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.   

Event video of discussion among the Rural Reconciliation Project and friends about rural futures, inspired by an upcoming premier of the Angels Theatre Company’s new play, Eminent Domain.

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.

A periodic collection of recent research, analysis, and other notable rural items.

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.

A periodic collection of recent research, analysis, and other notable rural items.

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.

A periodic collection of recent research, analysis, and other notable rural items.