Rural Poverty Scholarship

Though I have a personal interest in rural poverty (see my articles on rural building codes and Indian reservation economic development), another professor, Lisa R. Pruitt, is in the midst of a publishing spree of rural poverty articles.  As Pruitt notes, rural poverty is rarely considered when policies and programs focusing on poverty are designed.  In addition, relative to the attention given urban areas, there are few academics who have worked on rural poverty theory or have emphasized rural poverty. 

Lisa Pruitt's recent articles are:

• Toward a Feminist Theory of the Rural, 2007 Utah L. Rev. 421 (2007). 
• Missing the Mark: Welfare Reform and Rural Poverty, 10 J. of Gender, Race & Justice 439 (2007). 
• Rural Rhetoric, 39 Conn. L. Rev. 159 (2006). 

Another person with a number of rural poverty related articles is Debra Lyn Bassett:

• Distancing Rural Poverty, 13 Geo. J. of Poverty L. & Pol'y 3 (2006).
• Ruralism, 88 Iowa L. Rev. 273 (2003). 
• The Rural Venue, 57 Alabama L. Rev. (2006).

In addition, Thomas Mitchell (the Thomas Mitchell at Wisconsin) has written:

• Destabilizing the Normalization of Rural Black Land Loss: A Critical Role for Legal Empiricism, 2005 Wis. L. Rev. 557 (2005). 

Finally, the following research centers and websites focus on rural poverty:

• Rural Poverty Research Center (contains conference info as well as working papers)
• Rural Poverty Portal (International Fund for Agricultural Development)

-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu