In “Intersection of Race and Rurality with Health Care-Associated Infections and Subsequent Outcomes,” authors Katelin B. Nickel, MPH, Hannah Kinzer, MPH, Anne Butler, PhD, MS, Kren E. Joynt Maddox, MD, MPH, Victoria J. Fraser, MD, Jason P. Burnham, MD, MSCI, Jennie H. Kwon, DO, MSCI (all Washington University) examine how social and geographic factors such as race and rurality affect access to equitable healthcare.

In Towards a right to the rural?, Levi Van Sant (Integrative Studies, George Mason University) and Madeleine Fairbairn (Environmental Studies, University of California – Santa Cruz) explore the conceptual framework of ‘a right to the rural’ to clarify struggles to access rural spaces.

In Indian Country Lawyers: A South Dakota Survery, authors Hannah Haksgaard and Bryce Drapeaux (both South Dakota Law) address the access to justice crisis experienced by Native American communities in South Dakota. They present data on the lack of available, licensed Native American attorneys on and near reservations to develop an accurate understanding of the extent of the shortage.

In Small and Rural Local Government Environmental Sustainability Plans, Programs and Policies in Cascadia: A Comparative Analysis, Erika Allen Wolters, Brent S. Steel, and Sadaf Farooq (all Public Policy, Oregon State), and Tamara Krawchenko (Public Administration, University of Victoria) examine the environmental sustainability efforts of small and local governments within the “Cascadia” region which spans British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington.

In Ethnographic Research: Immersing Oneself in the Rural Environment, Michele Statz (Minnesota Medical School/Law) and William Garriott (Law, Politics, and Society, Drake University) present ethnography as an effective method for the study of rural criminal justice. They argue that through its expectation of extended engagement in everyday life among a population, ethnography offers a means of assessing the thick social ties and thin institutional infrastructures that define the criminal justice system in rural communities. By exploring relationships, ethnographical studies contextualize structural and cultural conditions and reveal unique insights about life and crime in rural spaces.

In Beyond the Agro-export Boom: The Challenges of Land Concentration and Fragmentation in Chile, Eduardo Villavincencio-Pinto (Kent Law School, UK) examines the neoliberal rural property regime in modern Chile and its implications for how the country can meet the challenges of climate change. The author conducted a study of rural Chilean property ownership, evaluating two main trends: land concentration and land fragmentation. Employing a historical, cartographic, and socio-legal approach, Villavincencio-Pinto shows how both trends have had negative effects on the rural landscape in Chile and challenges the sustainability of this foundational system.

In Learning the Rural Practice of Law, author Ashli R. Tomisich (Wyoming Law) discusses the lack of experiential learning in the law school curriculum and how this gap contributes to students being unprepared to enter rural practice.

In Persistently Poor, Left-behind and Chronically Disconnected, Kenan Fikri (Economic Innovation Group), provides an analysis of persistent poverty in places across the United States, focusing on multiple factors contributing to the disconnection [SE1] of these areas from the rest of the US. Disconnection refers to a lack of social and economic ties, leading to isolation from the greater economy.

In Moving Water: Managed Retreat of Wester Agricultural Water Rights for Instream Flows, authors Stephanie Stern (Arizona Law) and A. Dan Tarlock (Chicago Kent College of Law) discuss the current state of water rights in the West and advocate for a change in federal policy to reallocate Western water rights to address the effects of the “megadrought.”

In Reimagining Rural Health Equity: Understanding Disparities And Orienting Policy, Practice, And Research In Rural America, Anne N. Sosin and Elizabeth A. Carpenter-Song (Both Anthropology, Dartmouth College) argue that advancing rural health equity beyond the pandemic requires understanding the underlying problems that create rural disparities and redesigning the policies and practices that encourage the rural disadvantage. 

In Fears and Fences: Social and Material Barriers to Plains Bison on the Canadian Prairies, authors Forrest Hisey, Melissa Heppner (both Geography, Geomatics, and Environment, University of Toronto, Mississauga), and Andrea Olive (Political Science, University of Toronto, Mississauga) conduct a qualitative study to determine the largest barriers to the “rewilding” of bison on the Canadian Great Plains with a particular focus on the colonial attitudes that conflict with Indigenous groups’ efforts to reintroduce bison.

In Shared Stewardship, Elizabeth Kronk Warner and Jesús A. Salazar (Both Law, University of Utah) challenge the trend of excluding tribes from participation of co-stewardship of national lands.  The authors examine the existing standards and offer creative solutions to forging a path to tribal co-stewardship.

In Uneven Growth and Unexpected Drivers of Ethnoracial Diversity across Nonmetropolitan and Metropolitan America, Matthew M. Brooks (Sociology and Center for Demography and Population Health, Florida State), J. Tom Mueller (Population Heath, University of Kansas Medical Center), Brian C. Thide (Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education and Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State), and Daniel T. Lichter (Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell) bring attention to ethnoracial diversity in Nonmetropolitan America by providing an updated statistical portrait of ethnoracial diversity in the United States since 2000.  

In For Growth or Equity: A Taxonomy of ‘Bidenomics’ Place-Based Policies and Implications for US Regional Inequality, Grete Gansauer (Earth Sciences, Montana State University) develops a new taxonomy for classifying major place-based policy approaches passed during the Biden administration which were intended to promote national economic development while also providing investment for left-behind places.

