Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Rural Poverty: Research and Policy for U.S. Families

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Rural Families and Communities in the United States

Part of the book series: National Symposium on Family Issues ((NSFI,volume 10))

Abstract

The depth and breadth of rural poverty in the United States have been recognized but misunderstood and neglected for as long as poverty statistics have been collected. Over 50 years ago a government commission on The People Left Behind examined issues of the severity of rural poverty and issued recommendations for actions to counter it. Yet, half a century later many of the problems remain, and the policies for addressing them are still relevant but unrealized. In the current time of social and political polarization that appears to partly reflect a rural and urban divide, there has been new attention to the causes and consequences of economic distress among rural families and communities. However, the issues remain under-examined and relatively obscure for scholars, policy makers, and the public. This chapter examines the depth, extent, forms, and locations of rural poverty; its social and geographic diversity; its causes and correlates; reasons for neglect; and obstacles to designing policies and programs to address rural poverty and economic distress. The chapter concludes with suggestions for moving a rural poverty research and policy agenda forward.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alexander, J. T., Andersen, R., Cookson, P. W., Jr., Edin, K., Fisher, J., Grusky, D. B., … Varner, C. (2017). A qualitative census of rural and urban poverty. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 672(1), 143–161. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716217714156

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biddle, C., & Mette, I. (2017). Education and information. In A. R. Tickamyer, J. Sherman, & J. Warlick (Eds.), Rural poverty in the United States (pp. 322–338). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Billings, D. B., & Blee, K. M. (2000). The road to poverty: The making of wealth and hardship in Appalachia. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Billings, D. B., & Tickamyer, A. R. (1993). Uneven development in Appalachia. In T. Lyson & W. Falk (Eds.), Forgotten places: Uneven development in rural America (pp. 7–29). Lawrence, KS: Kansas University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bishaw, A., & Posey, K. G. (2016). Comparison of rural and urban America: Household income and poverty. Census Blogs. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2016/12/a_comparison_of_rura.html

  • Chetty, R., Hendren, N., & Katz, L. F. (2016). The effects of exposure to better neighborhoods on children: New evidence from the moving to opportunity experiment. American Economic Review, 106(4), 855–902.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chetty, R., Hendren, N., Kline, P., & Saez, E. (2014, November). Where is the land of opportunity? The geography of intergenerational mobility in the United States. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129, 1553–1623.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clampet-Lundquist, S., & Massey, D. S. (2008). Neighborhood effects on economic self-sufficiency: A reconsideration of the moving to opportunity experiment. American Journal of Sociology, 114(1), 107–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, W. A. V. (2008). Reexamining the Moving to Opportunity study and its contribution to changing the distribution of poverty and ethnic concentration. Demography, 45(3), 515–535.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, C. M. (2014). Worlds apart: Poverty and politics in rural America (2nd ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edin, K., & Schaefer, H. L. (2015). $2.00 a day: Living on almost nothing in America. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falk, W. W., Schulman, M. D., & Tickamyer, A. R. (2003). Communities of work: Rural restructuring in local and global contexts. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Federal Communications Commission (FCC). (2018). 2018 Broadband deployment report.Retrieved from https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/2018-broadband-deployment-report

  • Fisher, G. M. (1992). The development and history of the poverty thresholds. Social Security Bulletin, 55(4), 3–14. Retrieved from http://www.socialsecurity.gov/history/fisheronpoverty.html

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, G. M. (2008). Remembering Mollie Orshansky—The developer of the poverty thresholds. Social Security Bulletin, 68(3). Retrieved from https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v68n3/v68n3p79.html

  • Fitchen, J. (1995). Spatial redistribution of poverty through migration of poor people to depressed rural communities. Rural Sociology, 60(2), 181–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fox, L. (2017). The supplemental poverty measure: 2016 (Report No. P60-261). U.S. Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2017/demo/p60-261.html

