermarke-idUSKBN21H210">said</a> they were going “like Glastonbury tickets.”</p>
<p>Households struggled to book delivery slots, as supermarkets rightly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/25/supermarkets-use-database-to-prioritise-deliveries-to-elderly">prioritised</a> deliveries for elderly and vulnerable consumers. And retailers hustled to <a href="https://www.mintel.com/press-centre/click-spend-90-of-brits-plan-to-continue-online-grocery-shopping-even-after-peak-covid-19-passes/">capitalise on this rapid growth</a>. </p>
<p>In April 2020, Tesco told its customers it <a href="https://www.tescoplc.com/news/2020/our-latest-response-to-covid-19-29-april/">had hired</a> 12,000 extra staff and 4,000 new delivery drivers. Six months in, Sainsbury’s said it was delivering 700,000 online orders per week, having effectively <a href="https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/news/latest-news/2020/28-09-20-sainsburys-dials-up-digital#:%7E:text=Sainsbury's%20will%20deliver%20700%2C000%20online,since%20the%20beginning%20of%20March.">doubled</a> its capacity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A cat amid bags of shopping." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526585/original/file-20230516-29-z6wabp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526585/original/file-20230516-29-z6wabp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526585/original/file-20230516-29-z6wabp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526585/original/file-20230516-29-z6wabp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526585/original/file-20230516-29-z6wabp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526585/original/file-20230516-29-z6wabp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526585/original/file-20230516-29-z6wabp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">COVID lockdowns saw new demographics turn to online deliveries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/DPC8oN2IMcY">Daniel Romero/Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2019, prior to the pandemic, my colleagues and I <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09593969.2021.2017321">mapped online groceries coverage</a> by all the major UK grocers, using the “check if we deliver to your area” tool on their websites. We found that where you live affects your choice and availability of online groceries. </p>
<p>People in rural areas have <a href="https://www.cdrc.ac.uk/cdrc-analysis-uncovers-new-rural-e-food-deserts/">less access to supermarkets in general</a> and, when it comes to online grocery shopping, just over 11% of those people have no choice at all. </p>
<h2>Lack of choice</h2>
<p>When households order groceries online from the major supermarkets, their orders are usually assembled in a local supermarket, what industry insiders term an “online fulfilment store”. These have dedicated staff, storage space, vehicles and drivers. </p>
<p>This model, however, means that online groceries are <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/0718-1876/17/2/33">not available</a> in all locations. Rather, they are concentrated around the network of stores that each grocer operates. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A cottage in a valley with fog overhead." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528238/original/file-20230525-15-sg2yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528238/original/file-20230525-15-sg2yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528238/original/file-20230525-15-sg2yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528238/original/file-20230525-15-sg2yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528238/original/file-20230525-15-sg2yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528238/original/file-20230525-15-sg2yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528238/original/file-20230525-15-sg2yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People living in rural Scotland have very few online options.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/XwjICmfI0SQ">Antoine Fabre/Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On each supermarket website we inputted one postcode from each of the 41,735 neighbourhoods in Great Britain – representing 25.7m households – and recorded the result. We then counted the number of retailers delivering to each neighbourhood.</p>
<p>We found that 98% of households in Great Britain are served by at least one of Tesco, Sainsbury’s or Asda. These three grocers offer the greatest delivery coverage, particularly in urban and suburban areas where households have a choice of grocer providing home delivery. </p>
<p>Other grocers have more restricted coverage. Iceland, a budget retailer with stores in urban areas, serves only 86% of households. Ocado, meanwhile, which is more upmarket and online only, delivers to only 77% of households. </p>
<p>Many neighbourhoods – in south-west and northern England, south and mid-Wales, and in Scotland’s borders, highlands and islands – suffer poor coverage of online groceries. </p>
<p>Households in many neighbourhoods in Argyll and Bute (Scotland), for example, have a single online groceries provider (Tesco). By contrast, in nearby Glasgow, most neighbourhoods have a choice of six online grocery providers. </p>
<p>Across Great Britain, we found that
<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09593969.2021.2017321">over 11% of households</a> in the most remote rural areas have no choice of provider. They must rely on a single grocer (typically Tesco) for online groceries. </p>
<h2>Why retailers are not expanding into rural areas</h2>
<p>Rural areas that are underserved by supermarkets in general are precisely those that could benefit the most from better online provision. In urban contexts, the older, higher spending consumer demographic was newly <a href="https://www.efoodinsights.com/uk-online-grocery-report/">converted</a> to online grocery shopping. </p>
<p>In rural areas, this same demographic could therefore represent untapped demand. In other words, there is an incentive for retailers to expand there.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A row of beach huts on a beach." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528230/original/file-20230525-23-py6r8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528230/original/file-20230525-23-py6r8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528230/original/file-20230525-23-py6r8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528230/original/file-20230525-23-py6r8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528230/original/file-20230525-23-py6r8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528230/original/file-20230525-23-py6r8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528230/original/file-20230525-23-py6r8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Supermarket coverage across Wales is much thinner than for England.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/Xvh4JikjajI">Llio Angharad/Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But that is not happening. We had rare access to data about the nationwide network of Sainsbury’s stores. <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/0718-1876/17/2/33">Over 180 of those supermarkets</a> are in London and south-east England, 85 of which are used as online fulfilment stores. This means the retailer is able to deliver groceries to all neighbourhoods in these regions. </p>
<p>In Wales, by contrast, there are only <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/0718-1876/17/2/33">four Sainsbury’s online fulfilment stores</a> concentrated around the major towns and cities in south Wales. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09593969.2021.2017321">We found that</a> home delivery by Sainsbury’s was unavailable to 162,000 Welsh households (12%). </p>
<p>Even if all existing Sainsbury’s supermarkets in Wales were used for online deliveries, over 25% of neighbourhoods would still be <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/0718-1876/17/2/33">more than 40km</a> from their nearest fulfilment store. Drivers could have to travel over 100km to make their deliveries. This is prohibitively expensive and inefficient. </p>
<p>To expand online groceries coverage beyond the store network, retailers would need to fork out considerable sums to build more stores. Most, however, <a href="https://www.grocerygazette.co.uk/2023/03/09/plans-supermarkets-expanding/">have cut back</a> on supermarket expansion plans, focusing instead on smaller convenience stores to reflect changing shopper behaviours. </p>
<p>Amid changing consumer behaviours, online remains a key battleground for grocers. However, it <a href="https://www.economist.com/britain/2021/01/23/an-online-sales-boom-is-killing-supermarket-profits">offers lower profit margins</a> than in-store shopping due to the higher costs of order preparation and delivery. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A cab with an ad for an online grocery company." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528227/original/file-20230525-27-z4t2n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528227/original/file-20230525-27-z4t2n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528227/original/file-20230525-27-z4t2n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528227/original/file-20230525-27-z4t2n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528227/original/file-20230525-27-z4t2n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528227/original/file-20230525-27-z4t2n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528227/original/file-20230525-27-z4t2n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Will Turkish online grocer Getir expand into rural areas?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/IXOqVutVfdM">Metin Ozer/Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another solution is the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/16/sainsburys-signs-deal-with-food-delivery-app-just-eat">partnership model</a> between grocers and <a href="https://theconversation.com/rapid-delivery-grocery-apps-have-flourished-during-the-pandemic-but-will-they-permanently-change-how-we-shop-162391">online platforms</a> such as Uber Eats, Just Eat and Deliveroo, who collect customer orders from smaller convenience stores (such as Tesco Express). </p>
<p>New players like the Turkish <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/getir-europe-delivery-wars">online-only grocer Getir</a> offer <a href="https://theconversation.com/fast-grocery-deliveries-are-likely-to-get-more-expensive-heres-why-177502">rapid delivery services</a> using smaller, more efficient warehouses located close to the customers. However, these, too, are confined to urban areas, for now. </p>
<p>Not being able to choose where you shop has several adverse impacts. It can restrict <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-blocks-merger-between-sainsburys-and-asda">competition</a> in online groceries, which in turn can see customers faced with less choice of delivery slot or higher charges for home delivery. </p>
<p>And, as highlighted by the consumer choice champion <a href="https://campaigns.which.co.uk/affordable-food/">Which?</a> and the <a href="https://www.cdrc.ac.uk/priority-places-for-food-index/">Consumer Data Research Centre</a>, it can hamper access to affordable, healthy groceries, by limiting customers’ opportunity to shop around for the best deals and widest range. </p>
<p>Quite how this might change though boils down to whether the major grocers or the new innovators <a href="https://theconversation.com/inflation-the-supermarket-business-model-is-too-fragile-to-shield-customers-from-rising-food-prices-183408">are able</a> to make the investments needed to better cater to rural demand. Until then, customers in these areas will <a href="https://www.cdrc.ac.uk/cdrc-analysis-uncovers-new-rural-e-food-deserts">face the dual disadvantage</a> of poor access to larger supermarkets and fewer online grocery options to improve things.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202058/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research reported here has been undertaken by a team based at the University of Leeds, with support from the Consumer Data Research Centre, Leeds Institute for Data Analytics and Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Analytics and Society. Specific acknowledgement is given to Dr Nick Hood, School of Geography, University of Leeds for his contribution to this work.</span></em></p>People in rural areas have less access to supermarkets in general. When it comes to online grocery shopping, just over 11% of those have no choice at all.Andy Newing, Associate Professor in Applied Spatial Analysis, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1858202022-06-30T12:23:01Z2022-06-30T12:23:01ZA water strategy for the parched West: Have cities pay farmers to install more efficient irrigation systems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471673/original/file-20220629-23-fihz5j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C0%2C5415%2C3621&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Low-tech irrigation on a cattle ranch near Whitewater, Colo., June 30, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/water-flows-from-irrigation-pipes-to-keep-parts-of-janie-news-photo/1233914594">Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Are you going to run out of water?” is the first question people ask when they find out I’m from Arizona. The answer is that <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/in-depth/news/local/arizona-environment/2019/12/05/unregulated-pumping-arizona-groundwater-dry-wells/2425078001/">some people already have</a>, <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/arizona/articles/2022-01-22/exchange-rio-verde-foothills-homes-to-lose-water-source">others soon may</a> and it’s going to get much worse without dramatic changes.</p>
<p>Unsustainable water practices, drought and climate change are causing this crisis across the U.S. Southwest. States are drawing less water from the Colorado River, which supplies water to 40 million people. But levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the river’s two largest reservoirs, have dropped so low so quickly that there is a serious risk of one or both soon hitting “<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-dead-pool-a-water-expert-explains-182495">dead pool</a>,” a level when no water flows out of the dams. </p>
<p>On June 14, 2022, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton warned Congress that the seven Colorado River Basin States – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming – need to reduce their diversions from the Colorado River by <a href="https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2022-06-14/big-water-cutbacks-ordered-amid-colorado-river-shortage">2 million to 4 million acre-feet</a> in 2022. An acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre of land, about the size of a football field, with a foot of water – roughly 325,000 gallons. If the states don’t come up with a plan by August 2022, Touton may do it for them. </p>
<p>To achieve Touton’s objective, states need to focus on the region’s biggest water user: agriculture. Farmers consume <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2017/june/understanding-irrigated-agriculture/">80% of the water</a> used in the Colorado River Basin. As a longtime <a href="https://robertglennon.net/">analyst of western water policy</a>, I believe that solving this crisis will require a major intervention to help farmers use less water.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jtxew5XUVbQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">John Oliver, host of HBO’s ‘Last Week Tonight,’ delves into the West’s water crisis.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lawns in the desert</h2>
<p>It’s not an exaggeration to call the Southwest’s water shortage a crisis. Declining river levels are compromising <a href="https://theconversation.com/hydropowers-future-is-clouded-by-droughts-floods-and-climate-change-its-also-essential-to-the-us-electric-grid-182314">electricity generation from hydropower</a>, which affects the <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/southwest-megadrought-pushes-hydropower-to-the-brink/#:%7E:text=As%2520the%2520megadrought%2520gripping%2520the,a%2520raft%2520of%2520warning%2520signs">power supply</a> for millions of people. Farmers are <a href="https://asmith.ucdavis.edu/news/fallow-fields">fallowing fields</a> and using less water on their crops. This, in turn, imperils food production already under global strain from the war in Ukraine. Drought conditions could <a href="https://californiawaterblog.com/2022/06/12/considerations-for-developing-an-environmental-water-right-in-california/">wipe out endangered species</a>, especially salmon.</p>
<p>There is something profoundly unsettling about the lush green landscape in Southern California, a desert transformed by the power of water. The average annual rainfall at Los Angeles International Airport from 1944 to 2020 was 11.72 inches (30 centimeters). That’s not much more than Tucson, Arizona, gets in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. </p>
<p>Now, however, western states are imposing unprecedented restrictions on water use. On June 1, 2022, the Metropolitan Water District, wholesaler to 20 million Southern Californians, urgently called for a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-06-01/southern-california-new-drought-rules-june-2022">35% reduction</a> in water use. In response, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power is limiting residents to watering their lawns twice a week, for eight minutes per session. Other providers allow just one weekly watering. </p>
<p>The California Water Resources Control Board has ordered many farmers and San Francisco Bay-area cities to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-06-09/california-cities-farms-ordered-to-stop-diverting-water-from-rivers-san-francisco">stop diverting water</a> from the San Joaquin River system. <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-06-13/some-california-golf-courses-face-drought-restrictions">Golf course operators</a> are under substantial pressure to reduce water use.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1537929078010957824"}"></div></p>
<h2>Focus on irrigation</h2>
<p>Still, agriculture uses far more water than lawns and golf courses. In 2017, U.S. farmers irrigated about <a href="http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-practices-management/irrigation-water-use/">58 million acres</a> (23 million hectares) of cropland, almost two-thirds of it in the West. </p>
<p>In recent decades western farmers have significantly changed their irrigation practices. Many have switched from flood systems, which literally flood fields, to pressurized systems. Typically these are center pivots that apply water from sprinklers connected to a large arm that slowly moves around a core, creating those large, usually green circles that airplane passengers can see across the West. This shift reduces water losses from evaporation, percolation into the soil and runoff. </p>
<p>In 2012, U.S. farmers used pressurized systems on <a href="https://www.nass.usda.gov/Surveys/Guide_to_NASS_Surveys/Farm_and_Ranch_Irrigation/index.php">72% of their fields</a>, up from 37% in 1984. That still leaves 28%, or 20 million acres (8 million hectares), that are flood irrigated.</p>
<p>And center-pivot systems are not as efficient as drip or microirrigation, which delivers water directly to plants’ root zone through hoses embedded in the soil. Drip irrigation delivers water slowly, reducing runoff and evaporation. <a href="https://www.epa.gov/watersense/microirrigation">Microirrigation systems</a> use 20% to 50% less water than conventional sprinkler systems.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471668/original/file-20220629-17-l37so1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A long mechanical arm sprays water down onto plants." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471668/original/file-20220629-17-l37so1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471668/original/file-20220629-17-l37so1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471668/original/file-20220629-17-l37so1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471668/original/file-20220629-17-l37so1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471668/original/file-20220629-17-l37so1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471668/original/file-20220629-17-l37so1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471668/original/file-20220629-17-l37so1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A center-pivot irrigation system in Arizona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/wss-wateruse-irrigation-center-pivot-spray.jpg">USGS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But drip systems are quite expensive, costing upwards of US$2,000 per acre. They are not cost-effective for farmers who grow low-value crops, such as alfalfa, and are prohibitively expensive for small farmers. </p>
<p>Most farms that irrigate are small operations with fewer than 50 acres (20 hectares) and less than $150,000 in annual revenues. But <a href="http://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2017/june/understanding-irrigated-agriculture/">large-scale farms</a>, with annual revenues over $1 million, use about 60% of irrigated water.</p>
