Roundup: August 29, 2025
A regular feature of our growing online journal, The Rural Review, these roundup posts collect notable recent research, analysis, and related rural news and commentary. Feel free to send suggestions for future collections to us here. And, more details on other opportunities to contribute to The Rural Review can be found here.
Recent Publications
Daniel Rios Arroyo (University of California, Santa Barbara) published Navigating New Worlds: The College Transition of Rural Latinx Undergraduate Students from California’s San Joaquin Valley in the Journal of Research in Rural Education. The article examines how rurality and race shape students’ experiences, including academic challenges, campus racial dynamics, and social disconnection from wealthy and urban peers.
In Neo‐Rurals and Tourism in the Context of Rural Crisis in Southern Europe, an ethnographic case study published in Rural Sociology, José Manuel Álvarez-Montoya and Esteban Ruiz-Ballesteros (both Social Anthropology, Psychology and Public Health, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Spain) examine how sustainability-minded newcomers to a rural Andalusian village shape social dynamics through tourism as a rural development strategy.
Jonathan Rosenbloom (Albany Law) published Catching Nutrients in a Net: Collective Action, Institutional Impediments, and the Mississippi River Watershed in the Minnesota Law Review. The article considers the federal and state regulations that can push local governments to contributing to a tragedy of the commons and how local land use laws might counter this dynamic.
News & Commentary
A commentary in Fortune argues that broadband adoption—not access—is the biggest barrier to bringing healthcare, education, and job opportunities to rural communities, noting that even in areas with affordable broadband, usage still centers primarily on entertainment.
The Wyoming Livestock Roundup reported on the abrupt closure of more than a dozen small-town newspapers across five states when their parent company, News Media Corporation, suddenly ceased operations. Several of the publications had been in operation for over 100 years.
The Associated Press published an article about plans to reopen the Boar’s Head plant in Jarratt, Virginia, amid ongoing concerns about the company’s poor sanitation record. The Jarratt plant is the major employer in the town of 600 residents.
An article in The Daily Yonder explored the potential of rural extension programs to help universities equally serve the needs of rural and urban communities—a goal 83% of participants of a recent Ohio State University study said universities should strive for.
Events & Recordings
The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development posted a recording of a recent webinar exploring how extension educators in Ohio are adapting to and working with AI—highlighting challenges, efficiencies, and differences from human-led work. The recording shares findings from the presenters’ 2025 investigation of AI use and aims to offer insights to extension organizations nationwide, particular in light of pressures to use AI as a cost-saving measure.
The latest installment of the Kansas Health Institute’s virtual series, Health on the Plains Coffee Hour, will be held online at 10 am CDT on September 24, 2025. The event will spotlight rural health strategies and investment with guest Nadia Villagrán from Rural LISC. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions, and each discussion will be recorded for later viewing. Learn more and register here.
