Don E. Albrecht

Measuring Environmental Concern: The New Environmental Paradigm Scale

(1982). Measuring Environmental Concern: The New Environmental Paradigm Scale. The Journal of Environmental Education: Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 39-43.

MINORITY CONCENTRATION, DISADVANTAGE, AND INEQUALITY IN THE NONMETROPOLITAN UNITED STATES

The implications of the residential concentration of minority populations are issues of vital concern in the United States. Much of the previous minority concentration literature has focused on African-American residents of metropolitan communities. This article expands on this literature by exploring a variety of minority groups in nonmetropolitan communities. It was found that the minority residents of communities with large minority populations were in worse socioeconomic conditions than the minority residents of predominately white communities. Further, for most socioeconomic variables, it was found that as minority concentration increased, white residents tended to do better. In addition, the extent of racial inequality between minority and white residents was greater in communities with larger minority populations. Implications of the above findings are discussed.

Metro/Nonmetro Residence, Nonmarital Conception, and Conception Outcomes*

Two of the most significant changes affecting U.S. society during the 20th century were transformations in family structure and the transition from a nonmetropolitan/farm society to a largely metropolitan society. In this study, classic sociological theory, developed to understand differences between metro and nonmetro society, was employed. Despite contentions that the residence variable is no longer viable, we hypothesized that nonmetro interaction patterns would result in nonmetro residents making more traditional and conservative choices relative to family formation. Analysis of data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth provided support for these contentions. Nonmetropolitan women were significantly more likely than metropolitan women to be married at the time of conception. Further, when comparing women who were not married at conception, nonmetro women were significantly more likely than metro women to get married prior to the birth of the child, and were significantly more likely to have the pregnancy result in a live birth.

AMENITIES, NATURAL RESOURCES, ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING, AND SOCIOECONOMIC OUTCOMES IN NONMETROPOLITAN AMERICA

This article explores the changing role of natural resources in community development in the United States. At one time, nonmetropolitan communities were dependent on traditional natural resources such as forests, minerals, and the soil, water, and climate necessary for agriculture. Where those resources were more abundant, populations were greater and life could be lived more abundantly. Amenity resources mattered little. It is apparent that circumstances have changed significantly. Data analyzed in this article explored the extent to which the presence or absence of amenity versus traditional natural resources influenced community development in recent years. A model was developed and tested to guide the analysis. It was found that from 1980 to 2000, communities with extensive amenity resources had a much greater increase in service employment. As a consequence of increased service sector employment, amenity rich counties had more extensive population growth. At the same time, high amenity communities also experienced a lower proportion of both adult males and females who are employed, an increased proportion of female-headed households, and higher poverty rates. These findings have significant implications for community leaders and community development specialists, which are discussed in this article.

CONSTRAINTS TO THE FULFILLMENT OF RESIDENTIAL PREFERENCES AMONG TEXAS HOMEBUYERS

A 1983 survey of Texas homebuyers reveals a high degree of mismatch between their preferred and actual residences. Analysis indicates that the logit of fulfilling residential preference is largely determined by the type of area preferred and the occupation and age of the homebuyer. Mismatch is most common among homebuyers preferring a suburban location, less so for those preferring nonmetropolitan residences, and lowest among people preferring central cities. Occupation as a social structural variable also affects homebuyers ’ chance of fulfilling residential preference. Professionals are more likely to fulfill their residential preferences than persons in other occupations. Finally, younger persons suffer a higher degree of residential mismatch than older persons.

Agricultural Dependence and the Population Turnaround: Evidence from the Great Plains

Throughout our nations history there has been a net migration of people from nonmetropolitan to metropolitan counties. The industrialization of agriculture and subsequent reduced labor needs in farming were a major factor influencing this trend. Recently, this long established nonmetropolitan to metropolitan migration trend has been reversed. Data for the period 1940 to 1980 from 294 nonmetropolitan Great Plains counties show that reduced agricultural dependence is a major factor influencing this turnaround. The results indicate that counties heavily dependent on agricultural employment were about as likely to experience population declines during the 1970s as they were during earlier decades. There were fewer such counties, however, and thus their overall influence was reduced. The consequences of these findings for rural communities in major agricultural areas are discussed in this study.

INCOME INEQUALITY: THE IMPLICATIONS OF ECONOMIC STRUCTURE AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS

During the past few decades income inequality has been increasing in the United States and other developed nations, and is having major social consequences. In this study county-level data for the United States was analyzed to test the relative importance of three alternative approaches for explaining increased levels of inequality. These three approaches include economic structure, social conditions, and a model that maintains that both social conditions and inequality are a function of economic structure. The results revealed that social conditions were much more strongly related to inequality than economic structure and little support was found for the theoretical model. The two social conditions most strongly related to inequality included female employment and the percent of female-headed households. Counties with high levels of female employment tended to have low levels of inequality, while counties with high proportions of female-headed households tend to have high levels of inequality. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Impacts of the Farm Crisis on a Rural Community

The farm crisis is affecting many sectors of rural society, but few empirical analyses of the impacts of the crisis on rural communities have been completed. A case study of a rural community was conducted using informal interviews with community leaders as well as formal interviews of current and former business operators and community residents. The results provide support for the premise that communities are being impacted by the farm crisis. Respondents showed high agreement on the causes for the crisis and on the aspects of the community being most severely affected by the crisis. A substantial number of businesses had failed recently and respondents believed businesses would continue to be affected negatively. Most respondents perceived the crisis as having at least some effect on their personal lives and on their community as a whole, but few perceived effects on rural services. Implications for community development efforts are discussed.

ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING, THE EDUCATIONAL INCOME GAP, AND OVERALL INCOME INEQUALITY

An important consequence of the economic structure transformations of recent decades is increased income inequality. While an extensive literature has explored the relationship between economic restructuring and inequality, the unique contribution of this article is that it develops and tests a model that explores the mechanisms by which this process occurs. Specifically, the intervening role of the income gap between the well-educated and those with lower levels of education (the educational income gap) and other moderating factors are explored. The 5 percent Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) data from the 2000 Census of Population and Housing was used in the analysis. The data provided strong support for the model. It was found that economic structure and the moderating variables were strongly related to the educational income gap, which in turn was strongly related to overall income inequality. Generally, both the educational income gap and overall income inequality were greater in geographic areas with higher proportions of the labor force employed in services, and both were lower where greater proportions of the labor force were employed in goods-producing industries.

The Consequences of the Farm Crisis for Rural Communities

The farm financial crisis of the 1980s will change forever the face of communities in rural America. The purpose of this paper is to explore empirically some of the more important changes that are occurring as a result of the farm crisis and to discuss how these changes affect rural community development needs. Specifically the paper examines: (1) the characteristics of those failing in agriculture, (2) changes in farm production practices resulting from the crisis and (3) the problems being experienced by farmers and their families. For each of these changes the implications for businesses and services in rural communities are discussed. It was found that farmers who were less well-educated and innovative and who were operating smaller farms were more likely than others to leave agriculture as a result of the farm crisis. Further, it appears that farmers leaving agriculture are not drawn randomly from the population of financially stressed farmers, but are those with particularly disadvantaged socioecono...