scholarly journals Rural Youth’s Narratives about Their Life Strategies

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 52-55
Author(s):  
Danka Moravčíková ◽  
Eva Pechočiaková Svitačová ◽  
Anna Mravcová

Abstract The paper presents results of the research project Social and Moral Aspects of Economic and Civic Life of Rural Youth, which was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic, through the Slovak Youth Institute under the specific scheme Support and Development of Research in the Field of Youth Policy. With the focus on the problems of contemporary life of rural youth, it emphasizes socio-economic and civic-politic dimension of its life. It maps different aspects as well as the influence of particular factors and institutions that affect behaviour and choices of young people in rural areas. The research methodology was based on qualitative approach using observation and personal semi-standardized interview method during the field survey. Interviews were conducted with 106 young people aged 18-30 from 39 rural communities localized in different parts of Slovakia in 2014. Besides introduction to the context, the authors describe methodological framework and the sampling procedure, the key research goals and questions, and basic research findings. They conclude that rural youth needs to be given certain stimulus and support in all possible areas of existence and participation, as well as tolerance and acceptance of their new ideas and thoughts.

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 546
Author(s):  
Paulina Rodríguez-Díaz ◽  
Rocío Almuna ◽  
Carla Marchant ◽  
Sally Heinz ◽  
Roxana Lebuy ◽  
...  

Rural livelihoods are under threat, not only from climate change and soil erosion but also because young people in rural areas are increasingly moving to urbanized areas, seeking employment and education opportunities. In the Valparaiso region of Chile, megadrought, soil degradation, and industrialization are driving young people to leave agricultural and livestock activities. In this study, our main objective was to identify the factors influencing young people living in two rural agricultural communities (Valle Hermoso and La Vega). We conducted 90 online surveys of young people aged 13–24 to evaluate their interest in living in the countryside (ILC). We assessed the effect of community satisfaction, connectedness to nature, and social valuation of rural livelihoods on the ILC. The results show that young people were more likely to stay living in the countryside when they felt satisfied and safe in their community, felt a connection with nature, and were surrounded by people who enjoyed the countryside. These results highlight the relevance of promoting place attachment and the feeling of belonging within the rural community. Chilean rural management and local policies need to focus on rural youth and highlight the opportunities that the countryside provides for them.


2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110435
Author(s):  
Traci L. Wike ◽  
Leah M. Bouchard ◽  
Aaron Kemmerer ◽  
Mauricio P. Yabar

LGBTQ+ youth experience higher rates of interpersonal violence, such as peer-based bullying and identity-based harassment, than their counterparts. Experiences of victimization can occur across different social contexts including family, school, peers, and community. LGBTQ+ youth in rural communities may be at increased risk for identity-based victimization due in part to geographic isolation and an often conservative value system that may create a hostile environment to LGBTQ+ individuals. However, few studies have examined the experiences of rural LGBTQ+ youth from their perspectives, and how the rural context may affect their experiences with victimization and social support. This qualitative study explores the victimization experiences of rural LGBTQ+ youth, the supports available to them, and ways they show resilience. We conducted qualitative interviews with a sample of 11 young people ages 12-21, recruited in partnership with a local LGBTQ+ agency across a rural five county region in the Southeastern United States. Four themes emerged related to how rural youth navigate bullying, harassment, and victimization across different social contexts and the support that is available to them: (1) conflicting family messages, (2) navigating personal safety at school, (3) connecting through technology, and (4) confronting negative religious sentiment. A fifth theme captures the strengths of young people in the mid of victimization: (5) demonstrating individual and collective resilience. Although rural LGBTQ+ youth experience victimization in similar ways to urban and suburban youth, rural youth may have less access to social supports that buffer effects of victimization. This study highlights the strengths in rural LGBTQ+ young people as well as their commitment to supporting one another and seeing change in their communities. Findings illustrate a need for greater support for LGBTQ+ youth in rural areas while leveraging existing strength of the youth and their community for sustainable support and resources.


Author(s):  
Nadezhda A. Nartova ◽  
Yana N. Krupets

The contemporary youth studies are mostly metrocentric. As a result, rural youth often find themselves outside the focus of researchers' attention being marginalized in comparison with urban youth whose experience and lifestyle are perceived as a normative model. In these conditions, rural space is labeled as illegitimate and structurally depriving for youth. This approach is criticized by researchers who work in the tradition of the cultural geographies of childhood and youth and take into account complex, often contradictory but still unique and autonomous experiences of today's young people living in rural areas. The article is based on 59 biographical interviews and describes how Russian rural youth comprehend belonging to places in three rural localities. The authors single out three types of prerequisites defining the place attachment and local identities among young people: rational choice, biographical rootedness, and community rootedness. Acknowledgments. The study was implemented in the framework of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) in 2015-2016. We thank our colleagues from the Centre for Youth Studies at NRU HSE in St. Petersburg who participated in interviewing the respondents and whose excellent and professional work was indispensable for writing this article.  


