Reimagining Rural: Shifting Paradigms About Health and Well-Being in the Rural United States

Rural health disparities have attracted increased national attention, compelling an expanded focus on rural health research. In this manuscript, we deconstruct the definitions and narratives of “rural” communities and suggest that a paradigm shift is needed that centers the complexity and strength of rural places. We discuss the relevance of health equity frameworks, implementation science, and community-engaged approaches to promote rural well-being. Focusing on rural in its own right will lead to intervention innovations and reinvention with implications beyond rural areas. We conclude with suggestions for research and practice to inspire renewed interest in partnering with rural communities to promote health equity. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 43 is April 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

A mega health camp at a rural municipality of Eastern Nepal: a cross-sectional study revealing the state of health among the population served

Background: Health camps are usually targeted to underprivileged people of rural places. They help in the awareness, preventive and curative services to those people. A mega health camp was conducted in Yangwarak rural municipality of Panchthar district of Eastern Nepal. All the services including medicines, consultation charges, laboratory services and imaging were free of cost.Methods: It’s a prospective cross-sectional study comprised of all consecutive patients attending the camp in Yangwarak rural municipality of Panchthar district in Eastern Nepal. All the patients attending the free camp were taken as a case. Necessary information was deducted and enrolled in this study. The data was entered into the Microsoft excel software and analysed using statistical package for social studies (SPSS) software 23.0 version.Results: A total of 1656 people were directly benefitted with consultation of a dozen of department. 58.7% were female and rest were male. Majority of people had gastrointestinal issues. The knowledge, attitude and practice to health was poor.Conclusions: Keeping in mind the findings of the camp, this only represents the tip of iceberg. There are many such places with needy people who need the help of health professionals and proper address by the government. The preventive approach to health should be magnified even more.

“If I Ever Leave, I Have a List of People That Are Going With Me:” Principals’ Understandings of and Responses to Place Influences on Teacher Staffing in West Virginia

Purpose: Schools across the predominately rural state of West Virginia are experiencing widespread teacher shortages, though recruitment and retention difficulties are unevenly distributed across place. Using spatial in/justice as our framework, we explore how principals define place, how place influences principal perceptions of teacher recruitment and retention, and how principals respond to these staffing challenges given their leadership experiences, relationship to school community, and understandings of place affordances and disadvantages. Research Methods/Approach This research utilized interviews with eight principals across six school districts in West Virginia over a four-month time frame. We inductively coded interview transcripts in iterative cycles using our research framework as a guide for emic and etic codes. Findings: We find principals’ understanding of place influences on staffing to be specific to the unique attributes of each community and the placement of their leadership experiences – as community returners, seasoned though not originally from the community, and new-to-place. Their understandings of spatial in/justice as it relates to teacher staffing shape ideas of place affordances and disadvantages and recruitment and retention practices. These findings complexify the teacher staffing picture across geographically diverse rural places and the responses available to leaders given their leadership experience and relationship to place. Implications for Research and Practice The place-specific influences on teacher staffing problematize statewide policy mechanisms for ameliorating teacher shortages. The findings also suggest the need for further in-depth qualitative research within districts and across states, with an emphasis on racially diverse rural places.

Community-supported agriculture (CSA): significance and prospects for growth for individuals, communities, and food systems.

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) is an alternative way of supplying food based on direct interaction between producers and consumers. As an alternative food network (AFN) and a form of civic agriculture, it is considered a more sustainable way of food production and consumption compared to the conventional food system. The number of CSA initiatives has been increasing in the last few decades worldwide parallel to growing scholarly debates about its usefulness, viability and potential. This article contributes to the review of the following: The impacts of CSA on individuals and communities, including motives for involvement and benefits received; the impacts of CSA on food systems, particularly on sustainability; and the barriers and opportunities for CSA growth. We conclude that CSA addresses the needs for sustainable and ecologically sound food and contributes to community building by reconnecting urban and rural places and people with their food. It is also an active position against the unsustainable dominant food systems and shows a different way of caring for the planet and the people. However, in order to grow, CSA needs to overcome certain barriers, namely financial difficulties, unrealistic member expectations and the need for social justice by providing livelihoods for the farmers and becoming more inclusive in terms of race, income and gender. The COVID-19 crisis presented an opportunity for CSA to become more effective as the CSA initiatives demonstrated resilience during lockdowns and the demand for their products increased.

