Peter B. Nelson

Contemporary development forces in the nonmetropolitan west: new insights from rapidly growing communities.

Abstract Nonmetropolitan areas in the western United States have experienced rapid growth rates measured in both economic and demographic terms. Macrolevel studies have found that a variety of forces are at work driving these regional patterns of growth including quality of life migrants, expansion of service industries, and nonearnings sources of income. While these macrolevel studies provide important insights into the processes of regional change, very little is known of the significance of these contemporary development forces at the micro, or community, level. This paper reports the results of four community case studies in rapidly growing rural communities within the western United States to provide a better understanding of economic and social change at the community level. Interviews with key players in each case study community provide the empirical evidence for this paper, and the data demonstrate community development processes to be complex. Resource-dependent industrial activities remain an important component for community economies. Furthermore, extractive activity is being supplemented (not supplanted) by various combinations of the factors reported in macrolevel studies including niche manufacturing, Lone Eagles, quality of life migrants, and retirees. The case studies also highlight a high degree of volatility in growing areas and potential problems with assimilation, fractioning, and planning associated with rapid growth in these small places.

Rural restructuring in the American West: land use, family and class discourses ☆

Migration patterns, technological developments, and altered human–land relationships are combining to precipitate tremendous changes in rural communities across the western US. These processes of restructuring, however, have been quite contentious and divisive for many of the region’s small towns. While we are beginning to understand the causes of recent growth and development trends, the consequences of contemporary forces of restructuring on communities remain unstudied. This paper explores the reactions of residents to forces of restructuring in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, the Methow Valley, Washington, Kane County, Utah, and Teton Valley, Idaho. In depth interviews and survey responses give voice to community members by allowing them to articulate their perceptions and interpretations of recent events. The analyses demonstrate tremendous diversity in the ways in which individuals interpret the changes taking place around them. These diverse interpretations challenge singular conceptions of community and highlight the ways in which notions of land use, family, and class are negotiated in the context of contemporary rural restructuring. The analysis further demonstrates the need for a more synthesized field of rural studies spanning disciplinary and national divides. # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

The global rural: Gentrification and linked migration in the rural USA

This article explores the possibility that US rural amenity destinations are affected by ‘linked migration’ streams similar to ones connecting the fate of high-wage professionals and low-wage immigrants in global cities. To date, the possibility of such a linkage has not been considered in the vast literature on migration and social transformation in rural America, a literature that has treated the arrival of these two groups (high-wage professionals and low-wage immigrants) in rural spaces as separate processes. We explore the possibility that these two groups, in a particular set of US rural amenity communities, are structurally linked. We focus on the theoretical implications of documenting such linkages, arguing that the presence of linked migration dynamics in rural areas would transform scholarly debates on: (1) Latino immigrants in the rural USA; (2) amenity migration and rural gentrification, not only in the USA but in a range of postindustrial economies; and (3) theories of globalization and mobility, as well as the place of the rural in globalization dynamics.

Perceptions of Restructuring in the Rural West: Insights from the "Cultural Turn"

Migration, human-environment relationships, changing social values, economic transformations, and cultural transitions are all forces impacting rural regions in the 1990s, yet our understanding of the intersections between these forces is limited. This article contributes to our knowledge of rural restructuring by combining economic and cultural perspectives on regional change through a focus on land use. The analysis highlights how rural restructuring in the 1990s is a deeply penetrating process inclusive of both economic and cultural dimensions of social life. Data from a survey of 422 rural households are used to show how peoples opinions and perceptions of recent land use changes are influenced by economic and cultural logic simultaneously; by recognizing the intersection of economics and culture, we can better plan for and respond to contemporary processes of change.

Baby Boom Migration and Its Impact on Rural America

Members of the baby boom cohort, now 45-63 years old, are approaching a period in their lives when moves to rural and small-town destinations increase. An analysis of age-specific, net migration during the 1990s reveals extensive shifts in migration patterns as Americans move through different life-cycle stages. Assuming similar age patterns of migration, this report identifies the types of nonmetropolitan counties that are likely to experience the greatest surge in baby boom migration during 2000-20 and projects the likely impact on the size and distribution of retirement-age populations in destination counties. The analysis finds a significant increase in the propensity to migrate to nonmetro counties as people reach their fifties and sixties and projects a shift in migration among boomers toward more isolated settings, especially those with high natural and urban amenities and lower housing costs. If baby boomers follow past migration patterns, the nonmetro population age 55-75 will increase by 30 percent between now and 2020.

CHANGING LIVELIHOODS IN RURAL AMERICA

Globalization and economic restructuring have profoundly affected the rural economy over the past 30 years (Glasmeier & Conroy, 1994). As noted in the introductory chapter, the notion of a rural economy reliant on a stable farming sector has been outmoded for decades. Today, fewer than one in 10 people living in rural America has a job directly related to farming. New competitive pressures will continue to change the rural economy and have significant impacts on the livelihoods of rural Americans, as workers in virtually all industries scramble to maintain a reasonable and sustainable standard of living in an increasingly volatile global market. At the same time, the ways in which globalization and economic restructuring play out both across geographic regions and within economic sectors is far from uniform. Impacts of these macro-scale processes on rural livelihoods merit examination at various levels of analysis. The nature of rural economic change over the past few decades is an active topic of research (Barkley, 1993; Falk & Lobao, 2003; Galston & Baehler, 1995; McGranahan, 2003), as are the linkages between economic, demographic and social change (Castle, 1995; Fuguitt et al., 1989). However, the increasing pace of global change, especially over the past 10 years, presents new challenges to rural Americans and their way of life. In this chapter we consider the nature of nonmetropolitan economic change in the last 30 years by examining links between the rural and global economies, exploring internal restructuring in specific sectors of the rural economy, and outlining repercussions of these changes for employment and income in various U.S. regions. The last 30 years brought significant sectoral shifts in rural employment within the United States (see Figure 4.1). Using data from the Regional Economic Information System (REIS) throughout our analysis, we identify three broad sectors that now comprise well over three quarters of all nonmetropolitan employment (Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2003). These include agriculture, manufacturing, and the tertiary sector consisting of transportation, communications and public

