When it comes to pinning down the primary drivers of rural-urban polarization, the role of economic precarity is the most difficult to decipher. According to the authors, it’s not clear that rural America is, on the whole, significantly worse off than urban America. Suffice it to say that inequality and poverty are rampant across geographies.
But rural people feel more economic anxiety than their urban and suburban counterparts. Why?
This is where the related concepts of shared fate and place-based identity take on significance. Rural and small town communities are less class-segregated than cities and suburbs, with trailers and fancy homes in close proximity. Wealthier residents may be able to weather downturns (of which there are many, especially in factory towns devastated by the effects of NAFTA), but they’re painfully aware of their neighbors’ plight. What’s more, rural communities are united in defensiveness against those whom they perceive to be denigrating and undermining their way of life. Their collective group identity has many dimensions, but the grievance that stems from being continually disrespected by others is foundational. ~ Erica Etelson