Browsing by Subject "rural"

Now showing 1 - 17 of 17
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    A Case of Misunderstood Identity: The Role of Rural Identity in Contemporary American Mass Politics
    (2021-08) Lunz Trujillo, Kristin
    Why do rural individuals tend to be more right-wing in the contemporary U.S.? I answer this question by treating rurality as a social identity – a psychological attachment to rural or small-town life that encompasses a particular set of values and worldview. Previous studies on rural identity by scholars such as Katherine Cramer or Arlie Hochschild argue that rural areas’ turn to the right – particularly to right-wing populism - is rooted in socioeconomic class-based concerns and anti-urban resentment. However, using national experimental and survey data, in contrast to the qualitative and ethnographic approaches typically used, I find that rural identifiers are not more likely to be lower- or working-class individuals or to express economic concerns. Further, rural social identity does not significantly differ between racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. In other words, politically speaking the white working class does not equal rural identity, something often and nearly automatically assumed in scholarly and popular accounts. Instead, I argue that the turn to the right has been due to rural identifiers’ intermediate status in the societal status hierarchy. Rural areas perceive a group status-based threat from two different out-groups, which map onto definitions of right-wing populism. The first out-group is experts and intellectuals, who rural residents believe favor lower-status groups, such as immigrants – a second out-group - allowing them to cut in line ahead of rural Americans to gain social, economic and political status. These two out-groups (intellectuals/experts and immigrants) are more likely to be urban residents but not necessarily, complicating the idea of anti-urban resentment being the primary feature of rural identity. In this work, I rely on several sources of quantitative data, including original survey data and experiments collected over three years, as well as data from the ANES (American National Election Studies), the CCES (Cooperative Congressional Election Studies), and county-level data.
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    County databook of positional leadership, 2000-2020
    (2023-01-27) Winchester, Benjamin S; benw@umn.edu; Winchester, Benjamin; University of Minnesota Extension
    This dataset contains the data on positional leadership. Positional leaders are crucial components of our communities and there are many governmental positions – both elected and appointed – to fill. This fact sheet documents the number of governmental and nonprofit organizations across Minnesota by county. A rural-urban lens is also used to examine differences in leadership supply and demand.
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    Feasibility of a Quantitative Rural Safety Policy Improvement Index (RSPII): Phase I
    (University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies, 2009-05) Knapp, Keith K.; Young, Kelcie; Utecht, Brad
    Many factors that contribute to fatal crashes are related to human behavior. One method of adjusting these behaviors is through the enactment and enforcement of legislatively-based safety improvement measures (LSIMs). The objective of this research was to investigate the feasibility of a research-based rural safety policy improvement index (RSPII) to quantify the state-by-state impacts of LSIMs. Recently completed LSIM summaries categorized the direct safety impacts of 23 behavioral highway safety countermeasures as “proven” with “high-quality” research. It was concluded that a RSPII was feasible and six LSIMs were selected for consideration with a RSPII framework. The LSIMs selected include the implementation of a comprehensive graduated driver licensing program, primary seat belt law, motorcycle helmet use law, sobriety checkpoints, ignition interlocks, and automated speed enforcement. A six-step RSPII framework and a pilot application are documented in this report. Two estimation methods were used to quantify the rural roadway safety impacts of primary seat belt law implementation. It was estimated that 488 fatalities or 248 unbelted front seat passenger vehicle occupant (≥ 13 years old) deaths could be avoided if this were to occur. More detailed applications for all six LSIMs selected will be completed in Phase II of this project.
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    Forging Their Own Way: Queer Visibility, Identity Politics, and Cultural Change On Minnesota’s Iron Range
    (2016-12) Strano, Andria
    This is a study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people on Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. Minnesota’s important history of LGBT rights activism extends into contemporary times. The Iron Range is notable for many reasons, including strong Nordic influences, geographical remoteness, and historical extractive mining and logging economies. I utilized ethnographic fieldwork, participant observation, and semi-structured life history interviews. In total, I spent thousands of hours of fieldwork and interacted with over 100 people in the Iron Range’s LGBT and ally communities. I conducted 30 formal interviews with participants aged 19-78 years old. This dissertation argues that positive and restrictive regional norms and narratives impact LGBT Rangers’ understandings of self, as well as collective LGBT identities and communities in specific ways that, in turn, construct regionally-specific sociocultural modes of strategically navigating their lives, relational power dynamics, and affiliations with others. I make three important contributions to existing sociological and interdisciplinary scholarship on gender and sexuality, identity and community development, and place. First, challenging scholarship limited by a static understanding of the relationship between heteronormativity, sexuality, and gender, I illuminate how different cultural discourses and blurred regional gender norms create flexible, socially-condoned gender expressions and (mis)readings of these performances. Additionally, Iron Range culture creates the possibility of valued masculinity in both heterosexual and non- heterosexual women and strategic maneuvering within the hegemonic gender order. Second, through my introduction of the glass closet, I provide rich empirical examples demonstrating how the combination of place-based norms and narratives (i.e. strong personal boundaries, heteronormative assumptions, and desire for conflict avoidance), as well as presumed heterosexuality enables strategic and sagacious maneuvering. I illustrate highly nuanced visibility politics and how same-sex desires and behaviors are not recognized (or are misrecognized) due to place-specific factors. Finally, I introduce the disidentified sexual identity culture, complicating discussions about motivations for and possibilities of assimilation within contemporary society. I demonstrate how rural LGBT people strategically and pragmatically balance community-based and sexual identities; actively (symbolically and physically) distance themselves from other LGBT people; and utilize silencing to their advantage.