<p>Bigger farms have the <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2017/june/understanding-irrigated-agriculture/">necessary capital to invest</a> in sprinkler systems, but not necessarily enough to invest in highly efficient subsurface drip or microirrigation. Existing U.S. Department of Agriculture programs offer <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs141p2_035796.pdf">modest incentives</a>, usually a maximum of $100 per acre – not enough to justify switching for most farmers.</p>
<h2>Balancing rural and urban needs</h2>
<p>Helping farmers switch to high-efficiency irrigation systems would benefit the entire Southwest. I propose a two-pronged approach. </p>
<p>First, Congress would provide funding to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to offer farmers more generous financial incentives to switch to microirrigation systems. The <a href="https://tucson.com/news/local/subscriber/colorado-river-facing-unprecedented-risk-top-interior-official-says/article_85b68a0e-f128-11ec-b636-fb1c28d92fa6.html">2021 infrastructure bill contains $8.3 billion</a> to assist western states in adapting to drought and climate change. I believe that this financial aid, with support from the federal Bureau of Reclamation and the USDA, could persuade millions of American farmers to make the move.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/do-AVvmDD9U?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Microirrigation on a fruit and nut farm in Yuba City, Calif.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, to augment the federal program, state, municipal and local interests, including government agencies and private businesses, would create funds to underwrite the entire cost of converting farms to microirrigation. As I envision it, cities could offer to absorb 100% of the purchase and installation costs of microsystems in exchange for a percentage of the water that farmers would save by making the switch.</p>
<p>A program that’s cost-free to farmers would be far more attractive than existing federal programs. In my view, locally financed programs managed in collaboration with farm communities could reallocate a lot of water in a short time frame. This could be done through either a formal water rights transfer or short- or medium-term leases with farmers retaining water rights. </p>
<p>In the past, farmers have been rightly suspicious when city representatives arrived with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/03/business/colorado-river-water-rights.html">proposals to buy agricultural water</a>. All too often, such transfers have triggered economic death spirals for rural communities. But it need not be so. </p>
<p>Because farmers consume about 80% of western water, while residential, commercial and industrial use is <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/shopping-for-water-how-the-market-can-mitigate-water-shortages-in-the-american-west/">less than 10%</a>, I believe reducing agricultural consumption by a few percentage points would solve the municipal and industrial need for water. If farmers achieve this reduction thanks to increased efficiencies from microirrigation systems – paid for by cities – the farmers could grow as much product as they do now, with slightly less water. </p>
<p>Making this shift could raise economic and technical challenges. For example, most farms would probably fallow or reduce production of low-value crops, such as alfalfa, which could affect animal feed prices. And one disadvantage of drip irrigation systems is that gophers love to gnaw on the plastic tubes, so farmers would need an animal control program.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, I see voluntary, compensated water transfers as a strategy that would protect the long-term viability of rural communities and keep the taps flowing in western cities. Limits on watering lawns won’t solve the West’s water crisis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185820/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Glennon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Stemming the water crisis in the western US will require cities and rural areas to work together to make water use on farms – the largest source of demand – more efficient.Robert Glennon, Regents Professor Emeritus and Morris K. Udall Professor of Law & Public Policy Emeritus, University of ArizonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1689942021-10-12T19:19:02Z2021-10-12T19:19:02ZCanada’s worrisome urban-rural political divide has never been greater<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426030/original/file-20211012-27-rh3esu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4849%2C3343&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau harvests broccoli at the Ottawa Food Bank Farm on Canada Day 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After all the ballots were counted in the recent Canadian federal election, was anyone surprised that <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7853207/canada-election-long-range-mountains-2021/">Gudie Hutchings, incumbent Liberal MP in the district of Long Range Mountains, Newfoundland and Labrador, had been re-elected</a>? </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425762/original/file-20211011-19-1wnf1ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a pink scarf with a blue binder under her arm speaks to a man in a blue suit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425762/original/file-20211011-19-1wnf1ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425762/original/file-20211011-19-1wnf1ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425762/original/file-20211011-19-1wnf1ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425762/original/file-20211011-19-1wnf1ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425762/original/file-20211011-19-1wnf1ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425762/original/file-20211011-19-1wnf1ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425762/original/file-20211011-19-1wnf1ik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gudie Hutchings chats with Liberal cabinet minister Ahmed Hussen in Steady Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After all, western Newfoundland has been a Liberal stronghold since the days of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/newfoundland-and-labrador-elections-can-joey-smallwood-be-defeated">Joey Smallwood</a>. Nevertheless, Hutchings has become something of an endangered species: a rural Liberal MP.</p>
<p>In 2021, the Liberal caucus was thoroughly urban, its members drawn by the dozen from Canada’s largest cities. By land area, fully 87 per cent of ridings the Liberals won in 2021 could fit comfortably within the borders of Hutchings’ Switzerland-sized constituency.</p>
<h2>Urban/rural concentration</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/urban/2/">paper soon to be published in the <em>Canadian Journal of Political Science</em></a>, we investigate how support for the major political parties has been concentrated in urban or rural areas through time. Our first step was to develop a way to consistently score each of Canada’s more than 4,000 historical federal electoral districts on an urban-rural scale. We then use this new measure to explore when the major parties developed urban or rural vote-share advantages. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425326/original/file-20211007-25-1fd1std.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a graph illustrates the urban/rural divide in party support." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425326/original/file-20211007-25-1fd1std.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425326/original/file-20211007-25-1fd1std.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425326/original/file-20211007-25-1fd1std.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425326/original/file-20211007-25-1fd1std.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425326/original/file-20211007-25-1fd1std.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425326/original/file-20211007-25-1fd1std.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425326/original/file-20211007-25-1fd1std.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The urban-rural divide in party support. Parties above the zero-line are disproportionately urban; those below the zero-line are disproportionately rural. The shaded areas represent error margins. When both the line and its shaded area are above or below zero, we can say with confidence that the party’s vote share tilts urban or rural.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Jack Lucas and Zack Taylor)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What did we find? A steadily widening urban-rural divide in support for the Liberals and Conservatives since the early 1990s. </p>
<p>A longer historical view shows that while smaller gaps emerged between the two parties in the 1920s and again in the 1960s and ’70s, the urban-rural gap between the two parties was greater in the 2019 and 2021 elections than at any point in Canada’s history. </p>
<p>After the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyyI6s1abqE">Progressive Conservatives joined with the Canadian Alliance</a> in 2003, the new Conservative Party inherited the Reform-Alliance rural base. Aside from 2011, when the Conservative Party picked up more urban seats around the greater Toronto area, the divide only expanded. </p>
<h2>The Liberals, not the NDP, are the urban party</h2>
<p>Think of the New Democratic Party today, and you may conjure an image of a “downtowner” party rooted in the latte and laptop crowd. But this image is incorrect: the NDP has never been a distinctively urban party in Canada. </p>
<p>This is because the party has continuously held seats in rural resource industry communities in places like northern Ontario and the B.C. Interior, balancing out its seats in large urban centres. In fact, NDP support was most urban in the distant days of the early 1960s, when its seats were concentrated in labour-friendly communities in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Hamilton and Toronto. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="NDP leader Jagmeet Singh crosses the road at a rainbow crosswalk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425765/original/file-20211011-13-n3d7e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425765/original/file-20211011-13-n3d7e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425765/original/file-20211011-13-n3d7e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425765/original/file-20211011-13-n3d7e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425765/original/file-20211011-13-n3d7e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425765/original/file-20211011-13-n3d7e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425765/original/file-20211011-13-n3d7e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh crosses the road at a rainbow crosswalk during a campaign stop in Vancouver, B.C., in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Liberal party, not the NDP, is Canada’s unequivocally urban party, and it has been for a long time.</p>
<p>In short, our research shows that the urban-rural divide in support for Canada’s major parties has been around for generations, but has dramatically intensified over the past 25 years. The urban-rural divide predicts election outcomes more strongly today than at any previous point in our history. </p>
<p>This is worrisome for several reasons. As parties become durably uncompetitive on each others’ turf, they lose touch with the concerns of significant portions of the population. Recruitment of talented candidates who are connected to local communities becomes more difficult. </p>
<p>The portion of each party’s caucus that comes from safe seats increases. As the parties increasingly represent different social and economic worlds and speak different policy languages, conflicts will only become more entrenched. </p>
<h2>American-style polarization ahead?</h2>
<p>While the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/upshot/america-political-divide-urban-rural.html">causes of urban-rural polarization</a> are likely different south of the border, the United States’ <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/04/far-more-americans-see-very-strong-partisan-conflicts-now-than-in-the-last-two-presidential-election-years/">highly conflict-ridden politics</a> represent a possible future for Canada. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425768/original/file-20211011-14-1um2sey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black-and-white photo of a man talking." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425768/original/file-20211011-14-1um2sey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425768/original/file-20211011-14-1um2sey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=703&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425768/original/file-20211011-14-1um2sey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=703&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425768/original/file-20211011-14-1um2sey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=703&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425768/original/file-20211011-14-1um2sey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=883&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425768/original/file-20211011-14-1um2sey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=883&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425768/original/file-20211011-14-1um2sey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=883&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Diefenbaker is seen in this February 1963 photo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the other hand, history shows that change is possible. After decades of Liberal dominance, <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/allan-levine-the-defining-canadian-political-blockbuster-50-years-later">John Diefenbaker</a> assembled a new majority coalition of Conservative supporters in 1958 that differed from before. He combined rural Prairie ridings that had previously supported the Progressive Conservative and Social Credit parties and rural Québec ridings that traditionally voted Liberal with new urban support in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montréal. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/archives/brian-mulroney-wins-stunning-landslide-victory-in-1984-1.4675926">Brian Mulroney</a> did the same in 1984. And not so long ago, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/grenier-2011-election-anniversary-1.6007145">Stephen Harper</a> and <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2011/05/03/ndps_orange_wave_sweeps_across_canada.html">Jack Layton</a> managed to temporarily disrupt the trend toward the urban-rural polarization we identify — Harper pushed into urban regions while Layton had surprising victories in rural Québec.</p>
<p>Disadvantaged parties always have an incentive to reconfigure the playing field by creatively building unanticipated coalitions. But the leader who succeeds in disrupting the status quo must overcome a powerful long-term trend in the other direction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168994/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zack Taylor receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Lucas receives funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p>Canada’s urban/rural divide in terms of party support is increasingly pronounced. The leader who succeeds in building new support must overcome a powerful long-term trend.Zack Taylor, Associate Professor of Political Science, Western UniversityJack Lucas, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of CalgaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1564712021-03-09T20:09:06Z2021-03-09T20:09:06ZHow 18 million Americans could move into rural areas – without leaving home<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388112/original/file-20210305-19-10z2w2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C18%2C4013%2C2999&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lawrence, Kan., is one of the communities that would go from being considered urban to rural.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lawrence,_Kansas_skyline_2018.jpg">Ian Ballinger via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>About 46 million Americans – 14% of the nation’s inhabitants – are currently classified as living in rural areas. That number could jump to 64 million – an increase of nearly 40% – without anyone moving into a new home. That could actually hurt small cities and rural communities across the country.</p>
<p>The federal government <a href="https://www.census.gov/topics/housing/housing-patterns/about/core-based-statistical-areas.html">classifies communities’ characteristics based on their populations</a>, according to a definition created by the federal Office of Management and Budget. The criteria haven’t substantially changed since the 1940s. Since then, the <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/document/OMB-2021-0001-0002">U.S. population has more than doubled</a>, from 152 million in 1950 to more than <a href="https://datacommons.org/place/country/USA?topic=Demographics">328 million in 2019</a>.</p>
<p>The main dividing line is between communities – which include both towns and cities and their surrounding counties – with more than 50,000 people and those with fewer than that number. Over the past 70 years, the number of areas with at least that many people has <a href="https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1950/pc-03/pc-3-03.pdf">increased from 168</a> to <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/metro-micro/about.html">384</a> as small towns have grown into small cities. For example, from 1950 to 2010, the population of Lawrence, Kansas, grew from 23,351 to 87,643. </p>
<p>Under the current definition, Colbert County, Alabama – population 54,428 – is in the same category as Los Angeles County – population over 10 million. As the Trump administration ended, federal officials decided some more nuance would be useful in understanding American communities. They proposed to <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/19/2021-00988/recommendations-from-the-metropolitan-and-micropolitan-statistical-area-standards-review-committee">change the dividing line</a> to populations of more than 100,000 – and the effort appears to be continuing under the Biden administration. </p>
<p>That change would effectively move everyone who lives in places with 50,000 to 100,000 from urban to rural life, because their cities, including San Luis Obispo, California, and Battle Creek, Michigan, will no longer be considered large enough to count as metropolitan.</p>
<h2>Redefining rural</h2>
<p>The government doesn’t specifically use this system to label places as “urban” or “rural.” Instead, there are three government categories – “metropolitan,” “micropolitan” and “outside a core based statistical area.” However, most <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/rural-classifications/what-is-rural.aspx">government agencies</a>, <a href="http://rtc.ruralinstitute.umt.edu/research-findings/geography/county-classification/">researchers</a>, <a href="https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/what-is-rural">advocates</a> and <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/last-minute-trump-administration-proposal-would-effectively-redefine-rural/2021/01/25/">media outlets</a> use these classifications to sort communities into two groups – equating “metropolitan” with “urban” and <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-is-rural-america-and-what-does-it-look-like-72045">the other two categories together</a> as “rural.”</p>
<p>Making the proposed change would mean 144 areas with populations between 50,000 and 100,000, and the 251 counties they occupy, would no longer be classified as “metropolitan,” but rather as “micropolitan” – and therefore effectively rural – including Flagstaff, Arizona, and Blacksburg, Virginia. The change would leave Wyoming without any metropolitan areas at all.</p>
<p>The Office of Management and Budget is <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/19/2021-00988/recommendations-from-the-metropolitan-and-micropolitan-statistical-area-standards-review-committee">accepting comments</a> about this proposed change until March 19.</p>
<p><iframe id="LY6ok" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/LY6ok/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Looking at the numbers</h2>
<p>Changing how rural areas are defined could <a href="https://theconversation.com/most-of-americas-rural-areas-are-doomed-to-decline-115343">change Americans’ understanding of rural life</a>. </p>
<p>For instance, the current data reveal that rural areas have less access to <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-lockdowns-expose-the-digital-have-nots-in-rural-areas-heres-which-policies-can-get-them-connected-144324">broadband internet</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/rural-hospital-closings-reach-crisis-stage-leaving-millions-without-nearby-health-care-124072">health care services</a>.</p>
<p>But if the homes and communities of 18 million more Americans are added to those rural statistics, the numbers could look better. That rosier picture – which would not be the result of any actual changes to Americans’ lives – could reduce public and political pressure to improve life in rural communities.</p>
<p>It’s also not clear whether 100,000 is the right boundary for urban living – or of there is an exact number at all. To people in major cities, a community of 80,000 like Santa Fe, New Mexico, may be more similar to the 22,000-person Roseburg, Oregon, than to Chicago or Miami. To a rancher on the Plains, with fewer than one person per square mile, though, Santa Fe may qualify as a “big city,” with chain stores, hospitals and government offices.</p>