2003 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Glendinning ◽  
Mark Nuttall ◽  
Leo Hendry ◽  
Marion Kloep ◽  
Sheila Wood

This study looks at young people's accounts of life in communities in rural northern Scotland, and considers in what ways affective and social aspects of community are bound up with well-being, over and above young people's concerns for the future, rural youth transitions, and out-migration. Interviews were held with 15–18 year-olds in four study areas (16 groups, N = 60+) and a parallel survey of 11–16 year-olds was conducted in eight study areas (N = 2400+). Themes to emerge from the interviews included: opportunities locally, the future and staying on, as well as local amenities and services; but older teenagers also spoke at length about their social lives, family and social networks, and their community, both as close-knit and caring and as intrusive and controlling. Rural communities were seen as good places in childhood, but not necessarily for young people. In parallel with that, the survey data paints a picture where feelings of support, control, autonomy, and attachment were all associated with emotional well-being. Importantly, links between emotional well-being and practical, material concerns were outweighed by positive identifications of community as close-knit and caring; and equally, by negative identifications as intrusive and constraining, where the latter was felt more strongly by young women. Certainly, beliefs about future employment and educational opportunities were also linked to well-being, but that was over and above, and independently of, affective and social aspects of community life. Additionally, migration intentions were also bound up with sense of self and well-being, and with feelings about community life; and links between thoughts about leaving and community life as controlling and constraining were, yet again, felt more strongly by young women. Thus, gender was a key dimension affecting young people's feelings about their communities with significant implications for well-being, and out-migration. The study illustrates the importance of understanding the experiences young people have of growing up in rural areas, and how they evaluate those experiences: particularly, how life in rural communities matters for young people's well-being; and especially, for young women.


2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 29-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Haythornthwaite

summary Rural Links is a videoconference training initiative developed for those who work with at-risk young people in remote and rural regions of Western Australia. The training programme was run twice (in parallel) for two groups of participants: 17 workers from the Great Southern and South West regions of Western Australia and 15 workers from the Wheatbelt, Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia. The programme consisted of seven 2 h sessions presented over 12 weeks. Objectives of the training programme centred on increasing participants’ knowledge and confidence in relation to the training topics. The initiative also aimed to enhance consultation between rural youth networks and a metropolitan-based youth mental health service (YouthLink). Analyses indicated that there were improvements in workers’ knowledge and confidence in relation to training topics following participation in the programme. Comparisons of the improvements made by these rural participants, who accessed training via videoconferencing, and metropolitan participants, who accessed training face to face, revealed few significant differences. Rural participants reported high levels of satisfaction, decreased feelings of professional isolation and an increased likelihood of accessing YouthLink for consultative support as a result of completing the Rural Links training programme.


2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret M. Alston ◽  
Jenny Kent

The social and economic effects of globalisation in rural communities is well documented. Ageing populations, loss of services and employment opportunities are typical of rural areas in many western industrialised countries. Focusing on declining access to tertiary education, this paper argues that a lack of adequate policy is creating socially excluded young people in country towns. In particular, drawing on research conducted in the Centre for Rural Social Research at Charles Sturt University, it argues that the financial cost of education is creating a huge barrier for many rural families. If rural areas are to benefit from globalisation, a skilled workforce is critical. Declining rural access to tertiary education exacerbates power differentials resulting from globalisation and therefore restrains access to the opportunities of globalisation and hinders rural revitalisation.


