In ‘A Dead Sea of Solar Panels’: Solar Enclosure, Extractavism and the Progressive Degradation of the California Desert, Alexander Dunlap (Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki), Benjamin Sovacool and Bojana Novaković (both Institute for Global Sustainability, Boston University) discuss the spread of solar energy projects in the Mojave desert and the overlooked negative impact both on the environment and the people who live there.  

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

In Conservatism, the Far Right, and the Environment, Jesse Callahan Bryant and Justin Farrel (both Environment, Yale) review and integrate sociological research with multidisciplinary literature on conservative and far-right environmental thought.  

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.