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To clarify the influence mechanism and action path of social networks on farmland abandonment, taking the hilly and mountainous areas of Ganzhou, China as the study area, this paper first explores the influence of farmers' social networks on abandonment; furthermore, a mediation effect model is introduced to test the inhibiting effect of farmland transfer on abandonment under the scenario of expanding farmers' social networks. The results show that the expansion of farmers' social networks directly aggravates farmland abandonment, but with the development of land transfer market, farmers' social networks help to reduce the transaction cost of farmland transfer, thus promoting land circulation and restraining abandonment. Considering the double‐edged effect of farmers' social networks on abandonment, this paper recommends that policies aimed at curbing abandonment should be channeled through local farmers‐based social networks, and encourage land transfer among farmers' relatives, friends, or neighbors, and so forth to reduce transaction cost in rural society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Civic engagement involves active participation in political and nonpolitical contexts in one's community. Research consistently demonstrates that sociodemographic factors, neighborhood context, community size, and media use are all important antecedents of robust civic engagement. This paper focuses on the intersection between these latter two factors. My paper draws on multiple streams of research in the rural sociology and communication literature to develop a theoretical framework where rural individuals' use of local media promotes greater civic engagement. Using data from the 2018 Local News Survey, results show that the use of local newspapers and online news websites for local news and information leads to a higher probability of participation in local activities and local groups in one's community. However, results also show that getting local news and information from traditional formats such as local TV stations may no longer be associated with an increased probability of being an active citizen in rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Review of Policy Research is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

American youth from rural backgrounds have made great strides to overcome challenges in college enrollment and completion since the 2000s. Yet little is known about how rural youth are financing these attainment increases—a pressing question in light of high college costs, rising student debt, and spatial inequality in the resources that students have to pay for college. This paper examines disparities in young adults' student debt by geographic background using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort. Regression analyses reveal that college‐goers from rural backgrounds accumulate more debt than those from suburban and urban backgrounds, adjusting for differences in sociodemographic characteristics. Rural college‐goers' higher debt can be partially attributed to differences in socioeconomic backgrounds and rates of inter‐county migration during college, and there is evidence that the additive influences of geographic background and gender contribute to particularly high debt among rural women. The findings suggest that longstanding spatial inequalities contribute to disparities in student debt and raise questions about the experiences of rural youth and communities in a debt‐based society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes and uses the National Solidarity Program (NSP) Afghanistan as a case study to question the idea of social capital building for poverty reduction. Specifically, it explores how development policy has been decoupled from its intended objectives as it hit the existing friction in the ground. The data draws from poor household experience in three different provinces of Afghanistan to assess how poor household is integrated into NSP and how existing social structure and relational dynamics shape the NSP outcomes. The finding reveals that household is experiencing a cluster of interlink disadvantages that make it impossible for them to draw on social capital to reduce their poverty. However, NSP failed to eliminate the asymmetrical relations which created poverty in rural society; instead, it boosted Neopatrimonialism culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Avoidance of a return to poverty is a priority within postpoverty alleviation programmes in rural China. As traditional social networks, clan‐based networks have long played a pivotal role within rural society and governance. However, few studies have examined their influence on the return to poverty of rural families. Therefore, we used the China Family Panel Survey (CFPS) data from 2014 to explore how clan networks influence the risk of a return to poverty among rural households and its mechanisms. Our findings suggest that clan networks can reduce the risk of returning to poverty and that they have heterogeneous effects on families and regions with different characteristics. Their main function is to reduce the borrowing cost through an external support mechanism and to promote movements of the rural labour force to urban areas where they can earn higher nonagricultural stable incomes through an internal sharing mechanism. This study of the role of traditional clan‐based networks in poverty avoidance can contribute to their enhanced role in the new era, while also providing inputs for consolidating and expanding poverty alleviation, innovating existing follow‐up poverty alleviation guarantee mechanisms and promoting comprehensive rural revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This street participatory action research project explored the reflective schooling experiences of street identified Black men and women (ages 18–35) in two small low‐income neighborhoods. Secondary analysis of survey (N = 520) and interview (N = 46) data examined: (1) How are attitudes toward schooling and teachers affected by race, gender and age?; and (2) How do students utilize a street‐identity as a site of resilience inside schools? Overall, street‐identified study participants held positive attitudes toward schooling, but generally performed poorly in schools and had negative experiences with educators. No significance was found as a function of gender and age regarding attitudes toward schooling and attitudes toward teachers. Also, interview results, across gender and age, suggest school‐related structural challenges and poor teacher‐student relationships contributed to severe conflict between students and teachers; and between students. Interviewees argued some Black students internalized a street identity or became disruptive and even engaged in school violence as a protective mechanism to endure hostile schooling environments. Moreover, Street PAR is discussed as a method and intervention to improve student performance and resolve concerns between students and educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the mechanism of rural economic restructuring is the basis for promoting the optimal restructuring of the rural economy and society as well as for reviving the countryside. We conducted a case study of Gongyi, a typical region experiencing rapid industrialization in inland China and systematically reviewed its economic restructuring process over the past 40 years after China's reform and opening‐up. On the basis of identifying spatial interfaces in Gongyi, we analyzed the influence of these spatial interfaces on the rural economic restructuring in Gongyi using geodetectors. The study showed that the influence of different types of interfaces has had a temporal evolutionary effect, the influence of a single human interface was higher than that of a natural interface. With the different stages of economic development, the influence of the interface is also differentiated. The influence of multiple interfaces increased after superposition, and the superposition of different types of interfaces constituted different patterns of rural economic restructuring in Gongyi. Overall, the influence of physical spatial interfaces on rural economic restructuring has decreased. Therefore, greater attention