  • Green, G. P. (2017). The opportunities and limits of economic growth. In A. R. Tickamyer, J. Sherman, & J. Warlick (Eds.), Rural poverty in the United States (pp. 416–438). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, M. (2011). Welfare reform and household survival: The interaction of structure and network in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas. Journal of Poverty, 15(1), 43–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, M. (2017). Racial inequalities and poverty in rural America. In A. R. Tickamyer, J. Sherman, & J. Warlick (Eds.), Rural poverty in the United States (pp. 141–162). New York, NY: Columbia University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Housing Assistance Council. (2012). Taking stock: Rural people, poverty, and housing in the 21st Century. Washington, DC: Housing Assistance Council. http://www.ruralhome.org/storage/documents/ts2010/ts_full_report.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, L., & Ely, D. (2017). Measures of poverty and implications for portraits of rural hardship. In A. R. Tickamyer, J. Sherman, & J. Warlick (Eds.), Rural poverty in the United States (pp. 67–83). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, L., & Jensen, E. B. (2011). Employment hardship among rural men. In K. E. Smith & A. R. Tickamyer (Eds.), Economic restructuring and family well-being in rural America (pp. 40–59). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, K. (2017). Where is rural America and who lives there? In A. R. Tickamyer, J. Sherman, & J. Warlick (Eds.), Rural poverty in the United States (pp. 3–27). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krause, E., & Reeves, R. V. (2017). Rural dreams: Upward mobility in America’s countryside. Washington, DC: Center on Children and Families at Brookings. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/es_20170905_ruralmobility.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, O. (1959). Five families: Mexican case studies in the culture of poverty. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, O. (1966). The culture of poverty. Scientific American, 215(4), 19–25.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lichter, D. T. (2018, March 21). The demography of rural poverty since the people left behind. Washington, DC: Presentation at the Rural Policy Research Institute 2018 Rural Poverty Research Conference.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lichter, D. T., & Jensen, L. (2002). Rural America in transition: Poverty and welfare at the turn of the 21st century. In B. A. Weber, G. J. Duncan, & L. A. Whitener (Eds.), Rural dimensions of welfare reform (pp. 77–112). Kalamazoo, MI: Upjohn Institute Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lichter, D. T., & Ziliak, J. P. (2017, July). The rural-urban interface: New patterns of spatial interdependence and inequality in America. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 672, 6–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ludwig, J., Duncan, G. J., Gennetian, L. A., Katz, L. F., Kessler, R. C., Kling, J. R., & Sanbonmatsu, L. (2013). Long-term neighborhood effects on low-income families: Evidence from moving to opportunity. American Economic Review, 103(3), 226–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyson, T. A., & Falk, W. W. (Eds.). (1993). Forgotten places: Uneven development in rural America. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maldonado, L. C., & Nieuwenhuis, R. (2015). Family policies and single parent poverty in 18 OECD countries, 1978–2008. Community, Work & Family, 18(4), 395–415.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neumark, D., & Simpson, H. (2014). Place-based policies (Working Paper 20049). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. https://www.nber.org/papers/w20049.

  • Nolan, L., Waldfogel, J., & Wimer, C. (2017). Long-term trends in rural and urban poverty: New insights using a historical supplemental poverty measure. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 672(1), 123–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Partridge, M. D., & Rickman, D. S. (2008). Place-based policy and rural poverty: Insights from the urban spatial mismatch literature. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 1(1), 131–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pickering, K., Harvey, M. H., Summers, G. F., & Mushinski, D. (2006). Welfare reform in persistent rural poverty: Dreams, disenchantments and diversity. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • President’s National Advisory Commission on Rural Poverty. (1967). The people left behind. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED016543.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Reimer, B., & Markey, S. (2008). Place-based policy: A rural perspective. Canada: Human Resources and Social Development Canada. Retrieved from https://www.crcresearch.org/files-crcresearch_v2/ReimerMarkeyRuralPlaceBasedPolicySummaryPaper20081107.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, M., & Baumgartner, F. R. (2013). Framing the poor: Media coverage and U.S. poverty policy, 1960–2008. Policy Studies Journal, 41, 22–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rural Sociological Society (RSS) Task Force on Persistent Rural Poverty. (1993). Persistent poverty in rural America. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schott, L., Pavetti, L., & Floyd, I. (2015). How states use federal and state funds under the TANF block grant. Washington DC: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Retrieved from https://www.cbpp.org/research/family-income-support/how-states-use-federal-and-state-funds-under-the-tanf-block-grant