LUGARES RURAIS E ESPACIALIZAÇÃO DO CAPITAL: O AIRBNB COMO EVIDÊNCIA DAS URBANIDADES NO RURAL EM UM ESPAÇO EM GLOBALIZAÇÃO

O artigo pretende discutir uma particular maneira de espacialização do capital. Para isso, analisa a presença do Airbnb enquanto elemento na produção de espacialidades rurais, constituindo-se em uma evidência de urbanidades no rural num contexto de globalização e planetarização do urbano, tomando-se como exemplo o município de Nova Friburgo, no estado do Rio de Janeiro. Demonstra-se como o espaço se integra e, ao mesmo tempo em que se desafiam as análises dicotômicas existentes, reafirmam-se assimetrias. Destaca-se como a presença de redes técnicas intensificam e aceleram um processo de inserção do lugar rural na escala global, através do seu modelamento para o consumo (como uma representação de espaço de lazer e turismo “antiurbano”, porém, permeado de urbanidades) e sua apropriação por empresas globais, das quais o Airbnb é um exemplo. Palavras-chave: espacialização do capital, urbanidades no rural, Airbnb, planetarização do urbano, globalização. RURAL PLACES AND THE SPATIALIZATION OF CAPITAL: AIRBNB AS AN EVIDENCE OF URBANITIES ON RURAL AREAS IN A GLOBALIZED SPACE Abstract: The article intends to discuss a particular way of spatialization of capital. It analyzes the presence of Airbnb as an element in the production of rural spatialities, constituting an evidence of urbanities on rural areas in a context of globalization and planetarization of the urban, analyzing, as an example, the municipality of Nova Friburgo - RJ. It demonstrates how the space is integrated and, at the same time that the existing dichotomous analyzes are challenged, old asymmetries are reaffirmed. It stands out how the presence of technical networks intensifies and accelerates a process of insertion of the rural place on a global scale, through its modeling for consumption (as a representation of leisure space and “anti-urban” tourism, however, permeated with urbanities) and its appropriation by global companies, whose Airbnb is an example. Keywords: spatialization of capital, Airbnb, urbanities on rural areas, planetarization of the urban, globalization. LIEUX RURALES ET ESPACIALISATION DU CAPITAL: L'AIRBNB COMME UNE EVIDENCE DES URBANITÉES EN MILLIEU RURAL SOUS UN ESPACE EN MONDIALISATION Resumé: L'article entend évoquer un mode particulier de spatialisation du capital et, pour cela, il analyse la présence d'Airbnb comme élément de production de spatialités rurales, constituant une évidence d'urbanités en milieu rural dans un contexte de mondialisation et de planétarisation de l'urbain, en prenant, à titre d'exemple, la municipalité de Nova Friburgo, dans l'état de Rio de Janeiro. Il montre comment l'espace est intégré et, en même temps que les analyses dichotomiques existantes sont remises en question, les asymétries sont réaffirmées. Il surligne aussi comment la présence de réseaux techniques intensifie et accélère un processus d'insertion du lieu rural à l'échelle mondiale, à travers sa modélisation pour la consommation (comme représentation de l'espace de loisirs et du tourisme «anti-urbain» pourtant imprégné d'urbanités) et son appropriation par des entreprises mondiales, dont Airbnb est un exemple. Mots-clés: spatialisation du capital, urbanités en milieu rural, Airbnb, planétarisation de l'urbain, mondialisation.

Ceramic Charcoal Stove in a Mixed Media

The acquisition of electric and gas stoves has been a difficult problem for most people in the rural places, hence most of them have resorted to wood for cooking. This has contributed to depletion of our forest and its attendant environmental consequences. This situation has made the researchers to attempts at looking for a way to reduce the amount of wood/charcoal used by designing a charcoal used by designs a chemical stove. This Ceramic Charcoal Stove was designed and built with locally obtained raw materials; locally composed low-density bricks and fired with a down-draught kiln at 800 degrees Celsius. The study also revealed that, once the charcoal in this stove is ignited, it could boil water at 6-7mins. This is a solution for conservation of charcoal used while cooking because some people are scared of using gas to cook because of its hazardous disadvantages while many others do not have money for refilling the gas cylinder and people who live in the rural area where there is no electric power supply, for electric stove. This solution has been found to have a high efficient heat maintenance property for cooking food and keeping the body warm is a welcomed development. This study is hoped to aid the in furtherance of academic research in this field and other related areas.

Environmental Factors Associated with Physical Activity in Rural U.S. Counties

Background: Rural U.S. adults’ prevalence of meeting physical activity (PA) guidelines is lower than urban adults, yet rural-urban differences in environmental influences of adults’ PA are largely unknown. The study’s objective was to identify rural-urban variations in environmental factors associated with the prevalence of adults meeting PA guidelines. Methods: County-level data for non-frontier counties (n = 2697) were used. A five-category rurality variable was created using the percentage of a county’s population living in a rural area. Factor scores from Factor Analyses (FA) were used in subsequent Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) analyses stratified by rurality to identify associations between environmental factor scores and the prevalence of males and females meeting PA guidelines. Results: FA revealed a 13-variable, four-factor structure of natural, social, recreation, and transportation environments. MLR revealed that natural, social, and recreation environments were associated with PA for males and females, with variation by sex for social environment. The natural environment was associated with PA in all but urban counties; the recreation environment was associated with PA in the urban counties and the two most rural counties. Conclusions: Variations across the rural-urban continuum in environmental factors associated with adults’ PA, highlight the uniqueness of rural PA and the need to further study what succeeds in creating active rural places.