While many students who grew up in rural communities leave for good after going off to college, some are returning to their rural roots. A scholar who studies education and small towns explains why.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Rural America
Displaying 1 - 20 of 41 articles
Farmers can help slow climate change by mixing native grasses into croplands, restoring wetlands and raising perennial crops. These strategies also conserve soil and water and build new markets.
A federal proposal could effectively reclassify the homes of millions of Americans as rural, not urban – without anything actually changing about their communities.
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.
Americans depend more than ever on high-speed internet to connect to jobs, get health care and socialize. What policies really work to close the rural-urban digital divide?
The Postal Service plays a critical role in the supply chains of small businesses and in keeping rural America connected. There’s no reason it can’t continue to do so despite its financial woes.
Local leaders and business owners have had to get creative to help their residents stay healthy and keep community economies going.
African Americans, young children and rural Americans are a few of the groups at risk of being undercounted in this year’s census.
Southern governors are starting to reopen their economies at the same time COVID-19 cases are spreading through the rural South.
Rural America has special problems as it copes with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rural African American families typically have more disadvantages than those living in urban areas. But high-tech options can help.
Often schools close out of a belief that taking this step will save money and help students. Whether or not those benefits materialize, there are downsides for the locals.
2019 was a big year for dire warnings about the state of the planet, but crises can spur solutions.
Investing in farming methods that improve lands and water, and in rural infrastructure and markets, could bring new prosperity to agricultural communities.
People living in rural and small town America have much at stake in the 2020 census. But census participation tends to be lower in rural areas.
A sociologist spent over a year interviewing black, white and Latino residents of a declining coal town in central Pennsylvania, plumbing the sources of their political disillusionment.
A grade of 92 is an A at most schools, but for tap water it means that millions of Americans drink water that fails to met federal standards.
By appealing to the hearts and minds of their white neighbors, Native Americans are carving out common ground. Together, these different groups are building unity through diversity.
Since the Great Recession, most of the nation’s rural counties have struggled to recover lost jobs and retain their people.
A climatologist who studies precipitation trends explains how climate change is projected to make flooding events in the Midwest more severe and more frequent.
Top contributors
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Professor and Neustadt Chair, Department of Agricultural Economics, Oklahoma State University
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Assistant Professor of History, University of Oregon
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Project Director, RTC: Rural, The University of Montana
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Professor of Natural Resource Ecology and Management; Associate Director of the Bioeconomy Institute; Director C-CHANGE, Iowa State University
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Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Texas State University
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Professor of Anthropology, The College of Wooster
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Director, Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement in the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, Tufts University
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Professor of History, University of Idaho
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Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Laboratory Director/Principal Investigator in Water Research, Michigan State University
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Assistant Professor, Department of Media Studies, University of Virginia
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Roy C. Buck Professor of Sociology and Demography, Penn State
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Professor of Environmental Science & Policy, University of North Dakota
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Director of the Drake Agricultural Law Center; Assistant Professor of Law, Drake University
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Professor of Sociology and Demography, Penn State
