A Qualitative Exploration of Institutional Betrayals in Rural Communities: An Emerging Typology

ABSTRACT

To explore individuals’ personal narratives of perceived betrayals and injustices committed by institutions, their representatives, or other authority figures and discern in what spheres of life they commonly manifest. 157 adults from largely rural, low-income communities in southern Appalachia participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews that asked them to describe key points in their life experiences, including high points, low points, and turning points. These were reviewed for episodes of institutional betrayals. Interview transcripts were analyzed using a grounded thematic analysis. Participants mentioned numerous instances of betrayals that occurred from interactions with institutions or their representatives. These were grouped into four categories: professional betrayals involving mistreatment from an employer, health care provider, or other authority figure; professional-organizational betrayals where a professional perpetrator was able to get support from a problematic organizational culture; corporate malfeasance involving misdeeds by business entities; and systemic injustices involving the sociopolitical architecture of society. The findings identified a range of institutional betrayal experiences that were unnecessary, unwanted, intentional, and harmful. They could be distinguished by the type of perpetrators and often led to notable harms, including unwanted system involvement and unemployment. Although participants seldom explicitly mentioned the rural setting in their descriptions of institutional betrayal, it is likely that limited options for health care providers, schools, and other institutions exacerbated some harms. Institutional betrayals need to be considered in people’s trauma dosage, their cumulative lifetime burden of trauma.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural
• institutional betrayal
• qualitative methods
• personal narratives
• injustice

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15299732.2023.2195401

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, S.H., upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This project was made possible through the support of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this project are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation