Dividing Paradise: Rural Inequality and the Diminishing American DreamHow rural areas have become uneven proving grounds for the American Dream Late-stage capitalism is trying to remake rural America in its own image, and the resistance is telling. Small-town economies that have traditionally been based on logging, mining, farming, and ranching now increasingly rely on tourism, second-home ownership, and retirement migration. In Dividing Paradise, Jennifer Sherman tells the story of Paradise Valley, Washington, a rural community where amenity-driven economic growth has resulted in a new social landscape of inequality and privilege, with deep fault lines between old-timers and newcomers. In this complicated cultural reality, "class blindness" allows privileged newcomers to ignore or justify their impact on these towns, papering over the sentiments of anger, loss, and disempowerment of longtime locals. Based on in-depth interviews with individuals on both sides of the divide, this book explores the causes and repercussions of the stark inequity that has become commonplace across the United States. It exposes the mechanisms by which inequality flourishes and by which Americans have come to believe that disparity is acceptable and deserved. Sherman, who is known for her work on rural America, presents here a powerful case study of the ever-growing tensions between those who can and those who cannot achieve their visions of the American dream. |
Contents
Rural Deindustrialization Decline and Rebirth | 1 |
Changing Times in Paradise | 21 |
Newcomers Making It Work | 48 |
OldTimers Struggles to Survive | 84 |
The Deepening Divide | 121 |
Making Sense of Community Change | 157 |
Crossing the Divide and Reclaiming the Dream | 190 |
The Rural Dream in the Pandemics Wake | 209 |
Appendix B The NewcomerOldTimer Distinction | 219 |
Notes | 225 |
| 243 | |
| 261 | |
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Dividing Paradise: Rural Inequality and the Diminishing American Dream Jennifer Sherman Limited preview - 2021 |
Dividing Paradise: Rural Inequality and the Diminishing American Dream Jennifer Sherman Limited preview - 2021 |
Common terms and phrases
activities adults American Dream Andrew Bowden areas Audrey Patterson challenges changes childcare class blindness clients community's concerns create cultural capital described despite Eagle Flat economic ethics experiences explained feel felt Field Notes focused food bank friends gentrification groups housing human capital impacts important in-migrants income individuals inequality interaction interview issues kids labor market lack Lamont lifestyle living low-income married middle-income moral capital move to Paradise multiple newcomer newcomer Nonetheless nonprofit old-timer old-timer opportunities outdoor Pam Rhodes Paradise Valley parents participants political populations poverty poverty line real and symbolic residents retired rural communities sense Shawn Murphy Sherman social capital social class social connections social divide social networks stuff survive symbolic capital symbolic resources there's things tion tourism trailer travel trailers understandings urban Valley native Valley's volunteer wealth Wendy Harris working-class Wuthnow Yeah