<h2>More than a statistical shift</h2>
<p>Though the government’s proposal says it’s meant as a <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/19/2021-00988/recommendations-from-the-metropolitan-and-micropolitan-statistical-area-standards-review-committee">statistical change only</a>, the classifications are <a href="https://gwipp.gwu.edu/counting-dollars-2020-role-decennial-census-geographic-distribution-federal-funds">commonly used by government agencies, charities and other organizations</a> to determine which communities are eligible for their funding or programs.</p>
<p>The change could make many small American cities, which would be newly identified as rural, ineligible for money to <a href="https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/consolidated-plan/consolidated-plan-process-grant-programs-and-related-hud-programs/">help community planning</a> and <a href="https://www.rtands.com/passenger/u-s-secretary-of-transporation-elaine-l-chao-announces-14-billion-for-nations-public-transit-systems-during-covid-19-emergency/">public transit</a> – even if they currently get that money. </p>
<p>Communities currently designated as rural may be hurt, too. If Congress and states don’t allocate more funds to serve the increased number of people classified as living in rural areas, the money that is available – like <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/09/23/2020-20971/revised-geographic-eligibility-for-federal-office-of-rural-health-policy-grants">rural health grants</a> – would be spread more thinly. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156471/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A federal proposal could effectively reclassify the homes of millions of Americans as rural, not urban – without anything actually changing about their communities.Devon Brenner, Assistant VP for Outreach and Initiatives, Office of Research and Economic Development, and Professor, College of Education, Mississippi State UniversityJesse Longhurst, Assistant Professor of Education, Southern Oregon UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1556162021-03-04T13:13:23Z2021-03-04T13:13:23ZQueer in the country: Why some LGBTQ Americans prefer rural life to urban ‘gayborhoods’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387533/original/file-20210303-22-1f2faby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C47%2C7951%2C5249&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Not all gay people enjoy big cities, but pop culture has little to say about rural LGBTQ life.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dabney-tompkins-sits-in-bed-with-his-husband-alan-colley-on-news-photo/995068706?adppopup=true">Ruaridh Connellan / Barcroft Media via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pop portrayals of LGBTQ Americans tend to feature urban gay life, from <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10350330.2018.1547490">Ru Paul’s “Drag Race”</a> and “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07393180600714505?casa_token=Ky2y1lqpipkAAAAA%3AZBKJ1sp2mQVotwy3ruNEXnMhJ36L07vHprcJ2CF2q1MxV6qmDg8PDxR8TA6RiHVbeILsAYroD0EE">Queer Eye</a>” and “<a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80241986">Pose</a>.” </p>
<p>But not all gay people live in cities. Demographers estimate that <a href="https://www.lgbtmap.org/file/lgbt-rural-executive-summary.pdf">15% to 20%</a> of the United States’ total LGBTQ population – between 2.9 million and 3.8 million people – live in rural areas.</p>
<p>These millions of understudied LGBTQ residents of rural America are the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=eVwGqiQAAAAJ&hl=en">subject of my latest academic research project</a>. Since 2015 I have conducted interviews with 40 rural LGBTQ people and analyzed various survey data sets to understand the rural gay experience. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13634607211013280">My study</a> found that many LGBTQ people in rural areas view their sexual identity substantially differently from their urban counterparts – and question the merits of urban gay life.</p>
<h2>Easy come, easy go</h2>
<p>The standard narrative of rural gay life is that it’s tough for LGBTQ kids who flee their rural hometowns for iconic urban “<a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793609830/The-Gayborhood-From-Sexual-Liberation-to-Cosmopolitan-Spectacle">gayborhoods</a>” like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/us/gay-pride-lgbtq-gayborhood.html">Chicago’s Boystown</a> or <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098014555630">the Castro</a> in San Francisco – places where they can find love, feel “normal” and be surrounded by others like them. </p>
<p>But this rural exodus story is incomplete. Most research, mine included, suggests that many rural LGBTQ folks who once sought refuge in the big city <a href="https://www.lgbtmap.org/rural-lgbt#:%7E:text=The%20Movement%20Advancement%20Project%20released%20a%20new%20report,,less%20able%20to%20respond%20to%20its%20harmful%20effects">ultimately return home</a>.</p>
<p>To the extent that American pop culture portrays rural LGBTQ adult life, the focus is on their isolation – think “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388795/">Brokeback Mountain</a>” or “<a href="https://www.advocate.com/film/2016/10/07/reflecting-queer-cinemas-golden-age-gay-90s?pg=5">Thelma & Louise</a>.” The gay protagonists of these films are lonely, seldom able to express their sexual selves. </p>
<p>But my analysis of a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2013/06/13/a-survey-of-lgbt-americans/">2013 Pew Survey of LGBTQ Americans</a> – the latest available comprehensive national survey data on this population – showed that LGBTQ rural residents are actually more likely to be legally married than their urban counterparts – 24.8% compared with 18.6%. This aligns with what I’ve heard in interviews. The rural LGBTQ people I spoke with placed a high value on monogamy – on what many of them consider a “normal” life. </p>
<p>Those who returned home from urban gayborhoods also told me they found gay city living rarely delivered on its promises of companionship and inclusion. Many said they had experienced rejection while trying to date or develop a social circle. And they had missed the charm of small-town life. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three smiling LGBTQ Latinos ride along a city street in an open-top convertible with a rainbow flag" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387536/original/file-20210303-21-lvhvjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rural LGBTQ Americans are less likely to participate in iconic gay rights events like the Pride parade, interviews and survey data find.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/roberta-colindrez-and-chelsea-rendon-celebrity-grand-news-photo/1159420314?adppopup=true">Arun Nevader/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>No escape</h2>
<p>The rural LGBTQ people I interviewed seemed to place less importance on being gay than their urban communities had. Downplaying their sexual or gender identities, many emphasized other aspects of themselves, such as their involvement in music, sports, nature or games. </p>
<p>They rejected an urban gay culture that they felt was shallow and overly focused on gayness as the defining feature of life.</p>
<p>One married 35-year-old described his big-city life this way: “Going to bars, bitching about how bad we have it in comparison to other cities, or judging people based on what they are wearing.” </p>
<p>Such comments call into question certain assumptions of the contemporary gay rights movement, including that “<a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793609830/The-Gayborhood-From-Sexual-Liberation-to-Cosmopolitan-Spectacle">gayborhoods</a>” are the pinnacle of gay life and that rural America is no place for LGBTQ people. </p>
<p>This may be less true, though, for Black and Latino LGBTQ people. A <a href="https://www.equalityfederation.org/2019/09/new-report-offers-look-at-lives-of-lgbt-people-of-color-in-rural-america-shattering-stereotypes-of-life-in-rural-communities/">2019 report on rural LGBTQ Americans</a> found that “discrimination based on race and immigration status is compounded by discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.”</p>
<p>While I found no direct evidence that LGBTQ people of color were less likely to return to rural areas, the many difficulties of rural living for this population may partly explain why most of my interview subjects were white, despite my efforts to identify a more diverse pool.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman in helmet on bucking bull in a rodeo ring" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387535/original/file-20210303-14-14ox6q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">California’s Golden State Gay Rodeo Association holds an annual rodeo for LGBTQ rodeo riders.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lisa-irving-of-san-diego-california-competes-in-the-bull-news-photo/72483360?adppopup=true">David McNew/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But, as some of the people I interviewed reminded me, no matter where they lived they would not be fully accepted. </p>
<p>“As a trans person, I’m always going to have to deal with people discriminating against me,” one woman said. </p>
<p>Living in a rural locale with an active local music scene let her focus on aspects of her identity that were more important to her than her gender identity.</p>
<p>For some LGBTQ Americans, then, rural life allows them to more fully express themselves. Given the variety of issues facing LGBTQ Americans, from health care access to work problems, the rural world is not an escape from discrimination. </p>
<p>But neither are urban areas. </p>
<p>One lesbian from Kansas recalled attending a fundraiser for the <a href="https://www.hrc.org/">Human Rights Campaign</a> – the country’s most prominent LGBTQ advocacy group – in Washington, D.C., where a high-ranking member of the organization shook her hand and said, “Thank you so much. We need you out there in Kansas badly!” </p>
<p>To this the Kansan replied, “Thank me? I’ve been there my whole life. We are the ones who need you in Kansas. You are the ones who forgot about us!”</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155616/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher T. Conner is affiliated with the Kansas City Diversity Coalition and formerly with Indy Pride Inc. </span></em></p>Stereotypically, gay, queer and trans kids flee small towns to find acceptance in big, diverse cities like New York or Chicago. But evidence shows many will eventually return to rural areas.Christopher T. Conner, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Missouri-ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1391262020-05-24T07:50:11Z2020-05-24T07:50:11ZUrbanites across Africa are more likely to be unhappy with their government. Here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336984/original/file-20200522-124826-kfygxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ugandan protesters call for an end to President Yoweri Museveni's despotic rule.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Busomoke/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For decades urban residents in many Africa countries have shown their dissatisfaction with their governments. Food price riots that rocked Guinea, Mauritania, and Senegal <a href="https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/july-2008/price-protests-expose-state-faults">in 2007-8</a>, and Uganda’s “Walk to Work” protests <a href="https://www.peaceinsight.org/blog/2011/05/walk-to-work/">in 2011</a> were testament to this. As were the protests that rippled through Sudanese cities <a href="https://theconversation.com/sudan-the-symbolic-significance-of-the-space-protesters-made-their-own-115864">in 2018</a>. </p>
<p>But, hostility towards incumbent governments is usually subtler. Riots and protests are the tip of the iceberg. New evidence from public opinion data clarifies the extent of this urban dissatisfaction.</p>
<p>In my new book <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/rural-democracy-9780198851073?lang=en&cc=gb">Rural Democracy: Elections and Development in Africa</a>, I use survey data from <a href="http://afrobarometer.org/">Afrobarometer</a>, the independent African research network, from 28 countries over ten years (2005-2015) to document the extent of urban hostility towards incumbent governments across Africa. The picture is not rosy. </p>
<p>Throughout the continent, urban residents are significantly less supportive of incumbent governments than rural residents. This varies quite dramatically with considerable variation between countries. But, on average, urbanites are between 5 and 7 percentage points less likely to say that they would vote for the incumbent.</p>
<p>Differences in satisfaction with democracy are similar. Urbanites are at least 5 percentage points less likely to report being satisfied with democracy in their country, on average. </p>
<p>These findings give a strong sense of the average level of urban hostility towards incumbent governments. While the negative sentiment is widespread, there are sizeable differences in its extent. For example, urbanites in Burundi are 18 percentage points less likely to support incumbents. And they are 22 percentage points less likely to be satisfied with democracy. In Malawi and Tanzania, urbanites are around 10 percentage points less likely to support incumbents, and 5 percentage points less likely to report satisfaction with democracy.</p>
<p>At the other end of the spectrum lie Botswana and Zambia. These cases see no significant differences in support for incumbent leaders or satisfaction with democracy across urban and rural areas.</p>
<p>A major benefit of comparative, cross-national research is the ability to look across cases for systematic patterns, as I have done in the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/rural-democracy-9780198851073?lang=en&cc=gb">book</a>. This enables the development of generalised explanations, to make sense of the observed variation.</p>
<p>Why is there trouble in the cities?</p>
<h2>Trouble in the cities</h2>
<p>Part of the greater rural support for incumbents is explained by structural differences across urban and rural contexts. For example, lower political opposition in the countryside means incumbents face less competition. </p>
<p>In rural areas there is also more clientelism - the exchange of private goods and services for political support. This matters because access to state resources gives incumbents an advantage in dispensing patronage. And traditional authority often remains stronger in the countryside. This means incumbents can also engage local authority figures to deliver votes.</p>
<p>These factors help make some sense of the difference between urban and rural areas. But they leave much unaccounted for. They cannot explain, for example, why incumbents risk hostility in urban areas. Nor do they account for the wide variation in urban dissatisfaction across countries.</p>
<p>One <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/rural-democracy-9780198851073?lang=en&cc=gb">reason</a>, is that most African countries still have majority rural populations. Urban discontent stems from incumbents implementing policies that favour rural areas to win elections.</p>
<p>Looking after rural interests and paying less attention to the demands of urban voters is, therefore, a feature of democracy in predominantly rural countries. </p>
<p>It wasn’t always like this. Under authoritarian rule and in the absence of meaningful electoral competition, the main threat to rulers came from coups. These were easier to coordinate in urban areas. So, to prevent urban unrest, authoritarian leaders tended to be biased towards urban areas. </p>
<p>But, with the reintroduction of multiparty elections the discrepancies in political power between urban and rural areas have been largely equalised by the ballot box, leading to rural bias in policy-making. </p>
<h2>A change in weighting</h2>
<p>There are signs that this is beginning to change as countries urbanise. This decreases the incentive to prioritise rural voters. That means incumbents are likely to balance pro-rural and pro-urban policies more evenly. </p>
<p>This reduction in rural bias in line with urbanisation should diminish urban dissatisfaction, which is exactly what I find.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding some outliers, differences in support for incumbents and satisfaction with democracy across urban and rural areas is greatest in the least urbanised countries. The size of country-specific coefficients estimating the impact of urban residence on incumbent support and democratic satisfaction are negatively and significantly related to urbanisation. </p>
<p>The relationship becomes clearer still when urbanisation is interacted with the urban/rural indicator in estimates pooling data across all countries. These estimates provide robust and compelling evidence that urban dissatisfaction across Africa is mitigated by urbanisation. The more urban a society, the less unhappy urban citizens are. The more rural it is, the higher the levels of urban dissatisfaction.</p>
<h2>Implications</h2>
<p>These findings offer strong reasons to believe that trouble in Africa’s cities stems from the fact that electoral competition drives leaders to be biased towards rural areas.</p>
<p>This provides important new insights into the dynamics of electoral competition in Africa. Not only does it explain widespread urban dissatisfaction, but it also offers an alternative to the received wisdom that elections are predominantly contests in corruption, clientelism and ethnic mobilisation. </p>
<p>While these are prevalent, elections across Africa are also being fought over policies and which types of voters they favour. To the extent that democratic accountability structures operate this way, democracy in Africa works.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139126/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robin Harding has received funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>Trouble in Africa’s cities is due to the fact that electoral competition drives leaders to be biased towards rural areas.Robin Harding, Associate Professor of Government, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1273182019-11-25T19:09:56Z2019-11-25T19:09:56ZGeographical narcissism: when city folk just assume they’re better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302817/original/file-20191121-542-brsel3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4751%2C3276&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It isn't just that city dwellers assume superiority, some Australians living in rural and regional areas also internalise a sense of inferiority.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/proud-confident-businessman-calling-on-cell-1467753617">Mangostar/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A self-proclaimed “farmer’s wife” triggered a groundswell of activity on Twitter this month from frustrated rural professionals across Australia. Kirsten Diprose is an ABC metropolitan journalist turned regional reporter. In an <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-10/stigma-of-working-in-regional-australia-couldnt-cut-it-in-city/11672266">article</a> for the ABC, she declared she always felt the need to play up her city-based credentials and experience to justify her professional worth. She wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Many people in the country feel they have to justify their careers, whether it’s in the media, health, education or business. Some people think if you’re not working in the metropolitan centre then you must not be good enough at what you do. You never ‘cracked the big time’ or you were too afraid to try.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bust-the-regional-city-myths-and-look-beyond-the-big-5-for-a-378b-return-79760">Bust the regional city myths and look beyond the 'big 5' for a $378b return</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As academics with professional backgrounds in health care and media respectively who work in regional Victoria, we couldn’t agree more with Diprose’s observations. What she describes is known in academic scholarship as “geographical narcissism”. Swedish clinical psychologist Malin Fors <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2018-24924-001.html">used the term</a> to explain the rural-urban interactions she encountered while working in a small town north of the Arctic circle in Norway. </p>
<p>The concept has also been described in other terms such as “urban splaining” – rural people are “talked down to” by their city counterparts – and “geographical judgment” as journalist Gabrielle Chan puts it in her book Rusted Off.</p>
<p>Academic literature, from <a href="https://web.mit.edu/esd.83/www/notebook/WorldSystem.pdf">Immanuel Wallerstein’s world systems theory</a> to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Country_and_the_City">work of cultural theorist Raymond Williams</a>, has long discussed the economic and cultural causes of the rural-urban divide. Geographical narcissism looks at the psychological consequences. </p>
<h2>Anyone outside the city is ‘camping out’</h2>
<p>When big cities are seen as the centre of everything, it gives rise to a narcissistic view in city dwellers that subtly, often unconsciously, devalues rural knowledge, conventions and subjectivity. It fosters a “<a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2018-24924-001.html">belief that urban reality is definitive</a>”.</p>
