25 Oct Rural Culture in America

By: Farzana Nayani

According to the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, “rural America” is home to about 17 percent of the US population or 50 million people.  It is made up of over 2,000 counties, equaling approximately 75 percent of the nation’s land.

Despite the large number of people and massive area that comprises rural America, discussions about culture often overlook the differences between rural and urban society.

Firstly, the roots of rural culture in America can be traced back in history to agrarianism and anti-urbanism.  Many Americans saw rural living as representing “goodness”, a way of life that heavily contrasted the materialism and selfishness brought about by urban growth.

Secondly, recent demographic trends are reshaping rural areas due to changing economic and social conditions.

Baby Boomers moving to Rural Areas

• Studies have shown a significant increase in migration to “nonmetrolitan” counties by baby boomers.  As people reach their fifties and sixties, they tend to prefer more isolated settings, especially those with access to both natural and urban amenities, and lower housing costs.
• With these trends, it is predicted that the “nonmetro” population aged 55-75 will increase by 30 percent over the next 10 years.

The Rural “Digital Economy”

• Historically, rural areas have been left behind and have struggled with telecommunications access such as access to telephone networks and services by major companies.
• Reports show that rural areas lag in Internet use — in 2007, 63 percent of rural residents versus 73 percent of urban residents use the internet.
• A more critical issue now is not whether someone has access, but rather the speed and reliability of their Internet connection (i.e. broadband or not).
• Despite these challenges, online wholesale trade in farm products was still at an estimated $5 billion, or 4 percent of all wholesale farm product sales in 2006.
• Additionally, communication & transportation innovation has allowed people and businesses the flexibility to relocate to rural areas.

Diversity in the Labor Force and the Economy

• Farming is not as dominant; recreation, amenity or retirement opportunities are taking the lead in many counties.
• Foreign-born populations in rural areas are on the rise.  Numbers of foreign-born individuals in approximately 300 counties exceeded 5% for the first time this decade
• Although racial diversity is increasing overall in rural America and is affecting employment trends, the diversity is still modestly seen in specific local communities.
• Immigration and racial diversity will likely continue to increase in rural places.

When your organization launches a national venture, it is important to consider these and other trends, as well as well as how rural values and cultural traditions may impact your efforts.

For more information on how to incorporate diversity into your company’s initiatives, please contact us at eds (at) executivediversity.com

References:

Cromartie, J. and Nelson, P. (2009). Baby Boom Migration and Its Impact on Rural America. Economic Research Report No. ERR-79.

Danbom, D. B. (1997). Why Americans Value Rural Life. Rural Development Perspectives, vol. 12, no. 1.

Johnson, K. (2006). Demographic Trends in Rural and Small Town America. Reports on Rural America, vol. 1, no. 1.

RESOURCES: On Rural Culture

The USDA Economic Research Service provides extremely useful publications on the topic of rural economics, trends, and policy issues in the United States.

The Center for Rural Culture espouses a mission of educating, promoting, and inspiring the community to “sustain a culture that supports agriculture and the local economy, protects natural and historic resources, and maintains our rural character and traditions”.  They achieve this goal by “handing down the history, stories, music and lifestyles related to a rich, rural culture and have helped to cultivate our local roots.” The Center even appeals to its audience by offering classes from canning chutneys and relishes to poultry processing (nicknamed “Girlz Got Gutz”) to even “Social Media for Farmers”!

BOOK NOOK: Poverty, Morality and Family in Rural America

On Dr. Jennifer Sherman’s, Those Who Work, Those Who Don’t: Poverty, Morality and Family in Rural America (2009):

“Sherman’s book is an ethnography of a small logging community in northern California in the wake of economic restructuring associated with the northern spotted owl’s designation as an endangered species. While Sherman does not endorse a “culture of poverty” in the sense of suggesting that poverty persists because poor people are lazy (quite the contrary–see pp. 185-86), she does describe a rural culture that is shaped by entrenched economic distress across a community. One aspect of the relationship between poverty and culture in some rural contexts is the turn to morality and the focus on family values as a way of differentiating among people in the context of a largely homogeneous community, where few other bases for distinction exist. We need more work like Sherman’s–work that attends to rural difference and observes it with compassion–to inform policymakers’ responses to entrenched poverty and its relationship to place and culture.”

– Lisa Pruitt, UC Davis School of Law Faculty Blog

QUOTABLES: On Living in Rural Areas

“I think the extent to which I have any balance at all, any mental balance, is because of being a farm kid and being raised in those isolated rural areas.”
– James Earl Jones