Title: "At Risk" of Being Rural? The Experience of Rural Youth in a Risk Society
Abstract:This paper uses data from a researcher-designed longitudinal survey of youth to
examine factors associated with whether rural youth return to or stay in their home
communities or a similar rural com...This paper uses data from a researcher-designed longitudinal survey of youth to
examine factors associated with whether rural youth return to or stay in their home
communities or a similar rural community. It discusses the effects of this decision
to be a young adult in a rural community. A qualitative analysis expands the more
quantitative one in order to document how rural youth articulate what it means to
be rural in relation to educational and/or career choices. Drawing on risk-society
discourse and study, the paper argues that what remains largely hidden to date is
that the features of the risk society, including greater uncertainty, fragmentation of
and increasingly individualized life-course transition processes, have mostly
ignored the fact that rural youth remain at greater comparative risk than their urban
counterparts. Our analysis suggests that, despite feeling satisfied with their
personal and family life and despite seeing home and family as important, many
rural youth now frame their rurality and their choice to live in their home
communities as failures, either in relation to education and/or to occupation and
career. In the absence of systemic solutions to mitigate and address the risks of
staying home for rural youth, many individuals, we find, embody socioeconomic
problems as an inability to “get very far.” They often see themselves as having few
options. Our findings suggest that more attention is needed on what it is about our
ideas of modernity and urban mobility, evidenced in notions of the risk society,
which leads so many rural youth to leave their home communities, or to be
dissatisfied with their opportunities if they opt to stay.
Key words: rural youth, risk, life-course transitions, education, mobilityRead More
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-03-09
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 57
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