‘Now there’s just a different feel’: spatiotemporal commitments & commercial racialization as markers of rural belonging

ABSTRACT

Twenty-first century rural Midwest communities are experiencing demographic shifts and industrialization in ways that challenge assumptions about rural social cohesion. Urban spatial segregation, surveillance of immigrants and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of colour) city dwellers, and community organizing to resist these processes is well represented in social science literature. Rural contexts feature less prominently in such explorations. I draw on ethnographic research in a Midwest community to make visible the racialization of rural spaces and to illustrate how such racialization frames belonging as contingent on assimilation to white investments in rural space. I draw on the examples of homeownership, commercial space, and public gathering spaces to illustrate the prevalence of white, Euro-American spatiotemporal commitments at work in rural communities as well as how this hegemonic framework can be challenged. By laying bare the social processes enacted through the geographies of everyday life, I hope to point towards more capacious and inclusive possibilities of rural belonging.

RESUMEN

Las comunidades rurales del medio oeste de Estados Unidos de América del siglo XXI están experimentando cambios demográficos e industrialización de maneras que desafían los supuestos sobre la cohesión social rural. La segregación espacial urbana, la vigilancia de los inmigrantes y habitantes BIPOC (negros, indígenas y de colour) en las ciudades y la organización comunitaria para resistir estos procesos, están bien representadas en la literatura de las ciencias sociales. Los contextos rurales ocupan un lugar menos prominente en tales exploraciones. Me baso en la investigación etnográfica en una comunidad del medio oeste de EUA para hacer visible la racialización de los espacios rurales e ilustrar cómo dicha racialización enmarca la pertenencia como contingente de la asimilación de inversiones de la comunidad blanca en el espacio rural. Me baso en los ejemplos de propiedad de vivienda, espacios comerciales y espacios públicos para ilustrar la prevalencia de estándares espaciotemporales euroamericanos blancos en funcionamiento de las comunidades rurales, así como cómo se puede desafiar este marco hegemónico. Al dejar al descubierto los procesos sociales a través de las geografías de la vida cotidiana, espero señalar posibilidades más amplias e inclusivas de pertenencia rural.

RÉSUMÉ

Au vingt-et-unième siècle, les communautés rurales du Midwest américain vivent une industrialization et des bouleversements démographiques si profonds que la cohésion sociale de leur milieu est remise en question. La ségrégation spatiale urbaine, la surveillance des immigrants et des citadins PANDC (personnes autochtones, noires et de couleur), et l’organization communautaire pour résister à ces processus figurent de manière proéminente dans les écrits de sciences sociales. Les environnements ruraux sont moins présents dans ce type de recherche. Je m’appuie sur l’étude ethnographique d’une communauté du Midwest pour rendre perceptible la racialization des espaces ruraux et pour montrer comment celle-ci structure l’appartenance par rapport à l’assimilation aux investissements de la population blanche dans l’espace rural. Je prends comme exemples l’accession à la propriété, les espaces commerciaux, et les lieux de rassemblement public pour illustrer la prépondérance des engagements spatio-temporels de la population blanche euroaméricaine en jeu dans les communautés rurales, ainsi que la façon dont on peut attaquer cette structure hégémonique. En mettant en évidence les mécanismes sociaux concrétisés par les géographies de la vie quotidienne, j’espère montrer la voie vers des opportunités plus spacieuses et plus inclusives pour l’appartenance au milieu rural.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural
• belonging
• immigration
• racialization
• Midwest (U.S.)
• spatiotemporal commitment

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Rural
• pertenencia
• inmigración
• racialización
• Medio Oeste (EUA)
• compromiso espaciotemporal

MOTS CLEFS:

• Rural
• appartenance
• immigration
• racialization
• Midwest américain
• engagement spatio-temporel

Acknowledgments

Sincere thanks to all the reviewers who offered supportive and insightful feedback. Thanks also to the editor for the support and patience in bringing this piece to publication. Heartfelt gratitude to the Saturday morning Morris writing group (especially Emily Bruce) and to Tricia, Ana and Nadia, without whose support this piece would never have been completed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. All names of towns, stores, and people are pseudonyms.

2. IRB permission from the University of Iowa under the project title: Social Integration/Interaction in a Rural Iowa Meatpacking Community IRB ID # 201002732.

3. In using the terms white and Latinx here, I recognize that any naming practice is incomplete and displaces other possibilities. These terms reflect locally significant categories even if the terms are different. People in Leonville used the terms ‘Anglo’ and ‘americano/American’ to refer to white, English-speaking, US-born community members. Spanish-speaking people often referred to themselves through nationality and most people racialized as Latinx were fluent in Spanish. I never heard anyone use the term Latinx. The choice here to use Latinx and white should be understood as an oversimplification [for further reading see (Aparicio, 2019; Dávila, 2008; Flores-González, 2017; Oboler, 2006; Plascencia, 2012; Rosa, 2019)].

4. The complex and fluid ways that I asserted my identities and how these were understood by different community members highlights how slippery, insufficient, and contingent such labels are.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Graduate College, University of Iowa.