In Disputes of Adverse Possession on Forestland and the Determinants of Case Outcomes, authors Hui Wang (School of Economics and Management, Beijing Forestry University) and Changyou Sun (Department of Forestry, Mississippi State University) examine the statistics of winning and losing adverse possession claims on forestland in the United States.

In The ‘Second Amendment of Food’: Some Reflections on American Liberalism, Mathilde Cohen (Connecticut Law) and Amy Cohen (Temple Law) explore Maine’s new “right to food” amendment by considering the history of the conception of the right to food, the legislative history of the amendment, and future implications as additional states begin to grapple with similar constitutional amendments.

In ‘A Dead Sea of Solar Panels’: Solar Enclosure, Extractavism and the Progressive Degradation of the California Desert, Alexander Dunlap (Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki), Benjamin Sovacool and Bojana Novaković (both Institute for Global Sustainability, Boston University) discuss the spread of solar energy projects in the Mojave desert and the overlooked negative impact both on the environment and the people who live there.  

In Conservatism, the Far Right, and the Environment, Jesse Callahan Bryant and Justin Farrel (both Environment, Yale) review and integrate sociological research with multidisciplinary literature on conservative and far-right environmental thought.  

In The Role of ICT in Maintaining Social Cohesion: Understanding the Potential of Digital Incentives for Social Networks in Rural Areas, Rita Helena Phillips (Educational Sciences, Alpen Adria University) examines the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in preserving social and community relationships during the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Empty Fields, Empty Promises: A State-by-State Guide to Understanding and Transforming the Right to Farm, Loka Ashwood (University of Kentucky, Sociology), Aimee Imlay (Mississippi State University, Sociology), Lindsay Kuehn (Farmers Legal Action Group), Allen Franco (Federal Public Defender), and Danielle Diamond (Harvard, Animal Law and Policy) use a mixed method approach to analysis and compare state right-to-farm (RTF) laws in practice.   

In Gleaning Rural Journalism: Rural Journalists' Agricultural and Environmental Reporting Utilizing Community Storytelling Networks, authors Jessica Walsh (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), Mildred F. Perreault, Greg Perreault (both of University of South Florida), and Ruth Moon (Louisiana State University) examine how rural journalists report to their communities about the environment.

In Regulating Location Incentives, Brian Highsmith (Harvard Law) develops a historical, economic, and institutional case for using the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act to study the market consequences of inefficient incentive megadeals.

In External Costs of Water Pollution in the Drinking Water Supply Sector, Astrid Cullmann (Econometrics and Business Statistics, Technical University of Berlin), Julia Rechlitz, Greta Sundermann, and Nicole Wägner (all Energy, Transportation, Environment, German Institute for Economic Research - DIW Berlin) quantitatively analyze the costs of groundwater pollution on the provision of public water supply.

In Sacrifice Zones, author Johnathan D. Rosenbloom (Albany Law School) proposes a new way to address issues present at the intersection of climate change and land zoning laws.

In Re-Placing Property, Jessica A. Shoemaker (Nebraska Law) explores how property law shapes our attachments to place and considers the consequences of the property system prioritizing the first possessor regardless of an increasing disconnect between place-based relationships. Shoemaker focuses on understanding the historical impact of property systems and the continuous reshaping of property ownership while proposing ways to promote more equitable relationships to property that focus on personal relationships to land.

In Land for Whom? Diversity, Land Trusts, and Farmers and Gardeners from Marginalized Backgrounds in New England, Julie C. Keller (Sociology and Anthropology, University of Rhode Island), Blake Harrison (Political Science, University of Rhode Island), and Corey Lang (Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, University of Rhode Island) explores the extent to which land trusts in New England have been able to meet the needs of farmers and gardeners of marginalized backgrounds.

In The “Finance-Extraction-Transitions Nexus”: Geographies of the Green Transition in the 21st Century, Tobias Franz (Economics, University of London, UK) and Angus McNelly (International Relations, University of Greenwich, UK) break down the relationship between finance capital, mineral extraction, and the environmental and the societal implications of the green transition.

In Critical Rural Theory: A Decade of Influence on Rural Education Research author Wendy Pfrenger (Dept. of Higher Education, University of Mississippi Division of Outreach) examines both the key elements and influences of Critical Rural Theory in rural education and research.

In Unlikely Alliances in Action: Balancing Alignment and Autonomy in Rural-Urban Water Conflicts, Sophia Borgias (Public Service, Boise State University), Kate Berry (Geography, University of Nevada-Reno), and Dalten Fox (Arts and Sciences, University of South Alabama) emphasize the positive impact of “unlikely alliances” arising from efforts to tackle critical environmental issues. The authors employ a “place-based and historically embedded” approach to explore the internal dynamics of alliances among groups that have traditionally been in opposition.

In ‘We Are Here Our Hearts Are There’: Rurality, Belonging And Walking Together, Henna Asikainen (independent artist) and Ruth McAreavey (Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, UK) present their findings from a series of collective walks taken with diverse groups of migrants to encourage a greater sense of belonging in rural spaces.