<p>For example, rural health-care professionals are often asked by their urban contacts why they left the city. And when will they be going back? It’s assumed nobody would voluntarily move to a country town for professional work, especially if they have no family or social ties to the area. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-i-stay-or-should-i-go-how-city-girls-can-learn-to-feel-at-home-in-the-country-124579">Should I stay or should I go: how 'city girls' can learn to feel at home in the country</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There is also a suspicion, as Fors <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2018-24924-001.html">points out</a>, that people with ethical or personal problems are banished to the country. It is a classic film and television trope for the brilliant city specialist to be obliged to work as a rural GP because of alcoholism, cocaine addiction, fear of blood, or crime punished by community service. (A favourite example is the French-Canadian film La grande séduction/The Grand Seduction where a plastic surgeon must work in a small fishing village while coping with the twin deviations of cocaine use and a love of cricket.)</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z61XwqxI8hM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">La grande séduction/The Grand Seduction epitomises the trope of a flawed medical specialist who has to work outside the city.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This year we have each been invited to speak at regional professional conferences and events about this topic. It’s clear many rural professionals who encounter this urban mindset struggle to be identified (or see themselves) as equals.</p>
<p>Take this tweet responding to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-10/stigma-of-working-in-regional-australia-couldnt-cut-it-in-city/11672266">Diprose’s article</a>:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1193679230397104128"}"></div></p>
<p>And another:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1193334879175331840"}"></div></p>
<p>It’s also our personal observation in health care and higher education that geographical narcissism affects professional life by warping perceptions of time and distance. It always seems longer for city-based professionals to travel to the country to visit regional campuses and hospitals than for their regional colleagues to travel to the city. </p>
<p>Many rural workers will identify with the expectation that they travel both ways in a day to attend a meeting in the city. As for employees of the city office, they need a night’s accommodation and a little narcissistic praise for their intrepid travel to the country. </p>
<p>This lack of appreciation can also interfere with the effectiveness of well-meaning urban professionals who want to improve rural practice. An urban professional seeking to reorganise an area of rural practice may feel bewildered at the passive-aggressive behaviour of their rural colleagues. As Fors observed, they are mistrusted as colonisers when they had expected to be welcomed as rescuers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/settling-migrants-in-regional-areas-will-need-more-than-a-visa-to-succeed-114196">Settling migrants in regional areas will need more than a visa to succeed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Stereotypes are internalised too</h2>
<p>Rural professionals often laugh with recognition when hearing of geographic narcissism. But it’s confronting when they realise they themselves have internalised and ultimately reinforce the same stereotypes. </p>
<p>As Diprose experienced, many rural professionals will legitimise their skills to an urban colleague by listing their urban education and work credentials – as if these are the experiences that matter. This leads to a rural dialectic, where rural professionals hold the seemingly opposing views that rural work is, and is not, of high quality. </p>
<p>Juggling these polarised views can lead to unhelpful psychological compromises. One of these is to split elements of rural practice into good and bad. Of particular concern is the belief that an individual professional is of high quality, but the rest of the rural organisation is not, so they must leave to progress their career.</p>
<p>There are, of course, social spaces and professional fields where geographical narcissism is not apparent. It’s less of problem when those who work and live regionally have their key economic, professional and social connections within one location. But when one competes with or is exposed to resources based at the “centre” – so often in the big cities – you can’t miss it. </p>
<p>The rise of digital technology – with its promise to eradicate issues of distance – has perhaps exposed the prevalence and unspoken acceptance of geographical narcissism.</p>
<p>Rural and urban environments bring different challenges for working professionals. Good and bad practices can occur in both. But it is narcissistic to believe geography is a key determinant of quality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127318/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Baker receives funding from the Department of Health and Human Services Victoria and Alcoa of Australia</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristy Hess receives funding as lead investigator on an Australian Research Council's Linkage project examining the future of local news in Australia (LP180100813) and is a chief investigator on the Australian Research Council's Discovery Project examining the role of media in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (DP190101282)</span></em></p>Big cities are seen as the centre of everything, which creates an attitude that often devalues the work and skills of rural professionals. And sometimes even they subconsciously buy into this.Timothy Baker, Associate Professor and Director, Centre for Rural Emergency Medicine, Deakin UniversityKristy Hess, Associate Professor (Communication), Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1271562019-11-21T17:10:22Z2019-11-21T17:10:22ZCrime and punishment: Rural people are more punitive than city-dwellers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302664/original/file-20191120-554-10b9lb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C1920%2C1003&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New research shows that Canadians who live in rural areas hold more punitive attitudes about crime and how to control it than their urban counterparts. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pixabay)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Public attitudes towards punishment have been a <a href="https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/cjccj.2012.ES01">key area of research in criminology</a>. Criminologists are interested in the attitudes of the general public towards the punishment of those who have committed crime. </p>
<p>This is especially important information because the public has a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474505053831">powerful political voice</a>
when it comes to the determining how we deal with and control crime.</p>
<p>Research in this area has tended towards <a href="http://www.unicri.it/services/library_documentation/publications/icvs/data/">broad national examinations</a> of punitive attitudes and has even looked at differences <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29110553">based on gender</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2311.1985.tb00526.x">age, class</a> and <a href="https://kar.kent.ac.uk/4591/1/Attitudes%20to%20Crime%20and%20Punishment%20Esmee%20Fairbairn%20-%20FV.pdf">education</a>.</p>
<p>However, very little research exists that explores the differences between urban and rural people when it comes to punitive attitudes. The limited evidence we do have suggests that those who live in rural areas are <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Rural-Criminology/Donnermeyer-DeKeseredy/p/book/9780415634380">generally less tolerant</a> of many crimes and more likely to strongly <a href="https://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws:27169">support punitive approaches</a> to issues of law and order than people from urban areas. </p>
<p>But we have little understanding of why this is the case.</p>
<h2>Geographic, cultural differences</h2>
<p>Considering that populations may be widely dispersed among urban areas and rural, remote and very remote areas, it’s reasonable to consider whether these geographic and cultural differences impact how people view the role of punishment in the criminal justice system. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302669/original/file-20191120-554-11obe9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302669/original/file-20191120-554-11obe9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302669/original/file-20191120-554-11obe9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302669/original/file-20191120-554-11obe9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302669/original/file-20191120-554-11obe9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302669/original/file-20191120-554-11obe9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302669/original/file-20191120-554-11obe9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302669/original/file-20191120-554-11obe9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A voter walks past a sign directing voters to a polling station for the Canadian federal election in Cremona, Alta., in October 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To explore this, we examined data from <a href="https://ces-eec.arts.ubc.ca/">the Canadian Elections Study</a> from 2004, 2008, 2011 and 2015, and compared variations in answers from urban and rural respondents to a number of questions dealing with attitudes towards crime and punishment. </p>
<p>The first question asked respondents: “What is the BEST way to deal with young offenders who commit violent crime?” Those from rural communities favoured punishing violent young offenders significantly more than those from urban areas:</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302923/original/file-20191121-524-5kdiqz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302923/original/file-20191121-524-5kdiqz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302923/original/file-20191121-524-5kdiqz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302923/original/file-20191121-524-5kdiqz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302923/original/file-20191121-524-5kdiqz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302923/original/file-20191121-524-5kdiqz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302923/original/file-20191121-524-5kdiqz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How to deal with young offenders.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second question asked respondents to indicate their agreement or disagreement with the following statement: “We must crack down on crime, even if that means that criminals lose their rights.”</p>
<p>While both rural and urban respondents favoured limiting the rights of offenders in the name of being tougher on crime, support from rural communities was significantly greater than those from urban areas: </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302924/original/file-20191121-479-1txgsz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302924/original/file-20191121-479-1txgsz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302924/original/file-20191121-479-1txgsz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302924/original/file-20191121-479-1txgsz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302924/original/file-20191121-479-1txgsz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302924/original/file-20191121-479-1txgsz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302924/original/file-20191121-479-1txgsz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crime crackdown: Is it worth losing rights?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The third question asked respondents: “Do you favour or oppose the death penalty for people convicted of murder?” On this query, rural support of the death penalty was significantly greater than it was in urban communities:</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302925/original/file-20191121-479-la7q0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302925/original/file-20191121-479-la7q0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302925/original/file-20191121-479-la7q0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302925/original/file-20191121-479-la7q0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302925/original/file-20191121-479-la7q0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302925/original/file-20191121-479-la7q0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302925/original/file-20191121-479-la7q0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Favour or oppose the death penalty?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rural communities ‘more punitive’</h2>
<p>We then combined these questions and answers into an index in order to have a more comprehensive measurement of punitive attitudes. This index clearly showed that, when all measurements were taken together, rural communities were significantly aligned with the “more punitive” category and urban communities with the “less punitive.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302922/original/file-20191121-554-10jjs2n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302922/original/file-20191121-554-10jjs2n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302922/original/file-20191121-554-10jjs2n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302922/original/file-20191121-554-10jjs2n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302922/original/file-20191121-554-10jjs2n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302922/original/file-20191121-554-10jjs2n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302922/original/file-20191121-554-10jjs2n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The punitivity index.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The next phase of this study, which is currently underway, will consider <em>why</em> those who live in rural areas are so much more punitive than city-dwellers. </p>
<p>Existing evidence at the national and international level provides a number of hints. For example, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10610-017-9342-5">fear of crime</a>, <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo4092002.html">the perception that crime is rising</a> and a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1375/acri.43.3.506">lack of confidence in the criminal justice system</a> have all been shown to increase punitive attitudes.</p>
<p>Additionally, <a href="https://repository.uchastings.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3414&context=hastings_law_journal">when people trust each other more and there are stronger social bonds</a> in communities, they tend to be less punitive.</p>
<p>Certain values connected to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07418820500089091">religiosity</a>, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-04383-001">political affiliation</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17440572.2016.1169926">ideology</a> also tend to shape punitive attitudes. </p>
<p>With regard to values, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/08/09/growing-urban-rural-divide-global-politics/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a045e6805943">urban-rural divide</a> is one of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/world/europe/europe-poland-populism-rural-voters.html">greatest political fault lines</a> in present-day politics. </p>
<h2>Urban-rural divide in Canada</h2>
<p>In Canada, the growing population concentration in a small number of major urban centres and the consolidation of economic, political and social power in these communities has <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/june-2017/the-urbanrural-divide-and-a-more-inclusive-canada/">contributed to this disconnect in recent years</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1186817276881842176"}"></div></p>
<p>Our study also highlights that attitudes towards crime and how to control it may be a central component of these political differences. </p>
<p>For example, we found that there is a significant trend towards a decrease in punitive attitudes in Canada as a whole. But those from urban areas are driving that reduction, and the gap between rural and urban communities on questions of crime appears be growing: </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302920/original/file-20191121-554-1qiybpw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302920/original/file-20191121-554-1qiybpw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302920/original/file-20191121-554-1qiybpw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302920/original/file-20191121-554-1qiybpw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302920/original/file-20191121-554-1qiybpw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302920/original/file-20191121-554-1qiybpw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302920/original/file-20191121-554-1qiybpw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Less punitive over time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Considering differences in punitive attitudes as part of this broader political fault line makes sense. For instance, punitive attitudes have been closely related to wider <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-018-4568-6">social</a>, <a href="https://www.prri.org/research/white-working-class-attitudes-economy-trade-immigration-election-donald-trump/">cultural</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-happens-to-rural-and-small-town-trump-voters-after-trump-is-gone-114415">economic issues</a> that have been at the political centre of this division, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474508098131">economic insecurity</a>
and <a href="https://ijcst.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/ijcst/article/view/40261">negative views of immigrants and immigration</a>. </p>
<p>This suggests that we should consider how political values inform attitudes towards crime and punishment, and how these attitudes themselves contribute to growing political divisions between rural and urban communities. </p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127156/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Those living in rural areas have more punitive attitudes toward crime and how to control it than city-dwellers, and it’s a major component of the growing urban-rural divide in Canada.Kyle J.D. Mulrooney, Lecturer in Criminology, University of New EnglandJenny Wise, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of New EnglandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1105112019-02-03T09:18:00Z2019-02-03T09:18:00ZA South African case study: how to support young job hunters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256351/original/file-20190130-108367-4tkpgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Soweto in South Africa. Apartheid's spacial planning still affects people's lives.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/karmor/6087853175/in/photolist-agXQDM-ah1GS1-ah1xfY-agXWvp-agXSfe-agXHK2-6qzcPT-ajtBk-arFHM9-7qiKeX-arCYwx-arFHrh-arFFZA-arD1Qp-6SqXj-arD3oT-eg7Vc-eg7Ud-eg7W4-85cjJh-9P5WyP-KGGDB-n1not-9vy8CT-n1jeo-Yr7ARM-eg7Ta-eg7Wi-eg7WV-eg7SB-6qz72a-9vTNxL-eg7UZ-eg7R6-eg7Sj-k7Vq4-eg7Rp-eg7RF-eg7SR-9vFTFj-eg7S5-6qDh4b-eg7UJ-ZpvMoL-eg7Vs-eg7VR-eg7U2-eg7WD-eg7Th-9P5S7F">Flickr/John Karwoski</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Young South Africans spend on average R938 (US$85) a month looking for work. This astronomical cost includes transport at R558 ($41) and an additional R380 ($28) for internet access, printing, application fees, agent’s fees and even money for bribes.</p>
<p>The picture is even more alarming when you consider the unemployment statistics. Over the last decade unemployment in South Africa has increased from 21.5% to <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/south-africa/unemployment-rate">27.2%</a>.</p>
<p>But perhaps most concerning is that it’s especially high for South Africa’s almost 10 million young people between <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0211/P02113rdQuarter2018.pdf">the ages of 15 and 24</a>. For this group unemployment sits at 50%. Not only do young people struggle to find work but the process of getting a job in South Africa is expensive.</p>
<p>The data on the cost of looking for work has been collected by the <a href="https://www.uj.ac.za/faculties/humanities/Documents/Humanities%20HD%20Procedures%201-pager%20-%202016.12.02.pdf">Siyakha Youth Assets for Employability Study</a>. The ongoing study launched in 2013 to assess whether government programmes designed to help young people is actually making a difference in their efforts to <a href="https://afrikatikkun.org/">find work</a>. </p>
<p>The programmes offer some form of skills training – usually a combination of technical and general workplace skills, along with some advice and <a href="http://harambee.livedigital.co.za/">support on finding work</a>. The study is looking at whether youth employability programmes – improve employment for youth and what elements help them in their job search. </p>
<p>The study participants were predominantly African, women and from poor backgrounds. The average age of the participants when they completed their training was 23.5 years. Three-quarters of the sample were between 18 and 25 years of age. This demographic is the most affected by unemployment. </p>
