Rural Education for the Common Good: Overcoming Neoliberal Futures

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Marxian Analysis of Society, Schools and Education SIG Roundtable

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explain the current state of the rural US as shaped by neoliberalism, and how neoliberal policy regarding rurality and education has limited the options and abilities for breaking free from its influence. This paper relies on an analysis of Berardi’s Futurability, particularly his discussion of Potency, Power, and Possibility and how these can be applied to rural education and communities in the United States. Additionally, this paper also examines scholarship regarding the creation of anti-capitalist rural spaces such as Halfacree’s “radical ruralities” to establish the various issues limiting the future of rural communities under capitalism. The paper finishes with a brief discussion of how education can be used to create new rural futures.

Author

• Jason A. Cervone, University of California - Los Angeles