should be paid to the influence of abstract spatial interfaces in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new body of sociological research is finding that northern and rural youth, and in particular, low‐SES youth, face difficulties accessing higher levels of postsecondary education and lucrative fields of study such as the STEMs. However, existing research has yet to systematically measure the skills proficiencies of youth in these regions nor have we understood the factors which might account for regional differences. We draw on multiple cycles of Statistics Canada's Youth in Transition Survey, Cohort A linked to the Programme for International Student Assessment scores to investigate how location of residence impacts skills proficiencies at age 15 in math, science, and reading outcomes. Overall, our results point to three key findings. First, southern youth outperform northern youth in mathematics skills. Second, we uncover a southern (both urban and rural) and northern urban advantage in reading proficiencies. Third, in science literacy, southern and northern urban youth experience significant advantages over youth from northern rural locations. While some of the skills differences are attributable to parenting styles, parental socioeconomic status, student academics, and province of residence, they are not completely attenuated by these factors. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for future research and public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmer wildlife management practices are critical to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem functions across intensively used agricultural landscapes. Policies and initiatives aimed at encouraging these practices have generally focused on economic incentives, with limited effectiveness.Farmer identity theory addresses the emergence of norms, values and perceptions in farm management and can contribute to the development of policies and initiatives that engage more effectively with farmers and farming communities.Here we evaluate linkages between farmer identity and wildlife habitat management practices in the intensively farmed US state of Iowa.We conducted an exploratory factor analysis using data from a survey of over 1,300 Iowa farmers that asked their opinions on what constitutes 'a good farmer'. We use logistic regression to model relationships between farmer identity factor scores and contextual variables against participation in a set of habitat management practices.Four 'good farmer' identity types were identified and labelled as productivist, soil conservationist, wildlife conservationist and civic‐minded. Logistic regression results indicated that these farmer identity types have highly divergent responses to wildlife habitat management practices among Iowa farmers. Recreational factors may supplement identity and are also influential towards habitat production on farms.We conclude that farmer identity theory offers a critical link between social and ecological processes on Iowa farms. The research presented here quantitatively associates farmer identity theory with wildlife habitat management, increasing our understanding of how wildlife habitat practices and individual‐level farmer identities interact. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on fieldwork in Andean Bolivia, this article examines rural urbanisation as a process of disconnection between people and place impacted by flows of rural to urban migration. Ritual relations with place are perceived as particularly significant for Kallawaya healers in the municipality of Charazani. They take a disruption of acts that maintain bonds between people and place as a result of urbanisation – examined particularly in relation to house‐building rituals – as having knock‐on effects for indigenous communal identity. These same healers are conscious of this urbanisation as the present manifestation of a historical process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philip Lowe died in February 2020, and so an academic career spanning five decades in environmental and rural social science and the sociology of knowledge came to an end. A pioneer of the social science of environmentalism, since the early 1990s, Philip Lowe had been closely associated with the Centre for Rural Economy at Newcastle University in the UK and had been the intellectual force behind establishing rural economy as both a subject and mode of social science analysis. This article reflects on a career and the evolving concept of 'rural economy' as an economic form, a policy realm and a knowledge practice. Through this history, it presents an account of the contribution of Philip Lowe's research and writing that, as a result of his death, now stands as a bounded and complete body of work for the benefit of future generations of scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite Rural Sociology's long history of publishing rigorous research about rurality, one notable area for improvement is attention to race and racial issues. As Tieken and Wright argue, this special issue is an important first step toward expanding the journal's scope and reckoning with its historical failings. This issue introduction summarizes the critical insights the issue's articles offer the field at this pivotal moment of racial awareness and demographic change. The authors end with a call for emancipatory scholarship—that is, research that reflects the lived experiences of all rural residents and can be used to dismantle racist policies and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the growing political divide in the United States and how ideological polarization has increasingly assumed spatial dimensions, as rural areas have become strongly associated with Republican support, and urban areas have become associated with strong Democratic support. In the context of the recent Trump administration, marked not only by authoritarian tendencies, ethno‐nationalism, and hostility towards democratic institutions, but its denouement represented by the U.S. Capitol insurrection on January 6th, 2021 and the weeks that followed, what are the implications for growing spatialized civic and political divides, and indeed for democracy itself? I discuss several main approaches taken by social scientists to explain the relationship between spatial and political divides in the United States, including those that focus on shifting political geographies, cultural factors, economic anxiety, and racial resentment. Then, pointing to several recent exemplars, I identify theoretical, methodological, and perspectival strengths that the discipline of rural sociology can and should engage in developing explanatory frameworks for better understanding these social and spatial shifts – shifts that are simultaneously crises of democracy and crises of epistemology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, which also serves as the introduction for this special guest‐edited issue, examines the history of Rural Sociology's scholarly engagement with rurality, race, and ethnicity. We examine the historical patterns of how Rural Sociology has addressed race and ethnicity, and then present results from a meta‐analysis of empirical articles published between 1971 and 2020. Over time, the methodological approaches and scholarly focus of articles on race and ethnicity within Rural Sociology has gradually expanded to include more analyses of power and inequality using constructivist perspectives, and greater numbers of qualitative inquiries into the lived experiences of both white and nonwhite people. The articles featured in the special issue extend from Rural Sociology's growing attention to race and ethnicity. Together, they suggest the ways in which rural spaces are racially coded, how intersections with race and ethnicity exacerbate rural inequality, how the domination of people and the environment are co‐constituted, and how practices of racism are embedded within contextually specific ecologies. In drawing attention to these contributions, we suggest future directions for the discipline's engagement with rurality, race, and ethnicity, while simultaneously suggesting the ways in which our own disciplinary racial reckoning remains incomplete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]