<p>The reasons most often given for youth unemployment are limited skills, lack of work experience, and high wage expectations. But our findings show that over half of the sample had prior work experience and did not report unrealistic wage expectations, suggesting there were other factors keeping young people locked out of the labour market. </p>
<p>We conclude that one reason contributing to the continued inability of young people to break into the jobs market is the cost of seeking a job. </p>
<h2>The survey</h2>
<p>The survey has involved a sample of 1 986 young people who participated in eight of these programmes at 48 training sites across the country. The vast majority of the participants were young – with an average age of 23 – black (94,4%) and unemployed (78%). </p>
<p>A key reason that those surveyed gave for not looking for work is the <a href="http://www.redi3x3.org/sites/default/files/Mlatsheni%20%26%20Ranchhod%202017%20REDI3x3%20Working%20Paper%2039%20Youth%20labour%20market%20dynamics.pdf">cost of doing so</a>. </p>
<p>The reason for this is that apartheid era spatial planning, in which townships were established far away from economic hubs, continues to affect the ability of people to look for work in a <a href="http://www.dpru.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/36/DPRU%20WP02-065.pdf">cost effective way</a>. </p>
<p>Two-thirds of the participants in the study live in townships often located on the periphery of urban areas. This means they have to travel long distances to the urban economic hubs to access job opportunities. </p>
<p>The remaining third were based in far flung rural areas, meaning they needed to travel even further than their urban counterparts in search of jobs.</p>
<p>In addition to the burden of travel costs, the study found that over half (51%) of young people live in households that are classified as severely food insecure. This meant that they, or another member of the household, had gone without food to eat more than once in the 30 days that preceded the baseline study.</p>
<p>This means that households had to make difficult decisions between funding the costs of seeking work and affording basic necessities. </p>
<h2>The findings</h2>
<p>Our research found that close to two-thirds (61.6%) of participants relied on family members to fund their costs of searching for work, which puts a huge strain on their personal relationships and often made these young people feel like a burden.</p>
<p>Blessing, a young mom of two with a diploma in tourism management said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[I experience] financial challenges in the case of going to drop my CV, so I have been asking my mum and even my husband, to drop my CV on my behalf on their way to work to save on costs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nevertheless, 15% of youth in the study showed real initiative and commitment to finding work. They funded the costs from their own savings. A smaller number (6.2%) reported using the stipends they received from the various programmes helping youths find employment.</p>
<p>The study found that 87.2% of those interviewed used the internet to look for work, but there was still a reliance on newspaper adverts, which often required applicants to submit physical applications.</p>
<p>The research found that 83% of young people spent money on printing their CVs, and that one of their biggest expenses was for mobile data. The youth employment programmes helped in alleviating some of the financial costs. </p>
<p>Support for work seekers is crucial, especially if South Africa is going to address the needs of the millions of young people that remain unemployed. Failure to provide this support means that young people’s potential will not be realised and significant human capital will be lost to society.</p>
<p><em>Leilanie Williams, a researcher at the University of Johannesburg, contributed to the research and this article</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110511/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leila Patel receives funding from DST/NRF for her Research Chair in Welfare and Social Development. She also received funding for this research from the Ford Foundation, the National Treasury’s Jobs Fund and the University of Johannesburg’s Research Committee. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren Graham received funding from The Government Technical Advisory Committee (GTAC), the Ford Foundation, The British Academy's Newton Advanced Fellowship Programme, and the University of Johannesburg's Research Committee to support this research. She also receives funds from the National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>The high costs of finding work make it difficult for young South Africans to get jobs.Leila Patel, Professor of Social Development Studies, University of JohannesburgLauren Graham, Associate professor at the Centre for Social Development in Africa, University of Johannesburg, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/883982018-01-14T19:03:42Z2018-01-14T19:03:42ZWhen a country’s towns and villages face extinction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201447/original/file-20180110-36031-1ajjfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C574%2C5044%2C2871&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Nagoro, in Tokushima Prefecture, one resident has made around 300 dolls to replace villagers who are no longer around.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertomaxwell/17154974869/in/photolist-s8VJmM-YcLpHH-Y9cnfw-rthhud-oNBEuA-Y9d4Dh-C7SZzU-s8NMbC-s8QwdP-ow9GxP-oNnyjX-ow9FfS-so7mX5-oLBCB3-YQ7z6b-Y9cjMW-Y9dxkj-ruYUH-YcNcTB-rtCK2F-rtughi-N2wXpD-Ah19uJ-znpuS6-Zb99CG-ow8XKM-ZdXhGR-ZdXXZP-Z9GZVS-owa4Rw-C7TeXG-Y9cdbQ-YQ7Ksd-Z9HeRN-Y9cku7-YQ8vT7-Y9d26S-YcLoBp-so2QTL-sqqsbZ-rNv3KW-nAQxf1-nyMGMs-s6Xd2e-sqooSt-qtk6zz-s8GCES-njkTGR-s8HoDf-rMrfUu">Roberto Maxwell/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is predicted that 896 towns and villages across Japan will no longer be viable by 2040 (see map below or an interactive Japanese version <a href="https://www.nikkei.com/edit/interactive/population2014/map.html">here</a>). A former minister for internal affairs, Hiroya Masuda, <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/05/16/national/social-issues/japan-becoming-extinct/#.WlHK_iOB3aZ">describes this as “local extinction”</a>. </p>
<p>Visiting some of these towns and villages today is reminiscent of Alfonso Cuarón’s brilliantly observant movie <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/movies/article/2017/11/27/why-children-men-most-relevant-film-2017">Children of Men</a>. The film is set in 2027, two decades after humanity has lost the ability to reproduce. Schools are dilapidated and their playgrounds forever quiet. Houses are empty and in disrepair.</p>
<p>While the situation in Japan is not as bleak (yet), Masuda notes that birthrates have fallen since the 1970s and currently stand at 1.4 children per family. The most <a href="http://www.ipss.go.jp/pp-zenkoku/e/zenkoku_e2017/pp_zenkoku2017e_gaiyou.html#e_zenkoku_II_A-1">recent projections</a> indicate that the population will shrink by 27 million between 2015 and 2053. That’s equivalent to the entire population of Australia vanishing.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-doesnt-have-a-population-policy-why-78183">Australia doesn’t have a population policy – why?</a></em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In a simplified version of a map published by Hiroya Masuda in 2014, localities shown in red are predicted to become extinct by 2040.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://guzome.com/9679/日本地図-白地図-フリー-エクセル.html">guzome.com</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Masuda <a href="http://www.japanpolicyforum.jp/archives/politics/pt20140120152454.html">concluded</a> that municipalities experiencing a 50% decline in their young female population (aged 20-39) are most likely to go extinct.</p>
<p>At the same time, Japan is ageing rapidly. The over-65s are <a href="http://www.ipss.go.jp/pp-zenkoku/e/zenkoku_e2017/pp_zenkoku2017e_gaiyou.html#e_zenkoku_II_A-1">estimated</a> to rise from 26.6% of the population in 2015 to 38.4% in 2065. The population age imbalances are particularly acute in rural Japan, compounded by the young migrating to big cities.</p>
<h2>What does decline look like?</h2>
<p>Japan is viewed around the globe as a cool, vibrant and extraordinary place. It attracts <a href="https://www.tourism.jp/en/tourism-database/stats/">more than 24 million tourists each year</a>, many of whom visit Tokyo, Osaka or Kyoto and then travel via bullet train to other major cities. This urban core is the centre of population, economic and cultural activity, and it is all that most tourists see.</p>
<p>Only when you travel to rural Japan do the impacts of population decline become apparent. Last year, I spent time in two rural prefectures.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An abandoned farm just outside Tsuwano in Shimane Prefecture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Barrett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In July I visited the small town of Tsuwano in Shimane Prefecture. According to Masuda’s projections, Tsuwano will experience a 75% drop in the number of young women and its population will more than halve to 3,451 in 2040 (down from 7,500 today). In October, I visited Tokushima Prefecture in Shikoku, where the picture is very similar for most towns and villages. </p>
<p>In both locations, I came across many abandoned farms and houses. Nationally, it is estimated that unclaimed land will reach <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/10/26/national/unclaimed-land-cost-japan-%C2%A56-trillion-extend-90-size-hokkaido-2040/#.WjcS5CNL1TY">7.2 million hectares in 2040</a> (almost the size of Hokkaido and bigger than Tasmania), with a value of close to ¥6 trillion (A$7 trillion).</p>
<p>Japan’s inheritance laws are partly to blame for this situation and also explain why <a href="http://www.fujitsu.com/jp/group/fri/en/column/message/2015/2015-06-30.html">8.2 million homes</a> are vacant across the country. Fixed asset taxes on empty lots are six times higher, so it makes sense not to demolish old houses or farmsteads.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A boarded-up house in Tokushima Prefecture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Barrett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dealing with decline</h2>
<p>Everyone in Japan is aware of the challenges posed by a rapidly ageing, declining population with low birth rates. The media cover these concerns extensively.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">TV
presenters discuss the extinction of towns and cities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Barrett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Local governments have been trying to encourage people to move back to rural areas by providing work opportunities and sharing details of vacant houses.</p>
<p>This internal migration is known as “U-turn” or “I-turn”. The former describes someone returning to their hometown, while the latter refers to a person who decides to quit big city life.</p>
<p>Relocating to a small rural community, however, can be challenging. Villages and towns are close-knit communities and the returnee is expected to comply with local norms.</p>
<p>The Japanese have an expression, <em>Gō ni ireba gō ni shitagae</em>, which is equivalent to “When in Rome do as the Romans do”. Failure to do so can result in the returnee being, to use an English idiom, “sent to Coventry”. The Japanese term is <em>mura hachibu</em>, and it means you will be ignored and excluded.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A morning TV show provides examples of ‘U-turners’ who have been ‘sent to Coventry’ by their rural neighbours for not trying harder to fit in.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Barrett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More radical responses needed</h2>
<p>There are no simple answers to these challenges. The Japanese government has been very active but past policies have tended to focus on infrastructure development and construction of public facilities (roads, dams, town halls, libraries, museums, sport facilities), rather than on the economic needs and welfare of local people.</p>
<p>In this context, Masuda calls for a radical new approach with three core goals. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Comprehensive measures are needed to help maintain existing populations in rural areas (through marriage, pregnancy, childbirth and childcare).</p></li>
<li><p>Measures should be implemented to promote population redistribution and reduce migration to big cities.</p></li>
<li><p>Policies should be introduced to enhance human resources and local skills. This includes immigration of highly trained individuals from overseas, which is <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/11/25/national/politics-diplomacy/japans-immigration-policy-rift-widens-population-decline-forces-need-foreign-workers/#.WlHQkSOB3aY">controversial</a>.</p></li>
</ol>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/migrants-are-stopping-regional-areas-from-shrinking-80740">Migrants are stopping regional areas from shrinking</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>While lots of ongoing initiatives aim to attract young people back to rural areas, the biggest concern is one of livelihoods as long-term job prospects are limited. Yuusuke Kakei covers this topic in his 2015 book <a href="http://issueplusdesign.jp">Population Decline x Design</a>, presenting proposals for new local economic activity that puts women, creativity and community at the centre. To this we should add what Joseph Coughlin describes as “<a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/12/do-we-need-a-tech-boom-for-the-elderly/">The Longevity Economy</a>” to respond to the economic and technology needs of an ageing population.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nhk.or.jp/kokusaihoudou/catch/archive/2017/02/0213.html">Interest in the notion of the universal basic income</a> has also surged recently in Japan. Some commentators argue that it could play a significant role in revitalising Japan and in making rural life more attractive to young Japanese by providing them with long-term financial security.</p>
<p>One major challenge for local economies is access to finance, especially to support new businesses. While there are several <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Markets/Property/New-funds-turn-Kyoto-s-aging-town-houses-into-inns">innovative crowdfunding initiatives</a>, Japanese municipalities should also look at the <a href="https://transitionnetwork.org">Transition Town</a> movement for inspiration with its focus on “reclaiming the economy, sparking entrepreneurship, reimagining work”.</p>
<p>Specifically, it is worth exploring the potential of <a href="https://reconomycentre.org/home/lef/">local entrepreneur forums</a>. These bring together local investors from within the towns or villages with local entrepreneurs to support new, small business ventures.</p>
<p>The result is that communities pool their resources to support young people who have business ideas but lack financial resources. This is in line with both Masuda’s and Kakei’s recommendations to focus on local needs, rather than physical buildings and infrastructure.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-should-pick-towns-not-industries-to-fund-78464">The government should pick towns, not industries, to fund</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>While local communities search for a way forward, it is clear that Japan is leading the world in ageing, population decline and in how to respond. <a href="https://qz.com/162788/japan-is-rapidly-losing-population-and-half-the-world-is-about-to-join-it/">Many other countries</a> are set to follow this path. We can all learn a great deal by closely examining Japan’s experience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88398/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Barrett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Across Japan, towns and villages are vanishing as the population ages and young people move to the cities. How the country manages this holds lessons for other developed nations facing a similar fate.Brendan Barrett, Senior Lecturer, Program Manager, Masters of International Urban and Environmental Management, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/868252017-11-08T11:18:43Z2017-11-08T11:18:43ZGun violence in the US kills more black people and urban dwellers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193708/original/file-20171108-6715-1no2pxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man changes a flag to half-staff near the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Eric Gay</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Nov. 5, just 35 days after the deadly Las Vegas <a href="https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/the-strip/at-least-58-dead-shootings-surpass-worst-in-u-s-history/">shooting</a>, a man walked into a church in a small Texas town and murdered <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/us/church-shooting-texas.html">26 people</a> with an assault rifle. The coverage dominated the news.</p>
<p>But the day before, even more people – <a href="http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/number-of-gun-deaths?page=3">43</a> – were shot to death in cities and towns around the country. And nobody really seemed to notice.</p>
<p>Shootings kill <a href="https://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate.html">more than 36,000</a> Americans each year. Every day, <a href="https://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate.html">90 deaths</a> and <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-by-the-numbers/#Injuries">200 injuries</a> are caused by gun violence. Unlike terrorist acts, the everyday gun violence that impacts our communities is accepted as a way of life.</p>
<p>Of all firearm homicides in the world, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26551975">82 percent</a> occurs in the United States. An American is <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-by-the-numbers/">25 times more likely</a> to be fatally shot than a resident of other high-income nations. </p>
<p>As public health scholars who study firearm violence, we believe that our country is unique in its acceptance of gun violence. Although death by firearms in America is a public health crisis, it is a crisis that legislators accept as a societal norm. Some have <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-gun-control-debate-ignores-black-lives">suggested</a> it is due to the fact that it is blacks and not whites who are the predominant victims, and our data support this striking disparity. </p>
<h2>Urban and racial disparities</h2>
<p>Within the United States, the odds of dying from firearm homicide are much higher for Americans who reside in cities. Twenty percent of all firearm homicides in the U.S. occur in the country’s <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/reports/strategies-for-reducing-gun-violence-in-american-cities/">25 largest cities</a>, even though they contain just over <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Largest_cities_in_the_United_States_by_population">one-tenth</a> of the U.S. population. <a href="https://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate.html">Data</a> from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that of the 12,979 firearm homicides in 2015, 81 percent occurred in urban areas.</p>
<p>There is even more to the story: CDC data also show that within our nation’s cities, black Americans are, on average, eight times more likely to be killed by firearms than those who are white. The rate of death by gun homicide for black people exceeds those among whites in all 50 states, but there is tremendous variation in the magnitude of this disparity. In 2015, a black person living in Wisconsin was <a href="https://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate.html">26 times more likely</a> to be fatally shot than a white person in that state. At the same time, a black person in Arizona was “only” 3.2 times more likely than a white person to be killed by a gun. The combination of being black and living in an urban area is even more deadly. In 2015, the black homicide rate for urban areas in Missouri was higher than the total death rate from any cause in New York state.</p>
<p>These differences across states occur primarily because the gap between levels of disadvantage among white and black Americans differs sharply by state. For example, Wisconsin – the state with the highest disparity between black and white <a href="https://webappa.cdc.gov/cgi-bin/broker.exe">firearm homicide rates</a> – has the second-highest gap of any state between black and white <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/raceinc.html">incarceration rates</a>, and the second-highest gap between black and white <a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/state-unemployment-rates-by-race-and-ethnicity-at-the-end-of-2016-show-progress-but-not-yet-full-recovery/">unemployment rates</a>. Racial disparities in advantage translate into racial disparities in firearm violence victimization.</p>
<p>Americans are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/death-risk-statistics-terrorism-disease-accidents-2017-1">128 times more likely</a> to be killed in everyday gun violence than by any act of international terrorism. And a black person living in an urban area is almost 500 times more likely to be killed by everyday gun violence than by terrorism. From a public health perspective, efforts to combat firearm violence need to be every bit as strong as those to fight terrorism.</p>
