{"title":"Taking Communities into the Groan Zone: Subjective Wellbeing in the Face of Demographic Change, Racial Diversity, and Political Difference☆","authors":"Michael Carolan","doi":"10.1111/ruso.12472","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This paper draws from a dataset focusing on two rural communities in Colorado (USA). Data collection occurred over two periods: late-2019 and again during COVID-19 lockdowns in mid-2020. The communities differed demographically: one had a growing minoritized population, especially among its youth; the other was overwhelmingly white. The paper troubles the concept of subjective wellbeing (SWB) as it asks about the productive potentials of discomfort, with assistance from such concepts as colorblind ideology, motivated reasoning, and network homophily. While important to think about so-called positive emotional states in the context of community development, we must also ask questions like, “SWB for <i>who</i> and at <i>whose</i> expense?” How respondents thought about individual- and community-level SWB had much to do with the social networks they were in. I also explore why the community that fared pandemic-related disruptions, from a SWB standpoint, better than the other performed worse during this same period from an economic (material) standpoint. Sociological factors explain these dynamics, which are leveraged to enhance our understanding of how to conceptualize community development in productive ways. In sum, I argue that certain expressions of discomfort have value and are therefore necessary for creating resilient, flourishing, and, ultimately, just communities.","PeriodicalId":47924,"journal":{"name":"RURAL SOCIOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2022-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"RURAL SOCIOLOGY","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12472","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"SOCIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper draws from a dataset focusing on two rural communities in Colorado (USA). Data collection occurred over two periods: late-2019 and again during COVID-19 lockdowns in mid-2020. The communities differed demographically: one had a growing minoritized population, especially among its youth; the other was overwhelmingly white. The paper troubles the concept of subjective wellbeing (SWB) as it asks about the productive potentials of discomfort, with assistance from such concepts as colorblind ideology, motivated reasoning, and network homophily. While important to think about so-called positive emotional states in the context of community development, we must also ask questions like, “SWB for who and at whose expense?” How respondents thought about individual- and community-level SWB had much to do with the social networks they were in. I also explore why the community that fared pandemic-related disruptions, from a SWB standpoint, better than the other performed worse during this same period from an economic (material) standpoint. Sociological factors explain these dynamics, which are leveraged to enhance our understanding of how to conceptualize community development in productive ways. In sum, I argue that certain expressions of discomfort have value and are therefore necessary for creating resilient, flourishing, and, ultimately, just communities.
期刊介绍:
A forum for cutting-edge research, Rural Sociology explores sociological and interdisciplinary approaches to emerging social issues and new approaches to recurring social issues affecting rural people and places. The journal is particularly interested in advancing sociological theory and welcomes the use of a wide range of social science methodologies. Manuscripts that use a sociological perspective to address the effects of local and global systems on rural people and places, rural community revitalization, rural demographic changes, rural poverty, natural resource allocations, the environment, food and agricultural systems, and related topics from all regions of the world are welcome. Rural Sociology also accepts papers that significantly advance the measurement of key sociological concepts or provide well-documented critical analysis of one or more theories as these measures and analyses are related to rural sociology.