    Google Scholar 

  • Schram, S. E., Soss, J., Fording, R. C., & Houser, L. (2009). Deciding to discipline: Race, choice, and punishment at the frontlines of welfare reform. American Sociological Review, 74(3), 398–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sherman, J. (2009a). Bend to avoid breaking: Job loss, gender norms, and family stability in rural America. Social Problems, 56(4), 599–620.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sherman, J. (2009b). Those who work, those who don’t: Poverty, morality, and family in rural America. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherman, J. (2017). Rural poverty and symbolic capital: A tale of two valleys. In A. R. Tickamyer, J. Sherman, & J. Warlick (Eds.), Rural poverty in the United States (pp. 205–230). New York, NY: Columbia University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slack, T., Thiede, B., & Jensen, L. (2018, March). Race, residence and underemployment: 50 Years in comparative perspective, 1964–2017. Presented at RUPRI conference: Rural Poverty, Fifty Years After The People Left Behind—A Research Conference. Looking Backward and Forward, Washington, DC. www.rupri.org/wp-content/uploads/slack-thiede-and-jensen.-RACE-RESIDENCE-AND-UNDEREMPLOYMENT-50-YEARS-IN-COMPARATIVE-PERSPECTIVE-1964-2017-.pdf

  • Smith, K. E. (2011). Changing roles: Women and work in rural America. In K. E. Smith & A. R. Tickamyer (Eds.), Economic restructuring and family well-being (pp. 60–81). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, K. E. (2017). Changing gender roles and rural poverty. In A. R. Tickamyer, J. Sherman, & J. Warlick (Eds.), Rural poverty in the United States (pp. 117–132). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, K. E., & Tickamyer, A. R. (Eds.). (2011). Economic restructuring and family well-being in rural America. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soss, J., Fording, R. C., & Schram, S. F. (2011). Disciplining the poor: Neoliberal paternalism and the persistent power of race. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Thiede, B., & Slack, T. (2017). The old versus the new economies and their impacts. In A. R. Tickamyer, J. Sherman, & J. Warlick (Eds.), Rural poverty in the United States (pp. 231–249). New York, NY: Columbia University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tickamyer, A. R. (2006). Rural poverty. In P. Cloke, T. Marsden, & P. Mooney (Eds.), Handbook of rural studies (pp. 411–426). London: Sage Publications.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Tickamyer, A. R., & Henderson, D. A. (2010). Devolution, social exclusion, and spatial inequality in U.S. welfare provision. In P. Milbourne (Ed.), Welfare reform in rural places: Comparative perspectives, research in rural sociology and development (Vol. Vol. 15, pp. 41–59). Bingley: Emerald Publishing Group.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Tickamyer, A. R., & Henderson, D. A. (2011). Livelihood practices in the shadow of welfare reform. In K. Smith & A. Tickamyer (Eds.), Economic restructuring and family well-being in rural America (pp. 294–319). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tickamyer, A. R., Henderson, D. A., White, J. A., & Tadlock, B. (2000). Voices of welfare reform: Bureaucratic rationality vs. participant perceptions. Affilia, 15(2), 173–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tickamyer, A. R., Sherman, J., & Warlick, J. (Eds.). (2017). Rural poverty in the United States. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tickamyer, A. R., & Smith, K. E. (2011). Conclusions. In K. E. Smith & A. R. Tickamyer (Eds.), Economic restructuring and family well-being in rural America (pp. 226–346). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tickamyer, A. R., White, J., Tadlock, B., & Henderson, D. (2007). Spatial politics of public policy. In L. Lobao, G. Hooks, & A. R. Tickamyer (Eds.), The sociology of spatial inequality (pp. 113–139). New York, NY: SUNY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tickamyer, A. R., & Wornell, E. J. (2017). How to explain poverty? In A. R. Tickamyer, J. Sherman, & J. Warlick (Eds.), Rural poverty in the United States (pp. 84–114). New York, NY: Columbia University.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS). (n.d.-a). Comparison of rural and urban poverty rates using official (OPM) and supplemental poverty measures (SPM), 2013. Retrieved from https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=82270