Regional Comparisons of Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Migration in the 1970s and 1980s: Age and Place Implications∗

Abstract Over the last thirty years, nonmetropolitan regions across the United States have experienced volatile population shifts ranging from rapid growth to persistent decline. Several authors have suggested that the age structure of the population may contribute to these population trends. In the 1970s, the older baby boomers were entering labor and housing markets, while the younger boomers were enrolling in nonmetropolitan colleges and universities. By the 1980s, this large cohort was aging into a different stage in the life course. This article examines metropolitan and nonmetropolitan population shifts during the 1970s and 1980s within an age-cohort framework. Using Public Use Microsample data from 1980 and 1990, the analysis explores relationships between housing market, labor market, place characteristics, and the migration flows of different age cohorts. The analysis focuses on cohort-specific in-migration to two regions: New England and the Four Corners states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. The results are consistent with a life-course understanding of migration behavior, especially during the late 1970s, with older cohort shifts directed towards nonmetropolitan destinations and younger cohort shifts more influenced by labor and housing-market variables. The results further demonstrate a large potential for future nonmetropolitan population growth, yet these growth experiences are likely to be regionally differentiated. These results have important policy implications for nonmetropolitan regions. *The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Mellon Foundation and the comments of Dr. John Cromartie of the Economic Research Service and those of two anonymous reviewers. This work is supported by a Mellon Foundation Grant for undergraduate education in environmental studies and social sciences. This “status report” presents the results of a pilot project exploring age-cohort perspectives on metropolitan and nonmetropolitan migration streams. The results are preliminary, and the authors are grateful for the insightful comments of the anonymous reviewers. Their comments have been highly influential in the continued development of this project.

Latino Immigrants and Rural Gentrification: Race, “Illegality,” and Precarious Labor Regimes in the United States

This article examines the emergence of immigrant-based precarious labor regimes in U.S. rural areas undergoing gentrification. Drawing on field-based research in rural Georgia and Colorado, we explore how Latino and Latina immigrant workers were recruited to places that had been largely off the map of Latino immigrant settlement prior to the late 1990s to work in service and construction employment stimulated by gentrification. We trace evolving recruitment and labor practices that drew on hierarchies of race and “illegality” to fundamentally improve the productivity and profitability of gentrification-linked sectors. Key to this process was the active recruitment of Latino workers in the 1990s and early 2000s (usually recruited off subcontracted crews hired out from distant metropolitan areas) and the establishment of personal relations of loyalty and dependence between those workers and their white bosses. Over time, these personal relationships often produced informal labor brokers for business owners, brokers who facilitated access to immigrant networks necessary for further recruitment of immigrant workers and critical to producing the high degree of flexibility and discipline that began to characterize these emerging labor regimes. Our analysis makes two key theoretical contributions. First, by exploring how precarious labor regimes become instantiated into rural spaces we decenter the urban in our understanding of these regimes as theorized by Theodore and others. Second, we highlight the importance of attending to the imbrication of class, race, and “illegality” in rural gentrification research.

Life-Course Influences on Nonearnings Income Migration in the United States

This paper contributes to the emerging body of literature examining the interregional income migration in the United States and offers explanations for why certain areas emerge as magnets for nonearnings income flows while other areas are losing this increasingly important source of personal income. By synthesizing ideas from contemporary understandings of life-course influences on migration and earlier work on income migration, the paper builds a theoretical model of factors shaping income migration across space and tests the model with evidence from Census 2000 by using both ordinary least squares and geographically weighted regression techniques. The analysis highlights the importance of life-course understandings of migration in shaping nonearnings income flows across space. Demographic factors such as concentrations of married couples with no children combine with quality-of-life and economic variables to explain nonearnings income migration. Other factors such as housing-market costs and immigration rates shape nonearnings income flows more powerfully in certain regions than in others. The results have important policy implications. With the baby boomers on the cusp of retirement, an understanding of the geographies of nonearnings income will be important for future regional economic planning and forecasting, as these income sources will become increasingly large components of total personal income.

Spatial and temporal scale in comparative approaches to rural gentrification

Phillips and Smith extend debates about comparative epistemologies onto both the process and concept of rural gentrification. In doing so, they illustrate the forms of comparative research, their various critiques and limitations, and the different ways comparative strategies can illuminate new understandings of rural gentrification. Their opening dialogue connects the field of rural geography more directly with theoretical conversations taking place largely in the realm of urban geography, and I find their explication of the various comparative strategies useful in thinking about the ways in which one might approach comparative research. I, however, also find their discussion of comparison somewhat “flat” in the sense that they emphasize comparison between places (north vs. south, urban vs. rural, etc.). Comparison between places is certainly one approach that can generate new understandings of a spatial phenomenon, but comparison across scales—both spatial and temporal—also has the potential to reveal new ways in which the movement of people, capital, and ideas produce and reproduce contemporary landscapes.