The Wrong Side of the Tracks: Social Inequality and Mobile Home Park Residence

Abstract

Given the emerging social stratification of post-agrarian small-towns, potential effects are apt to be exacerbated for rural poor families such as those residing in mobile home parks, a now characteristic rural neighborhood form. Although a mobile home park offers affordable access to rural residence, social costs are attached to such access. This paper examines the intersection between mobile home park residence and social disadvantage. Drawing on an ethnographic field study in rural Oregon, findings reveal distinct conditional features of place that determine the nature of how rural inequality is emerging and the implications for poor and working-poor families.

Keywords:

• affordable housing
• rural housing
• mobile home park
• social stratification
• stigmatization
• unsubsidized low-cost housing
• post-agrarian community
• low-income rural families