Home Is Where the Heart Is: Exploring Perceptions of Rural Deprivation’s Effects

• In Event: Rural Identities and Resentment

Abstract

How does rural deprivation, a concept which emphasizes the perceived differences between rural and urban areas, impact rural people’s attitudes? While scholars have previously contributed important findings concerning rural behavior, interest in the topic was reinvigorated once it became clear that rural voters contributed to Donald Trump’s election in 2016 and became some of his strongest and most loyal supporters during his presidency. To understand rural attitudes, I consider rural Americans’ sense of what I call perceived rural deprivation, or PRD, which is the idea that rural people are or perceive themselves to be more deprived of resources than their urban counterparts. Using two original surveys, I develop a novel and distinct measure of PRD and use this measure to see whether perceived deprivation impacts evaluations of federal governmental representation, with the expectation that an increase in PRD will correspond with increasingly negative evaluations of federal governmental representation. These surveys allow me to examine PRD at both the national level and at the state-level using national samples as well as a state-specific sample from a state with a high concentration of rural voters (Kentucky). In addition, I argue that rural people share a strong place identity. This place identity has combined with PRD and culminated in a group of people who distrust outside groups. Thus, this piece further elucidates how rural people understand their role in politics – adding a valuable addition to the study of the urban-rural divide. This work also has implications for how we understand rural voting behavior, citizens’ trust in government, and rural resentment.

Author

• Rachael Blandau, University of Kentucky