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    Guidelines for the Development of Diversity Leadership and Education: A 'How-To' Manual for Communities and Schools
    (2003) Fennelly, Katherine; Harrison, Mary; Milgrom, Marsha; Wang, Jun-Li; Anderson, Sharon
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    Household chaos in rural families: Exploring the relationship between child physical activity, sedentary behavior, and screen-time with the home environment
    (2021-01) Grace, Stephanie
    INTRODUCTION: Regular physical activity (PA) and limited sedentary behavior (SB) and screen-time are essential for children’s health. Household chaos (HHchaos), defined as disorganization characterized by noise and crowding, has been linked with negative health and behavioral outcomes in children. MAIN PURPOSE: To examine associations between child PA, SB and screen-time with HHchaos in rural children. METHODS: One-hundred-and-five parent/child dyads were enrolled in NU-HOME, a family-based, obesity prevention RCT. Baseline data from participants were analyzed using SAS 9.4. RESULTS: Children were 8.96±1.05 years old, 58% female and 53% normal weight. Mean daily total PA, SB, and screen-time were 259.1±58.22 minutes, 499.9±77.46 minutes, and 2.1±1.42 hours, respectively. Unadjusted HHchaos scores (mean=5.04±3.6) were not significantly associated with child PA or SB but were positively associated with child screen-time (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings related to screen-time align with current literature. However, the relationship between HHchaos with PA and SB need to be explored further.
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    How many people run our towns? Positional leadership across rural and urban Oregon
    (2024-02-20) Winchester, Benjamin S
    Positional leaders are crucial components of our communities and there are many governmental positions – both elected and appointed – to fill. This fact sheet documents the number of governmental and nonprofit organizations across Oregon by county. A rural-urban lens is also used to examine differences in leadership supply and demand.
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    Milan Preservation Project
    (2006) Borgendale, Colleen
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    Minnesota Rural Futures Survey Results.
    (2004) Barnett, Megan Ileah
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    The Politics of Rural Resentment
    (2017-04-10) Cramer, Katherine
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    Simulated driver performance, error, and acceptance study of a J-turn intersection with 3 levels of signage
    (2024-01-08) Morris, Nichole L; Schwieters, Katelyn R; Tian, Disi; Craig, Curtis M; nlmorris@umn.edu; Morris, Nichole L; University of Minnesota HumanFIRST Lab
    Thirty-six participants with limited previous experience and knowledge of J-turn intersections participated in a simulation study to examine their acceptance of J-turns and left turning navigational performance at three simulated J-turn intersections in counterbalanced order, each featuring one of three signage levels (minimum, intermediate, and full). Participants navigational path was visualized and scored for error occurrence by 3 raters/coders. Eleven different error types occurred and they were classified as minor, moderate, or major severity errors. Participants provided demographic information, crash history, and acceptance of J-turn intersections (across three scales) before and after driving through the simulated J-turn intersections. The data has been deidentified and is available to provide a better understanding of common errors from drivers who are experiencing J-turn intersections for the first time and the resultant influence that their error experiences have on their acceptance of the novel intersection design.
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    Telementoring: Measuring the Readiness for the Dental Care of Children with Special Health Care Needs
    (2018-09) O'Connell, Megan
    ABSTRACT Purpose. Children with special healthcare needs (CSHCN) account for 16% of the US population presenting with unique medical and dental conditions requiring specialized care. Few specialists practice in rural areas reducing access to care. A promising method to improve access is telementoring, a technology-based educational program linking primary care providers in remote areas with specialists. This study identified factors related to the willingness to participate in, and level of readiness for telementoring for the CSHCN among rural Minnesota dentists. Methods. This cross-sectional study included all licensed dentists practicing in rural Minnesota (n=203). The paper-and-pencil survey used branching logic where only those indicating potential willingness to participate in telementoring specific to CSHCN completed all survey items. Analyses included descriptive statistics and Fisher’s exact tests. Results. The response rate was 48.2% (94) with 50 (53.2%) not willing to participate in telementoring; therefore, fewer than half of the initial respondents completed the full survey. Dentists ready for telementoring agreed that a need exists to address healthcare problems, had first-hand experience of the negative effects of isolation, and were curious about telementoring. Factors limiting CSHCN treatment were complex medical concerns, patient and time management issues, low reimbursement rates, and unknown cost of telementoring participation. Conclusion. Fewer than half of rural dentists were willing to participate in telementoring specific to CSHCN. Willingness appeared to be limited by factors ancillary to treating CSHCN such as low reimbursement and the unknown cost of telementoring participation.
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    Who Stays, Who Goes, Who Knows? A State-Wide Survey of Child Welfare Workers
    (Child and Family Services Review, 2017-01) Griffiths, Austin; Royse, David; Culver, Kaylee; Piescher, Kristine; Zhang, Yanchen
    Child welfare workforce turnover remains a significant problem with dire consequences. Designed to assist in its retention efforts, an agency supported state-wide survey was employed to capture worker feedback and insight into turnover. This article examines the quantitative feedback from a Southern state’s frontline child welfare workforce (N=511), examining worker intent to leave as those who intend to stay employed at the agency (Stayers), those who are undecided (Undecided), and those who intend to leave (Leavers). A series of One-Way ANOVAs revealed a stratified pattern of worker dissatisfaction, with stayers reporting highest satisfaction levels, followed by undecided workers, and then leavers in all areas (e.g., salary, workload, recognition, professional development, accomplishment, peer support, and supervision). A Multinomial Logistic Regression model revealed significant (and shared) predictors among leavers and undecided workers in comparison to stayers with respect to dissatisfaction with workload and professional development, and working in an urban area. Additionally, child welfare workers who intend to leave the agency in the next 12 months expressed significant dissatisfaction with supervision and accomplishment, and tended to be younger and professionals of color.