In Shared Housing as a Missing Middle Solution for Rural Communities, Alison Lintal (Penn State Dickinson School of Law) discusses the benefits of shared housing arrangements as a potential solution to the housing crisis for rural communities facing shifting demographics. This article presents the history of shared housing in rural spaces while also addressing the legal and social obstacles to future implementation. Lintal also delves into the challenges of developing shared housing due to “arcane” zoning and regulatory restrictions. The author employs a holistic approach to address the proposed benefits, challenges, and necessity of implementing shared housing programs.

In Toward a New Compact With Rural America, the foreword to the University of Richmond Law Review's Symposium, Overlooked America: Addressing Legal Issues in Rural United States, Anthony F. Pipa (Center for Sustainable Development, Brookings Institution) introduces the Symposium by outlining the challenges rural America faces and how public policy is the potential solution.

In Geographies of Land Ownership Change in the Rural United States: Challenges, Methods, and Possibilities, Lindsay Shade (Community and Leadership Development, University of Kentucky) and Levi Van Sant (Integrative Studies, George Mason University) outline the challenges and potential solutions to researching geographies of land ownership in rural United States. Their research draws on their experiences with a participatory action research project, the Appalachian Land Study.

In The Scandal of Particularity: A New Approach to Rural Attorney Shortages and Access to Justice, author Michele Statz (Minnesota Medical School/Law) discusses the challenges of fully understanding the rural attorney shortage and its impact on rural communities through interviews from those involved in the justice system in various rural and tribal communities.

In Exploring the Impacts of Rurality on Service Access and Harm Among Image and Performance Enhancing Drug (IPED) Users in a Remote English Region, Luke A. Turnock (Social and Political Sciences, University of Lincoln, UK) and Kyle J. D. Mulrooney (Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, University of New England, Australia) consider the underexplored geographic and cultural impacts of rurality on IPED usage, particularly in relation to access to harm reduction service.

In Ambulance Deserts: Geographic Disparities in the Provision of Ambulance Services authors Yvonne Jonk, Carly Milkowski, Zachariah Croll, and Karen Pearson (all of the Maine Rural Health Research Center, Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine) provide a nation-wide analysis of access to ambulance services in the United States.

In Mental health of agricultural adolescents and adults: Preliminary results of a five-year study authors Josie M. Rudolph (Dept. of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois) and Richard L. Berg (Research Computing and Analytics, Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, Marshfield WI) identify and examine factors that influence the mental health of farmers and their families.

In Growing Superdiverse, Growing Apart – Modes of Incorporation of International Migrants in Rural Areas, authors Jakub Stachowski and Bente Rasmussen (both of the Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway) analyze rural resident perceptions of international migration.

In Social Networks and Technology Adoption: Evidence from Church Mergers in the U.S. Midwest, Fiona Burlig (Public Policy, University of Chicago) and Andrew W. Stevens (Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Wisconsin) consider how social networks increase agricultural technology adoption among farmers.

In Beekeeping, stewardship and multispecies care in rural contexts, authors Sibohan Maderson (Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University and School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University) and Emily Elsner-Adams (Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University and Elsner Research and Consulting) examine rural environmental stewardship through the practices of beekeepers in the United Kingdom.

In Can Infrastructure Help ‘Left Behind’ Places ‘Catch Up?’ Theorizing the Role of Built Infrastructure in Regional Development by Grete Gansauer, Julia H. Haggerty, and Kelli F. Roemer (all of the Earth Sciences Department, Montana State University), Kristin K. Smith (Headwaters Economics, Montana), and Mark N. Haggerty (Center for American Progress, Washington, D.C.) investigate the role of infrastructure in the development of “left behind” regions in the United States and argue that the nature of infrastructure interventions potentially leads to deepening structural “left behind-ness.”

In Rural Community and Career Connected Learning: Impacts of High School Internships Prioritizing People and Place, Allison L. Ricket (SROI and Impact Measurement, Ohio University), Jacqueline Yahn (College of Education, Ohio University), and Emily Bentley (Education Engagement Specialist, Building Bridges to Careers) examines the outcomes of non-school internships hosted by two Appalachian Ohio organizations: Rural Action and Building Bridges to Careers. This qualitative study, guided by the conceptual framework of community and career connected learning, seeks to fill a gap in the literature where existing studies favor a distinctly urban-centric vantage point or focus on optimizing social mobility and developing skills needed to maintain a globalized, unrooted workforce.