Europa XXI ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 71-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Przemysław Kulawczuk ◽  
Andrzej Poszewiecki ◽  
Adam Szczęch

Euroregion Baltic faces strong depopulation pressure, with Poland and Lithuania both experiencing marked population declines, especially in rural areas, in the last 20 years – thanks to immigration abroad. Internal immigration to these countries’ cities is also taking place. While Germany, Sweden, Russia and Denmark have achieved temporary improvements in population indicators, this was thanks to their willingness to take in war refugees – a factor therefore incidental in nature, and not impacting upon an overall trend seeing people move out of rural areas in large numbers. With a view to this challenge being addressed in a more permanent way, research described here assessed whether the introduction of youth-policy measures might allow for better revamping of regional policies so as to persuade young people to remain in their regions. An assumption underpinning this work was that departure from a region reflects deficits in spatial justice, first and foremost an unequal distribution of infrastructure vis-à-vis education, housing, recreation, jobs, and so on. To determine which spheres critically underpin a decision to leave, young people’s preferences for their futures were studied under the CASYPOT project, involving 6 localities in four of the Euroregion’s states. In the event, the research was able to confirm a capacity on the part of youth surveys to deliver information on factors critical to decision-making that can be regarded as of value as regional policies are reorientated to try and ensure a higher level of spatial justice. The survey showed that factors most likely to prompt out-migration among young people relate to insufficient educational services and the inadequacy of the labour market.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (91) ◽  
pp. 57-61
Author(s):  
O. Ya. Hrumak ◽  
M. V. Vovk ◽  
O. V. Kindrat

The article examines the situation on the rural youth labor market and proposes the main directions of overcoming unemployment in rural areas. In particular, it has been established that the financial and economic crisis that has been observed in recent years and military actions in the east of the country have substantially exacerbated this problem. The problem of youth unemployment is the main among economic and social problems of the 21st century, as one of the most important factors in the economic and social development of any country is the socio-cultural and professional development of the youth. In the work the authors use general scientific methods and techniques: formal logic, statistical analysis – to study the state of employment and unemployment in Ukraine; abstract – in the substantiation of theoretical positions and the formulation of conclusions, etc. Particular attention is paid to statistical components, their analysis, also the main reasons of reduction of number of young people employed in agricultural enterprises and the tendencies of self-employment in rural areas are highlighted. The authors assess the impact of current government policy affecting rural youth employment, and make suggestions for its future development. It is proved that the use of advanced innovative technologies, investment and financing of agrarian development programs, entrepreneurial initiatives in agribusiness and vocational education will all make youth in agriculture the driving force that can bring this industry out of a prolonged crisis. It is summed up that the main directions of promoting employment of rural youth are the improvement of the quality of educational services (in particular, state support through budgeting of training in agricultural specialties), information on career opportunities, support of the development of family-owned agribusiness and creative projects, the development of green tourism and the adequate state social protection of young people. Youth is a social capital that requires priority investment, so this subject needs further research.


1996 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 18-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Caldarella ◽  
Jim Sharpnack ◽  
Travis Loosli ◽  
Kenneth W. Merrell

Although the study of inner city youth gangs has received substantial attention in the literature, such is not the case for rural youth gangs. In this study 41 rural school counselors from eight western states were surveyed on their perceptions of the extent of gang and crime problems in their schools and communities. The results of this study suggest an emerging gang and crime problem in these rural communities, for which the majority of school counselors felt ill prepared. More research and intervention is encouraged, both as a means of alleviating the current level of activity, as well as to help prevent the further spread of gang problems into these rural areas.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-266
Author(s):  
Jovana Stanisic ◽  
Darko Reba

The research is concerned with the current problem of depopulation and devastation of rural areas in Vojvodina, which are slowly disappearing as more and more young people turn to cities and urban lifestyle, looking for more comfortable working conditions not related to agricultural activities. These villages, along with their unique rural architecture, represent the identity of the area and by destruction of their communities Vojvodina would lose on its significance and identity. On the other hand, the paper considers one of the problems of today's research practice that relates to the constant attempts and needs of interpolating agricultural production into already overbuilt and polluted urban surrounding, making the villages even more neglected. Therefore, there is a need to establish a single strategy that would enable the revival of valuable rural communities in Vojvodina and make these areas better and more advanced places to live, retaining agriculture within the rural boundaries, as well as preserving the authenticity and tradition of the Vojvodina region. This paper presents the study project of Local Monoculture Farming System as a concept of a visionary model for the new type of facility in villages of Vojvodina whose construction could prevent further departure of young people from these areas giving them the possibility of education and employment within buildings instead of working on the land, since this is one of the reasons why they leave. Relying on energy efficient principles of traditional Vojvodina house in the construction, but also adapting some new, modern sustainable technologies, this future-oriented farming system would enable the connection between traditional and modern in rural areas of Vojvodina. The project links agriculture, energy efficiency, heritage and architecture to recover and use local resources of Vojvodina villages as a cultural approach in contemporary research for sustainable modern solutions.


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