<p>The first step in treating the epidemic of firearm violence is declaring that the everyday gun violence that is devastating the nation is unacceptable. Mass shootings and terrorist attacks should not be the only incidents of violence that awaken Americans to the threats to our freedom and spur politicians to action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86825/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Siegel receives funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Evidence for Action program to develop a database of state firearm laws and examine the impact of these laws on firearm violence. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anita Knopov and Molly Pahn do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Data show the vast majority of people killed by gun violence are black and live in urban areas.Molly Pahn, Research Manager, Boston UniversityAnita Knopov, Research fellow, Boston UniversityMichael Siegel, Professor of Community Health Sciences, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/780182017-06-27T01:06:20Z2017-06-27T01:06:20ZGOP health care bill would make rural America’s distress much worse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175743/original/file-20170626-3062-1apmidn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rural hospitals, such as this one in Wedowee, Alabama, are struggling to stay open.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Brynn Anderson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Much has been made of the <a href="http://www.asanet.org/news-events/speak-sociology/more-rural-revolt-landscapes-distress-and-2016-presidential-election">distress</a> and <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-michigan-idUSKBN13621W">discontent</a> in rural areas during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Few realize, however, this is also felt through unequal health. </p>
<p>Researchers call it the “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18556611">rural</a> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2901280/">mortality</a> <a href="http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2014.301989">penalty</a>.” While rates of mortality have steadily fallen in the nation’s <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/113/7/E815.full">urban areas</a>, they have actually climbed for rural Americans. And <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2016/04/10/a-new-divide-in-american-death/?utm_term=.314f4a5d0e00">the picture is even bleaker</a> for specific groups, such as rural white women and people of color, who <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jrh.12181/full">face persistent disparities in health outcomes</a>. In every category, <a href="https://ruralhealth.und.edu/projects/health-reform-policy-research-center/pdf/2014-rural-urban-chartbook-update.pdf">from suicide to unintentional injury to heart disease</a>, rural residents’ health has been declining since the 1990s. </p>
<p>While some have blamed these <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-charts-that-illustrate-the-divide-between-rural-and-urban-america-72934?sr=6">gaping disparities</a> on “culture” or “lifestyle” factors – such as a supposed <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21834356">fatalism</a> or overconsumption of unhealthy products like <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/08/10/dont_put_mountain_dew_in_a_baby_bottle/">Mountain Dew</a> – the truth is that the biggest culprit is limited access to health care and challenging economic circumstances. </p>
<p>The passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 <a href="https://medium.com/usda-results/rural-health-day-f6aac8ad7be7">began to change this</a> as more rural Americans gained insurance coverage and the government invested more money into regional health facilities and training.</p>
<p>This progress <a href="https://theconversation.com/rural-america-already-hurting-could-be-most-harmed-by-trumps-promise-to-repeal-obamacare-71453?sr=4">is now at risk</a>, however, as the Republican Congress inches closer to repealing Obamacare and replacing it with a feeble alternative that greatly weakens rural health care access. As researchers who study the mental and physical health of rural Americans, we believe this would have disastrous consequences. </p>
<h2>The travails of rural America</h2>
<p>Even as <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-is-rural-america-and-what-does-it-look-like-72045?sr=1">rural America</a> feeds the country, <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/05/22/529493413/in-some-rural-counties-hunger-is-rising-but-food-donations-arent">hunger is on the rise</a> in rural areas. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.iatp.org/files/258_2_98043.pdf">98 percent of rural residents</a> live in food deserts – defined as counties in which one must drive more than 10 miles to get to the nearest supermarket. This makes it challenging to maintain healthy and nutritious diets, leading to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3481194/">higher rates of obesity in rural areas</a> that greatly increase the risk for diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.</p>
<p>As rural workers struggle to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/rural-america-struggles-as-young-people-chase-jobs-in-cities-1395890099">sustain employment</a> in a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/05/22/a-very-bad-sign-for-all-but-americas-biggest-cities/?utm_term=.174ccab19701">shifting economy</a>, the increasing poverty is contributing to mental distress and <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/002204260703700302">substance use</a>. On a larger scale, the economic changes that have hit rural areas have resulted in a declining tax base, lower incomes and strained educational institutions. Together, they challenge rural residents’ health not just in the immediate term but cumulatively over their lives. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175505/original/file-20170625-13475-1udmu6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175505/original/file-20170625-13475-1udmu6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175505/original/file-20170625-13475-1udmu6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175505/original/file-20170625-13475-1udmu6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175505/original/file-20170625-13475-1udmu6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175505/original/file-20170625-13475-1udmu6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175505/original/file-20170625-13475-1udmu6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Like many other rural hospitals in the U.S., Evans Memorial in Claxton, Georgia, has struggled to keep its doors open while treating patients who tend to be older, poorer and often uninsured.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Russ Bynum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Barriers to accessing health care</h2>
<p>Yet, despite all these medical issues, rural residents have a tough time getting the health care they need.</p>
<p>The nature of rural employment, for example, is characterized by <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1748-0361.2005.tb00058.x/epdf">self-employment, seasonal work and lower-than-average pay</a>. This means rural workers are <a href="https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/pdf/research_compendium.pdf">less likely to get insurance through their jobs and thus face higher premiums</a> when buying their own policies. </p>
<p>The lack of public transportation in most rural areas is also a major hurdle to seeing a doctor, particularly as residents <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16606425">have to travel much farther</a> than those in urban areas to reach health care providers.</p>
<p>Rural residents get most of their services through primary care providers, <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/118/1/e132">who take on the work of other practitioners</a>, like behavioral health clinicians, due to longstanding specialist shortages. When handling <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033318207710265">numerous complaints</a> during a single medical encounter, primary care providers may concentrate on the most acute health concerns of their patients, undermining the ability to diagnose all their conditions and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3609543/">meaningfully discuss their larger health risks</a>, such as exercise, weight and substance use. When providers are rushed or deliver sub-par care, rural residents may wonder if seeking it out is worth the challenge, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27322157">opting to struggle on their own</a>. </p>
<p>These and other constraints make it tougher for rural Americans to get the screenings necessary to spot serious diseases such as <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J013v42n02_06">cancer</a> early or to maintain adequate followup on conditions like <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24183213">hearing loss</a>. Finding the regular medical care necessary to manage chronic conditions, such as diabetes, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27322157">depression</a> or <a href="https://www.hrsa.gov/advisorycommittees/rural/publications/opioidabuse.pdf">opioid disorders</a>, is even more challenging. </p>
<p>Rural health care has at times been <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18709749">characterized as patchwork</a>. In part, that’s because the <a href="https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-database/2014/07/30/10/36/rural-health-goals-guaranteeing-a-future">costs of sustaining health care infrastructure in rural areas are higher</a> thanks to the large service areas, the inability to negotiate bulk pricing and lack of financial incentives to fill in provider gaps. </p>
<h2>The ACA and the AHCA</h2>
<p>The ACA, intended to turn this around, has in fact led to dramatic gains in insurance coverage among rural Americans. </p>
<p>Broadly speaking, insurance rates in rural areas <a href="http://hrms.urban.org/quicktakes/Substantial-Gains-in-Health-Insurance-Coverage-Occurring-for-Adults-in-Both-Rural-and-Urban-Areas.html">reached almost 86 percent</a> in early 2015, up from an estimated 78 percent in 2013.</p>
<p>In Kentucky – a state with high poverty, a large rural population (42 percent of residents) and a successful <a href="https://theconversation.com/love-it-or-hate-it-obamacare-has-expanded-coverage-for-millions-66472?sr=2">Medicaid expansion</a> initiative – <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/blog/medicaid-at-50-kentuckys-experience-highlights-benefits-of-medicaid-expansion">tens of thousands of newly insured low-income adults</a> began using preventative services after previously being unable to afford it. The state’s uninsured fell by half and, as a result, <a href="http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/35/1/96.abstract">fewer people skipped taking their medications</a> due to financial hardships relative to other states that didn’t expand Medicaid. </p>
<p>The ACA also <a href="http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/brief/how-obamacare-repeal-would-harm-rural-america">strengthened rural health care institutions</a> by investing in upgrades to hospitals and clinics, preventative health programs and support for providers to stay in rural areas. While rural hospitals are often laden with the expense of providing extensive care without payment to indigent patients, rural hospitals in states that expanded Medicaid under the ACA <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/research/health/house-passed-bill-would-devastate-health-care-in-rural-america?utm_source=CBPP+Email+Updates&utm_campaign=d303d5c441-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_16&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ee3f6da374-d303d5c441-110964945">finally were able to better balance their books when caring for this vulnerable group</a>. At the same time, the ACA supported innovative models ideal for rural areas that prioritized <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18709749">outreach</a>, <a href="http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/29/5/852.abstract">integration of services</a> and <a href="http://nashp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Rural-Opioid-Primer.pdf">collaboration between safety-net players</a>.</p>
<p>Both the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/politics/obamacare-senate-bill-compare/">House and Senate</a> bills to repeal and replace Obamacare would <a href="http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/brief/how-obamacare-repeal-would-harm-rural-america">drastically reduce rural Americans’ insurance coverage</a> and significantly threaten the ability of <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/06/22/533680909/republicans-proposed-medicaid-cuts-would-hit-rural-patients-hard">many rural hospitals and clinics to keep their doors open</a>. <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/research/health/house-passed-bill-would-devastate-health-care-in-rural-america">Analysts show</a> that the bill would provide insufficient tax credits to pay for rural premium costs, drastically increase the price of rural premiums and increase uncompensated care in rural hospitals. </p>
<h2>What rural areas need from health care reform</h2>
<p>Previous efforts at health care reform show us that rural areas are uniquely vulnerable. Efforts need to take account not only of coverage and access – as has been the focus of the current debate – but also how reform affects rural health care institutions and the larger social factors shaping overall health.</p>
<p>The particular economic factors affecting rural health care institutions <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3415203/">make rural areas particularly vulnerable to political shifts</a> that disrupt services for existing patients and for those newly insured, creating immense challenges for rural providers. Steps that fail to account for the impact of financial hardship on these institutions not only hurt their bottom line but contribute to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22229021">poor morale and workforce turnover</a> and larger-scale decisions to reduce services, which decrease their ability to address patient needs. </p>
<p>At the same time, commitment to improving the health of rural Americans requires attention to the so-called upstream factors shaping rural health. That means <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/medicaid-plays-a-more-significant-role-in-small-towns-and-rural-communities-than-in-metro-areas-300469734.html">preserving the safety net programs so vital in rural areas</a> with underemployment and low-paying jobs, <a href="http://www.soar-ky.org/about-us">strengthening rural economies</a> and investing in <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/01/04/a-better-future-for-rural-communities-starts-at-the-schoolhouse/">high-quality education</a>. </p>
<p>If our leaders are serious about reform that will lessen the rural-urban mortality gap, they should recognize the unique needs of rural America and ensure health care policy reflects how vital access to quality care is to their financial success – not to mention their well-being.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Health outcomes for rural Americans have steadily deteriorated in recent decades even as they’ve improved elsewhere. The GOP plan to replace the Affordable Care Act will worsen the problem.Claire Snell-Rood, Assistant Professor of Public Health, University of California, BerkeleyCathleen Willging, Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of New MexicoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/790962017-06-26T01:07:57Z2017-06-26T01:07:57ZA pair of decades-old policies may change the way rural America gets local news<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175069/original/file-20170621-30190-w5sbc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What will be left of rural television stations?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWCIA_television_tower_Seymour_Illinois.jpg">Dual Freq</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While Americans were distracted by the very important public debates around an <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/technology/338471-pelosi-asks-fcc-chairman-to-hold-hearing-in-san-francisco-on-net-neutrality">open internet</a> and the proliferation of fake news online, the Federal Communications Commission quietly proposed reshaping a key way rural Americans stay informed – their <a href="https://www.poynter.org/2017/whats-america-really-watching-in-the-morning-local-news/459495/">local television news</a>.</p>
<p>Two decades-old rules – called by policymakers the “main studio rule” and the “UHF discount” – come from different eras of broadcasting, one when the only electronic media was radio and the other from the days before the dominance of cable television. They also come from a different era of government, when policymakers promoted <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08838159409364243">the principle of localism</a> – the belief that local broadcasters should serve their communities.</p>
<p>In my new book on <a href="http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/64kmn4yx9780252040726.html">local media policy in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada</a>, I note a withdrawal from localism in media policy and the chipping away at this <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-fcc-continues-to-redefine-the-public-interest-as-business-interests-75120">bedrock principle of American democracy</a>. The recent FCC moves join this trend, to the detriment of local voices, local people and local stories.</p>
<h2>Connecting with the community</h2>
<p><a href="https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-308654A1.pdf">In 1939</a>, radio was dominant and television just an experiment. The power of electronic media was already becoming clear. As a result, the FCC required all radio stations to have their main offices and broadcast studios located in the community they served. This became called the “<a href="http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1279&context=fclj">main studio rule</a>.”</p>
<p>The FCC believed this rule would <a href="http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1279&context=fclj">encourage radio stations to be responsive to their communities</a>, in several ways. <a href="http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1279&context=fclj">First</a>, stations would likely employ people who lived in their coverage areas. Those people would be aware of issues facing the community and use the studio facilities to create and broadcast relevant programming.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1279&context=fclj">In addition</a>, listeners would not have to travel long distances to give input and feedback to station management. At those offices, stations had to maintain equipment for producing and airing local programming, keep records of what had been broadcast, and have <a href="https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-88-235A1.txt">both management and staff regularly on hand</a>.</p>
<p>These requirements were based on the belief – central to telecommunications policy even today – that <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/public-and-broadcasting">the airwaves are a public resource</a>, managed by the government for the benefit of the public at large. In exchange for being allowed the exclusive use of specific frequencies, broadcasters had a <a href="http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/64kmn4yx9780252040726.html">duty to serve their communities</a>.</p>
<h2>Loosening the reins</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1279&context=fclj">By 1987</a>, it was clear that people didn’t often visit stations, but rather called or sent letters. As a result, the FCC allowed stations to locate their studios anywhere the station’s signal could be clearly received. </p>
<p>At the same time, the FCC also removed the rule requiring stations to <a href="http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db0518/FCC-17-59A1.pdf">produce local programming</a> – though they remained able to do so, because they were still required to maintain production and transmission equipment in their studios. <a href="http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db0518/FCC-17-59A1.pdf">In 1998</a>, the FCC let stations move even farther away from their audiences.</p>
<p><a href="http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db0518/FCC-17-59A1.pdf">In April 2017</a>, the FCC proposed doing away with the rule altogether. In its proposal, the FCC noted telephones, email and social media mean listeners don’t need to be physically nearby to communicate with station management.</p>
<p>As a result, the FCC said, it was unnecessarily burdensome to force broadcasting companies to maintain local studios even somewhat near the communities they serve. This continues the ongoing policy <a href="http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db0518/FCC-17-59A1.pdf">shift from a focus on connections to the local community</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-fcc-continues-to-redefine-the-public-interest-as-business-interests-75120">toward benefiting broadcasters’ business operations</a> and profit margins.</p>
