Overview

Communities in rural America are a complex mixture of peoples and cultures struggling to survive by implementing innovative approaches to their problems. These people range from miners who have been laid off in West Virginia, to Laotian immigrants relocating in Kansas to work at a beef processing plant, to entrepreneurs drawing up plans for a world-class ski resort in California's Sierra Nevada. This thoroughly revised edition of Rural Communities focuses on various capitals in rural areas-natural, cultural, human, social, political, financial, and built. This integrative approach provides students with a framework for understanding rural society based on the concepts and explanations of social science. Issues covered include racial and cultural diversity; globalization and rural communities; the central role of communities in organizing a sustainable future; and building community in the context of ubiquitous change. Updates to the third edition include a new chapter on governance, as well as new material on increasing tensions over international immigration, the differential impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on rural communities, and the rural impacts of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the south. The authors also examine the international trade regime, economic restructuring, and the choices for communities and regions in the face of these changes.

Full Product Details

9780813343778

Table of Contents

Reviews

This book paints an illuminating picture of the complexity that is rural America today. A highly readable examination of the issues, this book sets a new standard for a publication that is both narratively approachable and theoretically rigorous. -Karl N. Stauber, president of the Northwest Area Foundation, St. Paul, Minnesota, and former Under Secretary, USDA This is an exciting, practical, well-researched, and usable framework for making a difference in rural communities. Highly recommended to anyone interested in understanding how rural communitites function and in being part of positive community development in rural America. -Dick Senese, Associate Dean, Community Development & Vitality, University of Minnesota Extension Service This long-awaited update incorporates conceptual developments of the past decade. The focus remains on the unique character of rural America, but the authors make it clear that rural can only be understood in light of urban, national, and global phenomena. By the same token, students and other scholars interested primarily in urban phenomena will find much of interest in Rural Communitites. -Connor Bailey, Auburn University

This text contributes to pedagogical effectiveness, student learning and empowered community practice. The text is well written, clearly organized, engaging, insightful and readable for a wide range of audiences. -- Teaching Sociology

This text contributes to pedagogical effectiveness, student learning and empowered community practice. The text is well written, clearly organized, engaging, insightful and readable for a wide range of audiences. <br> -- Teaching Sociology<br><br>

Author Information

Cornelia Butler Flora is director of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development and professor of sociology at Iowa State University. Jan Flora is professor of sociology and extension community sociologist at Iowa State University. Susan Fey is program coordinator of the Community Development Online Master's Programme at the North Central Regional Center for Development at Iowa State University.

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