Endangered Spaces, Enduring Places: Change, Identity, and Survival in Rural America

Rural America as a place and a way of life is undergoing major transformation. The farm crisis and the decline of manufacturing dealt a double blow in the 1980s to rural communities, which continue to lose farms, factories, and young people. Rural lands are increasingly being sought as places for vacation homes, state prisons, and waste dumps. Rural people are ambivalent about new residents and activities and unsure of their own rural identity. Old assumptions about rural life are now open to question.Based on years of field observations and hundreds of interviews in fifteen rural counties in upstate New York, Fitchen's book explores these changes. It describes the financial stress on dairy farmers and their efforts to hold onto their farms. It records the disbelief and difficult adjustment of rural factory workers and communities as local plants shut down. The author chronicles the struggles of communities plagued by toxic chemicals in their drinking water and of young families slipping further into poverty. She reports on communities campaigning to “win” a state prison and others protesting a proposed radioactive waste dump.The book illustrates the persistence of rural ingenuity and determination but argues that a well-informed federal and state commitment is also necessary. With appropriate policies and programs, most rural communities could adapt creatively to the changes, integrate around a new rural identity, and survive into the twenty-first century as enduring social settings for their residents.

Janet M. Fitchen is professor of anthropology at Ithaca College.