  • USDA Economic Research Service (ERS). (n.d.-b). Rural poverty & well-being. Retrieved from https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/rural-poverty-well-being/

  • USDA Economic Research Service (ERS). (n.d.-c). Rural-urban continuum codes. Retrieved from https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/rural-urban-continuum-codes/

  • USDA Economic Research Service (ERS). (n.d.-d). What is rural? Retrieved from https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population/rural-classifications/what-is-rural.aspx

  • Warlick, J. (2017). The safety net in rural America. In A. R. Tickamyer, J. Sherman, & J. Warlick (Eds.), Rural poverty in the United States (pp. 389–415). New York, NY: Columbia University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, B., Duncan, G., & Whitener, L. (Eds.). (2002). Rural dimensions of welfare reform. Kalamazoo, MI: W. E. Upjohn Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, B., Fannin, J. M., Miller, K., & Goetz, S. (2018, June). Intergenerational mobility of low-income youth in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan America: A spatial analysis. Regional Science Policy and Practice, 10, 87–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, B., Farrigan, T., Glasmeier, A., & Gagin, C. (2018, March). Rural poverty fifty years after The People Left Beind: An unfinished legacy [PowerPoint slides]. Presented at RUPRI conference: Rural poverty, fifty years after The People Left Behind—A research conference. Looking backward and forward, Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://www.rupri.org/wp-content/uploads/Overview_Unfinished_Legacy.final_.pptx

  • Weber, B., & Miller, K. (2017). Poverty in rural America then and now. In A. R. Tickamyer, J. Sherman, & J. Warlick (Eds.), Rural poverty in the United States (pp. 84–114). New York, NY: Columbia University.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, J., Tickamyer, A. R., Henderson, D., & Tadlock, B. (2003). Does Welfare-to-Work work? Rural employers comment. In W. W. Falk, M. D. Schulman, & A. R. Tickamyer (Eds.), Communities of work: Rural restructuring in local and global context (pp. 240–264). Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Widerquist, K. (2005). A failure to communicate: What (if anything) can we learn from the negative income tax experiments? The Journal of Socio-Economics, 34(1), 49–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, W. J. (1996). When work disappears: The world of the new urban poor. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, W. J. (2012). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ziliak, J. P. (2019). Economic change and the social safety net: Are rural Americans still behind? (Working paper). Washington, DC: Washington Center for Equitable Growth. https://equitablegrowth.org/working-papers/economic-change-and-the-social-safety-net-are-rural-americans-still-behind/

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Multistate Research Project PEN04623 (Accession#1013257): Social, economic and environmental causes and consequences of demographic change in rural America.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Penn State, University Park, PA, USA

    Ann R. Tickamyer

Authors
  1. Ann R. Tickamyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ann R. Tickamyer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Population Research Institute, Penn State, University Park, PA, USA

    Jennifer E. Glick

  2. Social Science Research Institute, Penn State, University Park, PA, USA

    Susan M. McHale

  3. Department of Sociology, Penn State, University Park, PA, USA

    Valarie King

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Tickamyer, A.R. (2020). Rural Poverty: Research and Policy for U.S. Families. In: Glick, J., McHale, S., King, V. (eds) Rural Families and Communities in the United States. National Symposium on Family Issues, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37689-5_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation