Ithaca College

Maura Stephens, associate director of the Park Center for Independent Media, published an article in the May 2016 issue of the peer-reviewed American Journal of Economics and Sociology (AJES). In “Challenges for Social-Change Organizing in Rural Areas,” she investigates the numerous obstacles faced by rural organizers and activists working on environmental, justice, equity, and human rights issues. Compounding these obstacles is the abandonment of rural areas and small towns by mainstream media. 

From the abstract: "Corporate criminality and corporate welfare proliferate, and their victims mount. Rural inhabitants, human and nonhuman, are among those most affected. Rural areas are particularly affected by chemical contamination, fossil fuel exploitation, the absence of coverage of relevant local issues by the media, marginalization by governments, and the loss of cherished places and ways of life. There has never been a greater need for collective opposition to the forces undermining rural life . . . ramped-up activism is essential to protect the rights of rural residents, the natural environment, and the farmlands that feed the majority of the U.S. population.”

One peer reviewer wrote, “This is a careful analysis of multiple aspects of country-living challenges in general, and would help any scholar or organizer, urban or rural, who wants to understand the crises in America’s heartland.” 

AJES is firewall protected, but the author may share the article in PDF format. If you are interested in reading it, please write directly to mstephens@ithaca.edu and request a copy.