Rural Poverty In The United States

America's rural areas have always held a disproportionate share of the nation's poorest populations. Rural Poverty in the United States examines why. What is it about the geography, demography, and history of rural communities that keeps them poor? In a comprehensive analysis that extends from the Civil War to the present, Rural Poverty in the United States looks at access to human and social capital; food security; healthcare and the environment; homelessness; gender roles and relations; racial inequalities; and immigration trends to isolate the underlying causes of persistent rural poverty. Contributors to this volume incorporate approaches from multiple disciplines, including sociology, economics, demography, race and gender studies, public health, education, criminal justice, social welfare, and other social science fields. They take a hard look at current and past programs to alleviate rural poverty and use their failures to suggest alternatives that could improve the well-being of rural Americans for years to come. These essays work hard to define rural poverty's specific metrics and markers, a critical step for building better policy and practice. Considering gender, race, and immigration, the book appreciates the overlooked structural and institutional dimensions of ongoing rural poverty and its larger social consequences.

"This case study of poverty in the contemporary United States examines a problem that is widespread but little studied: run-down neighborhoods of intergenerational poverty scattered on the rural fringes of urban areas. Intertwining historical, economic, social, cultural, and psychological material and basing her work on a decade of participant-observation, the author provides a new understanding of the lives and actions of nonfarm rural poor people and identifies the causes of their marginal situation"--Back cover.

Nine million people in the United States live in rural poverty. This large segment of the population has generally been overlooked even as considerable attention, and social conscience, is directed to the alleviation of urban poverty. This timely, needed volume focuses on poor, rural people in poor, rural settings. Rural poverty is not confined to one section of the country or to one ethnic group. It is a national problem and the resolution of hidden America's persistent economic plight will now depend on a better understanding of who is poor and why. The clear, authoritative chapters describe the declining opportunities available in rural areas--including the social, educational, and political factors that so often pose barriers to economic advancement. Part One provides a comprehensive description of the poor population and an analysis of rural poverty's underlying dynamics. Low wages, the character of rural labor markets, and chronic inter-generational poverty are carefully considered to lay the basis for formulating sound responses. Part Two looks at the condition of particular groups suffering poverty in rural areas. These include African-Americans, Appalchians, Native Americans, and migrant workers. It addresses the special problems of those who, although in relatively prosperous rural areas, live at or below the poverty level. Part Three looks to successful lessons from the past and evaluates current steps that may be taken to frame policy recommendations that will mitigate present stress, foster improved opportunities, and open a better life to America's rural poor.

Moving beyond the highly visual forms of poverty characteristic of the city, Rural Poverty explores the nature of poverty in rural spaces in Britain and America. Setting out key features, it highlights the important processes that hide key components of rural poverty. The book seeks to challenge dominant assumptions about the spatialities of poverty and the nature of rural spaces in Britain and America. Drawing on a broad range of new research material, the book challenges dominant assumptions. It provides a comprehensive and critical review of the nature of poverty in rural spaces, giving particular attention to: the scale, profile and causes of poverty in rural areas the spatial unevenness and local geographies of rural poverty the experiences of different forms of poverty in rural spaces the shifting governance of rural welfare at central and local spatial scales. Demonstrating that poverty represents a significant but neglected feature of rural life in Britain and America, this insightful book highlights the processes through which rural poverty remains hidden from the dominant gazes of poverty researchers and policy-makers, the statistical significance and spatial unevenness of poverty in rural areas, the ways in which poverty is experienced in local rural spaces, and the complex governance of welfare in rural spaces. Case study material is drawn from a wide range of locations, including Wiltshire, Northumberland and Hampshire in the UK and New England in the US.

A team of anthropologists, economists, geographers, political scientists, social workers, and sociologists examine the leading explanations for why poverty persists in rural America. Their findings discredit established theories such as the "culture of poverty" and suggest new explanations for rural poverty and new directions for antipoverty programs and policies.