<p>That can cause problems, and not just because small communities that used to have local newsrooms may become afterthoughts for reporters and editors in centralized regional hubs. A deadly example happened in January 2002: One person died and a thousand were injured when a freight train derailed, releasing clouds of poisonous gas over Minot, the fourth-largest city in North Dakota. The <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/press_box/2007/01/what_really_happened_in_minot_nd.html">residents weren’t warned of the danger for hours</a>. Local authorities had technical problems with an automated emergency alert system, and there was no one at the designated radio station to simply cut into the broadcast on a studio microphone and tell listeners what was happening.</p>
<h2>Allowing even larger media mergers</h2>
<p>The second decades-old rule the FCC wants to repeal would complicate matters further by allowing media companies to own even more TV stations across the country.</p>
<p>Media consolidation is already a major problem today, with <a href="https://www.freepress.net/media-consolidation">critics claiming it leads to a lack of diversity</a> in programming, in journalism and in employment. When it comes to local television, <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/11/buying-spree-brings-more-local-tv-stations-to-fewer-big-companies/">Pew Research</a> recently reported that the five largest television ownership groups – Sinclair, Nexstar, Gray, Tegna and Tribune – own 37 percent of all full-power TV stations in the country. </p>
<p>Increasingly, these owners are also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/business/media/sinclair-broadcast-komo-conservative-media.html?_r=0">editorializing</a> on their local stations: The New York Times recently reported that Sinclair was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/business/media/sinclair-broadcast-komo-conservative-media.html?_r=0">forcing its stations to air conservative-leaning news segments</a>, for instance. </p>
<p>This situation does not prioritize giving local viewpoints to the <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/11/buying-spree-brings-more-local-tv-stations-to-fewer-big-companies/">46 percent of Americans</a> who get their news from local TV, <a href="https://www.poynter.org/2017/whats-america-really-watching-in-the-morning-local-news/459495/">especially in the morning</a>. And the problem of uniform perspectives from far away may get worse. </p>
<h2>Defending diversity</h2>
<p>To fight consolidation in the hopes it would encourage diversity of ownership and therefore of viewpoints being broadcast, the FCC limited the number of people any one broadcaster can reach. Companies cannot own so many stations that, when combined, their total potential audience reaches <a href="https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-16-107A1.pdf">more than 39 percent of viewers nationwide</a>.</p>
<p>But the policy is not as straightforward as it might seem. When calculating how many viewers a station reaches, the FCC takes into account the physical properties of different parts of the broadcast spectrum. Some stations broadcast on VHF (very high frequency) channels (numbers 2 to 13 on TV controls), while others are UHF (ultra high frequency) stations, using channels 14 to 69. UHF channels don’t travel as far as VHF ones, so the FCC assumes that, when compared with VHF signals serving the same area, <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/reinstatement-uhf-discount">UHF stations reach fewer people</a>. This became called the “<a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/reinstatement-uhf-discount">UHF discount</a>.”</p>
<p>In the days when over-the-air broadcasting was how most Americans got their TV, that meant a company could own more stations, even in the largest markets, so long as they were UHF broadcasters. It would take more UHF stations to serve enough viewers to hit the 39 percent audience threshold. </p>
<h2>Changing the rules</h2>
<p>In 2016, President Obama’s FCC <a href="https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-16-116A1_Rcd.pdf">eliminated the UHF discount</a>, noting that digital broadcasting over the airwaves reduced the technical difference between VHF and UHF. (In fact, the <a href="http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/33407/vhf-now-everything-you-know-is-wrong">UHF band is actually better for digital television</a>.) Four companies that owned many UHF stations found their viewership calculations changed significantly, exceeding 39 percent of the population. These four, <a href="https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-16-116A1_Rcd.pdf">ION, Univision, Tribune and Trinity</a>, were allowed to keep their stations.</p>
<p>In April, led by Ajit Pai, a Republican member of the FCC under Obama who was elevated by Trump to chair the agency, the <a href="https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-16-116A1_Rcd.pdf">FCC restored the UHF discount</a>. The move was intended to be <a href="https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-16-116A1_Rcd.pdf">the first part of a full review</a> of the 39 percent audience cap. A federal lawsuit aimed to stop the rule change <a href="http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db0601/DOC-345149A1.pdf">just recently failed</a>.</p>
<p>The timing of this rule change is important. On May 8, Sinclair, the nation’s largest owner of local television stations, announced that it planned to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/business/media/sinclair-tribune-media-sale.html">buy Tribune Media</a>, the country’s fourth-biggest local TV company. The US$3.9 billion deal would add Tribune’s 42 stations to Sinclair’s existing 173.</p>
<p>More important, from the perspective of ensuring diverse media ownership, is the question of how many viewers Sinclair would be able to reach. Without the UHF discount, Sinclair was already approaching the 39 percent threshold, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-07/sinclair-said-close-to-buying-tribune-for-about-45-a-share">reaching 37.7 percent of American TV viewers</a>, giving the company no room to expand. </p>
<p>But with the UHF discount back in place, the company’s reach would be just 23.8 percent of U.S. households. Adding Tribune would bring it up to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-07/sinclair-said-close-to-buying-tribune-for-about-45-a-share">over 42 percent</a>. That would force Sinclair to sell a few stations to get back under the cap – but the deal would still be a significant merger. It would be so big, in fact, that if the UHF discount didn’t exist, the merged Sinclair-Tribune would be considered to reach <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/business/media/sinclair-tribune-media-sale.html">more than 70 percent of American households</a>.</p>
<h2>Alas, local interests</h2>
<p>These two changes – eliminating rules about where stations’ main studios were located and restoring the UHF discount – strip away most of the remaining regulations protecting local influence over local news broadcasting. Companies like Sinclair can get even bigger, and can centralize the production of what should be local news broadcasts in faraway places. </p>
<p>Viewers in the major markets, like New York, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles, will always be able to find locally produced news reports on nearly any channel or platform. But rural residents served by Sinclair – like <a href="http://klewtv.com/">Lewiston, Idaho</a>; <a href="http://wwmt.com/">Grand Rapids, Michigan</a>; and <a href="http://wtov9.com/">Steubenville, Ohio</a> – would have a harder time finding their own communities represented in broadcast news.</p>
<p>Americans are <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2017/05/10/americans-attitudes-about-the-news-media-deeply-divided-along-partisan-lines/pj_2017-05-10_media-attitudes_a-05/">clamoring for better journalism</a>. The FCC should be protecting local TV news in small communities, not threatening this information lifeline for rural-dwelling Americans.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79096/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Ali does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Federal rules governing television stations were meant to keep them connected to the communities they serve. The Trump administration wants to weaken those rules, and those civic links.Christopher Ali, Assistant Professor, Department of Media Studies, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/788772017-06-07T01:33:19Z2017-06-07T01:33:19ZPittsburgh: A city of two post-industrial tales<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172539/original/file-20170606-3674-1b0tnua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pittsburgh, between its industrial past and a clean, green tech-driven future.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ADowntown_Pittsburgh_from_Duquesne_Incline_in_the_morning.jpg">Dllu</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump’s <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/01/politics/trump-paris-climate-decision/index.html">mention of Pittsburgh</a> in his announcement withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate evoked <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/03/what-donald-trump-doesnt-get-about-pittsburgh-215223">the city’s past as an industrial powerhouse</a>. It sparked <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/335994-pittsburgh-mayor-fires-back-at-trump-my-city-will-follow-paris">a furious set of tweets from Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto</a>, who promised his city would work to fight climate change. Trump’s statement also drew strong support from local Republican lawmakers who portrayed themselves as <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2017/06/02/donald-Trump-pittsburgh-paris-climate-agreement-environmentalists/stories/201706020115">standing with “Western Pennsylvania manufacturers, boilermakers, power plant workers … and miners.”</a></p>
<p>The president’s words seem fitting for an administration taking great pains to symbolically and literally <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/us/politics/trump-overturning-regulations.html">roll back the achievements of its predecessor</a>. In 2009, the Obama administration chose Pittsburgh as the site for the <a href="http://www.g20.pitt.edu/">U.S.-hosted summit of the G-20</a>, a group of governments and central bankers from <a href="https://www.g20.org">20 major world economies</a>. The meeting was in a downtown facility that was the world’s first and largest <a href="http://www.usgbc.org/projects/david-l-lawrence-convention-center-1">Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified convention center</a>. Positive media coverage poured in from around the world, showcasing Pittsburgh’s “<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/pittsburgh-green-idUSN1827474520090920?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=10522">green economy</a>” rebirth as a center of clean technology and innovation.</p>
<p>The city took a hard hit in the 1980s <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/03/what-donald-trump-doesnt-get-about-pittsburgh-215223">when corporate and government policies, global economic forces and new technologies</a> resulted in southwestern Pennsylvania’s permanent loss of <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/03/what-donald-trump-doesnt-get-about-pittsburgh-215223">more than 150,000 manufacturing jobs and 176,000 residents</a>. In the decades since, Pittsburgh has used its considerable economic, institutional and political resources to reinvent itself as a center of education, innovation and health care. From 2010 to 2015, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/metro-monitor-2017/">worker productivity shot up 10 percent</a>, average annual wages increased 9 percent and the overall standard of living rose 13 percent in the region.</p>
<p>But the former Steel City’s success has proven to be uneven across racial and class lines. The recovery has also proven difficult to replicate in the former mill towns and outlying rural mining areas that once provided the raw materials upon which its fortunes were made. In my book, “<a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15414.html">Beyond Rust: Metropolitan Pittsburgh and the Fate of Industrial America</a>,” I take readers on two tours of the region that shed light on the divided responses to Trump’s opposition to the global climate accord.</p>
<h2>The promise of transformation</h2>
<p>On the first tour in my book, we view the history of Pittsburgh through a lens similar to that used by longtime city mayor Richard Caliguiri, who served from 1977 to 1988. For him, for development officials, and for many of the residents employed outside traditional industries, Rust Belt imagery rooted in the dirty, blue-collar mill towns was a barrier to recruiting talent and attracting new businesses.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15414.html">Caliguiri envisioned the city resurrected</a> as a “service and retailing center, a center for health care, a city of transplants, a city of High Technology, a city of Robotics, of computer programming.” Supported by both public and private funds, the business-backed <a href="http://www.alleghenyconference.org/">Allegheny Conference on Community Development</a>, elected officials and leaders of <a href="https://www.cmu.edu/">Carnegie Mellon University</a> and the <a href="https://www.pitt.edu/">University of Pittsburgh</a> set the stage for the “<a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2017/04/13/pittsburgh-housing-buoyed-by-eds-and-meds-study.html">eds and meds</a>” economy for which the city is known today. </p>
<p>Rivers that had served as industrial canals and sewers for more than a century were clean enough to enjoy, helping encourage environmental stewardship. Campaigns to <a href="http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/March-2016/The-Next-Hot-Hoods-in-Pittsburgh/index.php?cparticle=7&fb_comment_id=962531840463045_976087639107465&siarticle=6#f3dee768675acd6">reuse industrial age buildings</a> and to <a href="https://www.railstotrails.org/trailblog/2017/april/07/pennsylvania-s-three-rivers-heritage-trail/">repurpose railroad corridors</a> as riverfront recreational trails further helped cement Pittsburgh’s new post-industrial identity. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An aerial view of Summerset at Frick Park, a residential area built on an old slag heap.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASummerset_at_Frick_Park_aerial_view.jpg">Lyndasw</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The tour in my book takes readers through suburban research campuses, office buildings and residential areas that would not be out of place in other prosperous parts of the nation. Entering the city proper, triumphant symbols of economic and environmental transformation are everywhere; among the examples are <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/life/homes/2015/11/05/Buying-Here-Summerset-townhouse-offers-open-floor-plan-views-of-the-Monongahela-River/stories/201511050150">Summerset at Frick Park</a>, a new urbanist residential area erected on top of a reclaimed slag pile, and the <a href="http://pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/zoning/spds/pittsburgh-technology-center">Pittsburgh Technology Center</a>, built by a public-private consortium on the former site of an enormous riverfront mill. The <a href="http://phlf.org/2008/06/13/hot-metal-bridge-lighted/">Hot Metal Bridge</a>, which once carried molten iron across the Monongahela River, now gives students and workers a healthy and eco-friendly route to walk or bike from the university center of Oakland to the hip neighborhoods of the city’s South Side.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From the Hot Metal Bridge pedestrian walkway, the offices of the American Eagle Outfitters clothing chain are visible in the background, part of a mixed-use development built on the site of a former steel mill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHot_Metal_Bridge_pedestrian_walkway_facing_southwest.jpg">Dllu</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If the tour was limited to these neighborhoods, the Pittsburgh revitalization might seem an unqualified success.</p>
<h2>Sticking with tradition</h2>
<p>Forty miles upstream, however, my book’s second tour heads to the deindustrialized communities of Charleroi, Monessen and Donora. The population is dwindling, and those who remain <a href="http://triblive.com/news/editorspicks/7470396-74/donora-town-didonato">continue to struggle</a> with high poverty and unemployment rates. Gravel and rock piles and a loading dock on the Monongahela’s western bank share the panorama with the hulking mass of the Speers Railroad Bridge. While a little rusty, this span still carries the <a href="http://www.wlerwy.com/">Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway</a> as it transports freight to and from five different mills and those employees fortunate enough to still work in them.</p>
<p>Many residents came to value the Steel City’s improving rivers, cleaner skies and scenic woodlands. And yet, in 1985, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/08/13/union-leaders-tour-rusted-mon-valley/ce04e5ea-807e-4e34-b1df-5cbf6ed7ec8c/">AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland announced</a>, “Pittsburgh looks beautiful. But I’d like to see it a little dirtier, a little more smoke. The most environmentally offensive thing I see is the shut-down mills.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The rusting hulk of the Carrie Furnace, a remnant of an industrial past now being reborn as a museum and mixed-use development site.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brookward/33689164662/">brookward/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From this perspective, the post-industrial reinvention of the region offered only low-paid service work or the hazy idea of job retraining. What good were pretty views and playgrounds for white-collar workers without a solution to the loss of unionized, family-wage blue-collar jobs?</p>
<p>As a result, for many people in the region, the real excitement over the past few years has bubbled up from the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/article/the-marcellus-shale-gas-boom-in-pennsylvania.htm">new “blue” jobs in oil and gas extraction</a>. The invention of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” <a href="http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/03/the_rise_and_fall_and_rise_of.html">unlocked massive natural gas reserves</a> in the region’s Marcellus and Utica shale formations.</p>
<p>The number of <a href="http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/drilling/">active wells</a> in southwestern Pennsylvania quadrupled from 2008 to 2012. The fracking boom prompted a <a href="http://pittsburghquarterly.com/pq-commerce/pq-energy/item/34-an-industrial-renaissance.html">renaissance of reindustrialization</a> with opportunities for jobs in the energy, chemical and metals sectors. But, a fracking downturn beginning in 2015 caused economic anxieties to rush back to the surface. Many locals worried that their financial recovery was threatened by global economic forces beyond their control or, more sinisterly, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/19/climate-change-is-single-biggest-threat-to-polar-bear-survival">environmental activists</a> accused of <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/312780-polar-bears-over-people-environmentalism-over">favoring polar bears above people</a>.</p>
<p>As president, Obama made multiple trips to the city of Pittsburgh, touting its economic reinvention – including that G-20 conference in 2009. But neither he nor Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign ever found their way to these old bastions of the Democratic Party. Trump did. In June 2016, he arrived in Monessen to acknowledge the “very, very tough times” and assure residents he would “<a href="http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016/06/28/trump-policy-speech-monessen/">make it better fast</a>.”</p>
<p>For those left out of the promise of a post-industrial Pittsburgh reborn through environmental stewardship and a high-tech economy, Trump’s simplistic but powerful message of reindustrialization, economic protectionism and environmental deregulation often resonates with their own lives and dreams for the future. That may even have <a href="http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016/11/09/westmoreland-countys-turnout-helped-trump-win-pennsylvania/">helped him win Westmoreland County</a>, just east of Pittsburgh. But it remains unclear how the president’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement will actually serve to make their lives materially better. At the least, it reminds those of us who have navigated the winds of economic change successfully of the consequences for ignoring the needs of those struggling to find a safe harbor.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78877/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allen Dieterich-Ward does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pittsburgh’s post-industrial economic resurgence is promising, a historian of the region writes, but there’s a reason President Trump highlighted the area in his speech exiting the Paris climate deal.Allen Dieterich-Ward, Associate Professor of History, Shippensburg UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/761192017-05-31T02:09:25Z2017-05-31T02:09:25ZWhat rural, coastal Puerto Ricans can teach us about thriving in times of crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171529/original/file-20170530-23707-vm9jgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man fishing from a dock in Fajardo, Puerto Rico.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Puerto Ricans are searching for solutions to the island’s worst economic and social crisis in a long time. </p>
