Date: TBD

Time: TBD

THEMATIC

CFP 7 - Thematic: Rural Spaces and Services I
Room: TBD

Sponsors: Community, Research, and Practice
Sociology, Social Work, and Social Welfare
Sport, Leisure, and the Body

Organizers: Michael O. Johnston, William Penn University
Linda Lobao, The Ohio State University

Presider: Linda Lobao, The Ohio State University

Discussant: Michael O. Johnston, William Penn University

Description: 

This thematic session examines the challenges and opportunities shaping rural communities. Rural areas face persistent inequalities, limited resources, and structural barriers across health, education, housing, and social services. At the same time, they foster resilience, care, and solidarity that warrant sociological attention. Presentations explore structural constraints and opportunities within rural environments, analyze how policies and politics shape service delivery, and consider how residents navigate and resist systems of support. Drawing on sociology, social work, and social welfare, the session highlights rural life as essential for understanding broader issues of justice, equity, and social well-being, emphasizing both constraint and creativity in these communities.

Papers:

“Beyond Little House on the Prairie: How the Myth of ‘Real America’ Shapes Rural Broadband Policy and Digital Inequality,” Jonathan Andrew Kraus, West Texas A&M University

“Implementing a Child Welfare Intervention in Two Rural Communities,” Miriam J. Landsman, University of Iowa

“Our School, Our Community, Our Future,” Casey T. Jakubowski, Utica University

“Rural Evictions in North Carolina: Analyzing Hotspots of Housing Precarity,” Daniel J. Rose, Rachel A. Midgett, Richard G. Moye and Tangela G. Towns, Winston-Salem State University

“We Built This City: Reimagining Rural Space Through Urban Performances of Joy and Resistance,” Michael O. Johnston, William Penn University

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