<p>An unprecedented debt level is creating widespread uncertainty about employment and the state’s ability to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/06/us/puerto-rico-insolvency-business-owners-anxiety.html?action=click&contentCollection=DealBook&module=RelatedCoverage&region=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article">provide basic services</a>. This crisis is not going away <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/business/dealbook/puerto-rico-debt-bankruptcy.html">anytime soon</a>, but solutions may be closer than we think.</p>
<p>As cultural anthropologists, we have spent more than a decade studying how people’s everyday lives relate to <a href="http://athenaeum.libs.uga.edu/handle/10724/23117">larger social and economic processes</a> and have documented the <a href="http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/AAI3180227/">negative effects</a> of inequality. In doing so, we have also witnessed people in Puerto Rico who “refuse to play by the rules” of capitalism. Some <a href="http://www.ram-wan.net/restrepo/modernidad/the%20otherwise%20modern-trouillot.pdf">scholars</a> have even argued that <a href="http://libreriaisla.com/el-arte-de-bregar-ensayos-2113.html">Caribbean peoples are experts</a> at living with and resisting the negative effects of modern capitalism because it was there that one form of capitalism was <a href="http://sidneymintz.net/caribbean.php">first tested</a>. Beginning in the 18th century, Caribbean sugar plantations were <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674066212">early models for factory labor management and capitalist trade</a> with the European metropolis.</p>
<p>People on the rural coasts of Puerto Rico are forging good lives without necessarily accumulating material wealth and climbing the socioeconomic ladder. Examining the lives of those who have been “left behind” by the mainstream economy may provide examples of how to live well in troubled times.</p>
<h2>Diversity in times of instability</h2>
<p>Working in a salaried full-time job with a single employer can be a good strategy for survival in times of abundance and stability. However, it comes at the expense of reduced flexibility and resiliency under <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Evolution_in_Changing_Environments.html?id=EsNMDQEACAAJ">conditions of scarcity and uncertainty</a>. People who are poor and live in rural areas, such as many coastal Puerto Ricans, have long relied on <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220389808422553">diverse</a> <a href="http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1563_reg.html">livelihoods</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Occupational_Multiplicity_in_Rural_Jamai.html?id=rMWNoAEACAAJ">income streams</a> to adapt to prolonged scarcity and uncertainty.</p>
<p>Puerto Ricans occasionally combine formal and informal labor with taking advantage of benefits offered by the state. Take Juana, a single mother and lifelong resident of Arroyo, Puerto Rico whom we interviewed for a <a href="http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/sites/default/files/contentgroups/center_international_human_rights/PR%20Self%20Determination%20Conference%20(Final)%204-12-16.pdf">2016 study</a>. Because our interviews are usually carried out under agreement of confidentiality, we use pseudonyms instead of interviewee names.</p>
<p>Until retiring, Juana worked on and off as a temporary clerk in a local hospital. When she was out of work, she babysat children of working mothers in her community. Now, Juana often barters produce from her small fruit and vegetable garden with neighbors for their labor: for example, a mechanic who fixes her car. One of her nephews, whom she babysat as a kid, is a spearfisher who provides a few fish or a lobster for Juana’s fridge. Juana said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I do not want or need for anything. I often have more than I know what to do with.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171163/original/file-20170526-6380-1ug8qpx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171163/original/file-20170526-6380-1ug8qpx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171163/original/file-20170526-6380-1ug8qpx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171163/original/file-20170526-6380-1ug8qpx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171163/original/file-20170526-6380-1ug8qpx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171163/original/file-20170526-6380-1ug8qpx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171163/original/file-20170526-6380-1ug8qpx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171163/original/file-20170526-6380-1ug8qpx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Public art depicts the cultural importance of fishing for a coastal town in Puerto Rico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hilda Lloréns</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Central to these arrangements is investment in community relationships by <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Moral_Economy_of_the_Peasant.html?id=qu5KUdN_rDkC">gift-giving, bartering and sharing expertise</a>.</p>
<p>In our work, we have documented repeated instances in which people <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-1433.2012.01532.x/abstract">gave away valuable goods</a>, like fresh fish or shellfish, instead of holding on to them or selling them to accrue wealth. <a href="https://app.box.com/s/65t6moiyoxebzr7r68k0">A recent study</a> found that more than 90 percent of fishers around Puerto Rico’s southeast coast routinely separate part of their catch for giving to family, friends or neighbors in need. They choose to invest in community <a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/The-Gift/">relationships and solidarity</a>. </p>
<p>This <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=b5WDDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA220&lpg=PA220&dq=keeps+no+accounts+because+it+implies+a+relation+of+permanent+mutual+commitment&source=bl&ots=18LhUi6RQm&sig=eSvQ_JGlSHwAZwMquF_B2h1OSFg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj37NS5k6zTAhUBH2MKHasVAR0Q6AEIJDAA#v=onepage&q=keeps%20no%20accounts%20because%20it%20implies%20a%20relation%20of%20permanent%20mutual%20commitment&f=false">kind of reciprocity</a> occurs in communities where people recognize that their well-being depends on that of others, rather than on undependable labor markets.</p>
<h2>Leaning on community</h2>
<p>In Puerto Rico, as in other places such as New England, fishers tend to have relatively low incomes but <a href="http://www.humanecologyreview.org/pastissues/her152/pollnacpoggie.pdf?q=poggie">high cultural significance</a> in their communities. Fishers hold an iconic image as independent workers who engage in an adventurous and arduous lifestyle to provide for their communities.</p>
<p>A fisher from Salinas, Puerto Rico explained that he wanted to provide an honorable occupation for his grandson and grandnephew.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Who will employ these kids if I do not? I hardly ever pay to fix my boat, my engine, or my nets. People fix them for me, because I bring them food. Many times I give fish away for free or on credit, and I also provide employment for community members.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These communities often have centers that organize initiatives for residents such as community gardening, solar power, home improvement workshops and summer camps for about 100 children. In 2016, Carmen, the current president of a community board in Salinas, Puerto Rico, told us about their summer camp: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We charge a monthly five dollar fee per child. We recruit volunteers to offer workshops for the children. We get free breakfast and lunch through the Department of Education. Otherwise, we fund the camp with our own money and donations from local businesses. Members of the community board of directors and parents help staff the camp.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When we asked why she felt that hosting the children’s summer camp is important, Carmen answered: “We are a ‘poor’ community, but when we pool our time and resources we are able to offer the children a good summer camp and teach them good values.”</p>
<h2>Lessons from the margins</h2>
<p>The idea with <a href="http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.3998/jar.0521004.0071.201">these examples</a> is not to glamorize poverty or lack of access to income. Instead, our work points out that people have exercised their agency in such situations by learning to outmaneuver “the game” by changing the rules and goals so that they stand a better chance to win. </p>
<p>People living in the hinterlands of the modernizing world have long realized the undependable nature of working in industries such as pharmaceutical, energy and corporate tourism, where jobs come and go with economic cycles. Local workers are often the last hired, the first fired and have the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/ae.1992.19.1.02a00040/full">lowest-paying, more hazardous jobs</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps it is time to look to people who have been deemed outcasts or “backwards” – Caribbean rural fishers and farmers, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Estuarys-Gift-Atlantic-Cultural-Biography/dp/0271019514">mid-Atlantic fishers and pine tar harvesters</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/18/us/beyond-coal-imagining-appalachias-future.html?_r=0">Appalachian farmers and coal workers</a> – to understand how they have created rich lives in the margins of the mainstream economy. Perhaps we can apply their strategies for our own survival in these turbulent times.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76119/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlos G. García-Quijano has received research funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-Sea Grant. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hilda Lloréns does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>At society’s margins, people without access to the mainstream job economy are able to carve out lives rich in other resources and community.Carlos G. García-Quijano, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Marine Affairs, University of Rhode IslandHilda Lloréns, Faculty in Anthropology, University of Rhode IslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/697562017-01-20T02:56:42Z2017-01-20T02:56:42ZRural America matters to all Americans<p>President-elect Donald Trump has nominated former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue to lead the Department of Agriculture.</p>
<p>Many Americans may feel like this particular Cabinet nomination doesn’t impact their everyday lives, but that is a misconception. USDA is responsible for areas beyond agriculture, including food, nutrition and rural development. </p>
<p>Rural America is important to all Americans because it is a primary source for inexpensive and safe food, affordable energy, clean drinking water and accessible outdoor recreation.</p>
<p>Almost three-quarters of the United States is considered rural, but <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/eib162/eib-162.pdf">only 14 percent</a> of the population lives there. As more <a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/10/21/357723069/millennials-continue-urbanization-of-america-leaving-small-town">people have moved away from rural areas</a>, many have lost an understanding or appreciation of what rural communities contribute to the nation. </p>
<p>As an attorney who focuses on agriculture and food law and policies, I’d argue that these communities’ unique challenges are even more dimly understood.</p>
<p>Rural Americans voted in <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/hillary-clinton-rural-voters-trump-231266">high numbers</a> and helped propel President-elect Donald Trump to victory. Now, people in rural parts of the country are waiting to see if Trump’s promise to make America great again will include them.</p>
<p>Of course, the administration’s first challenge lies with figuring out what rural areas need. That’s a difficult task because there’s not just one “rural voice,” unified on all issues. Rural communities relying on recreation tourism may support increased environmental regulations while those relying on farming or manufacturing may be opposed. Farmers may support international trade agreements that open markets to crops, while those in manufacturing fear the loss of jobs. The concerns of rural West Virginia will not be the same as those of rural Wyoming.</p>
<p>In nominating Perdue to head the USDA, the key agency charged with supporting rural America, Trump has picked someone with strong agricultural and rural roots. Perdue has years of experience in the agriculture and trade sectors. As governor of Georgia, he oversaw a state in which <a href="https://dch.georgia.gov/sites/dch.georgia.gov/files/related_files/document/Georgia%27s%20Rural%20Counties-Sept%202014.pdf">108 of 159 counties</a> are designated rural because they have populations under 35,000. </p>
<h2>Providing food and energy</h2>
<p>The USDA is the nation’s sixth-largest federal agency. Most Americans know that the agency is responsible for agriculture, farming, livestock, forestry and natural resources. However, most of its budget supports <a href="http://www.obpa.usda.gov/budsum/fy17budsum.pdf">numerous nutrition programs</a>, including supplemental assistance (SNAP) and the school lunch program. It’s not a stretch to say the department’s programs touch every American.</p>
<p>Farming and agricultural production are obvious examples. Agriculture makes up approximately 6 percent of the overall economy and provides almost <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/ag-and-food-sectors-and-the-economy.aspx">10 percent of U.S. employment</a>. U.S. agricultural exports are <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/aes97/aes-97.pdf">expected to reach more than US$130 billion</a> in 2017. </p>
<p>The safety and low cost of the food that U.S. farmers provide is often taken for granted. Americans spend less of their income on food than any other country – <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/DataFiles/Food_Expenditures__17981//table97_2014.xlsx">just over 6 percent of household income</a>. That compares to Canada – 9.2 percent, Germany – 10.22 percent, France – 13.3 percent and Italy – 14.2 percent. </p>
<iframe id="datawrapper-chart-kO60V" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/kO60V/3/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="550"></iframe>
<p>But rural America is about more than farming. Rural communities are also the home of many of the country’s <a href="http://www.iatp.org/files/2016_04_01_CleanPowerPlan_TR.pdf">energy production resources</a>, such as coal mining, renewable fuels like ethanol and biodiesel, wind and solar energy, and gas and oil production. Approximately <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/0509_locating_american_manufacturing_report.pdf">20 percent of the manufacturing industry</a> is located in rural America. </p>
<h2>Rural challenges</h2>
<p>Rural communities face real and unique challenges. While many of these same issues exist in cities, programs designed to work in urban areas often <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/images/Rural%20Policy%20Learnings%20Memo.pdf">do not translate well to rural areas</a>. </p>
<p>Substance abuse, for example, is just as common in rural areas as in cities, but rates among certain groups, like teenagers and the unemployed, are higher. Most recently the issue of rural opioid abuse has been of key governmental concern. Before leaving office, former USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack was leading <a href="https://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=opioids">an interagency initiative</a> focused on finding ways to fight an increase in abuse and overdoses. This initiative recognized the <a href="http://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=carsey">hurdles of providing treatment in rural areas</a>, including transportation, public funding shortfalls and high costs.</p>
<h2>Lack of professionals</h2>
<p>It’s also difficult to recruit professionals to rural areas, an issue that impacts health care services, education and the law. </p>
<p>Not only is attracting <a href="https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/healthcare-access#barriers">health care professionals</a> to rural areas a challenge, but facilities, transportation, privacy concerns and access to specialists are major concerns. Access is a significant issue as rural Americans have higher numbers of chronic illness, including <a href="https://www.ruralhealthweb.org/about-nrha/about-rural-health-care">heart disease and diabetes</a>. Rural youth commit suicide at twice the rate of urban teens, and <a href="https://www.ruralhealthweb.org/about-nrha/about-rural-health-care">access</a> to mental health care is a significant problem. </p>
<p>Rural education also poses <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED556045.pdf">unique challenges</a>. Student populations tend to be smaller. That translates to less funding. Rural schools are seeing a need for increased support related to early childhood development and education to provide needed programs, and recognition of unique problems they face. <a href="http://www.ruraledu.org/user_uploads/file/EarlyChildhood.pdf">Rural children</a> are less prepared for school than urban kids, in part due to lack of early education programs, and lower income and education levels of parents.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/too_many_lawyers_not_here._in_rural_america_lawyers_are_few_and_far_between">Not having a local attorney</a> available impacts the ability to build a defense if charged with a crime or handle issues like child custody disputes, divorce or preparing a will. Local attorneys also play a role in community development and civic organizations.</p>
<p>And affecting many of these other issues is this harsh reality: When compared to urban areas, rural areas have higher rates of unemployment and poverty. Recent USDA numbers show <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/employment-education/rural-employment-and-unemployment/">rural unemployment</a> averaged 5.4 percent, while urban unemployment was 4.8 percent. In 2014, <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/rural-poverty-well-being/poverty-overview/">rural poverty rates</a> were 18.1 percent, compared to 15.1 percent in urban areas. <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/rural-poverty-well-being/poverty-overview/">Child poverty rates</a> average 4 percentage points higher in rural areas than in urban areas. </p>
<h2>USDA can’t act alone</h2>
<p>By some measures, parts of rural American have seen improvement over the past few years. </p>
<p>Vilsack and the Obama administration successfully created programs and directed millions of dollars to rural development. An <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/eib162/eib-162.pdf">annual USDA survey</a> indicated that in 2016 rural unemployment decreased, fewer rural Americans lived in poverty, rural incomes rose, populations were steady and the number of children without access to sufficient food was at an all-time low. </p>
<p>Yet even with these improvements, the election results indicate that rural Americans still feel underrepresented and unhappy with the federal government. </p>
<p>Many in rural areas want the government to look at trade, health, tax, commerce, environmental, education, labor, immigration and other policies and ask, “How does this impact or improve rural America?” For example, many rural Americans believe they were overlooked when considering the impact of international trade agreements. They argue that is what caused rural areas to <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/business-industry/">lose 25 percent</a> of their manufacturing jobs in the 2000s.</p>
<p>Of course, rural issues go beyond the scope of USDA. Immigration policies can impact farm labor and food prices. Environmental regulations effect energy production. Trade policies have an influence on manufacturing and agricultural production. </p>
<p>What rural America demanded with this election is a seat at the table. Getting one may be a challenge considering approximately 80 percent of elected officials <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/12/rural-decline-congress/1827407/">do not represent rural areas</a>. What they and the new president need to understand is that strong rural communities benefit us all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Zwagerman is affiliated with the American Agricultural Law Association, Iowa State Bar Association, Polk County Bar Association and NALP.</span></em></p>Are you part of the 86 percent of Americans who do not live in rural America? Here’s why Trump’s choice to lead the USDA matters to you.Jennifer Zwagerman, Associate Director of the Agricultural Law Center; Director of Career Development (Law School), Drake UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.