New American Ruralism – Technology and telecommuting are fueling the new migration from urban areas to rural areas.

New technology lets city dwellers move to rural
areas – and one result is a culture clash.

American society has become more
urban and less rural according to every
census taken since 1790. Only in 1820
did the balance momentarily shift.
However, the technological advances of
the last decade are already shifting the
population trends towards a New
American Ruralism.

By Richard H. Carson

http://www.calapa.org/PLANNER/CalPlannerMayJune.pdf

A Changing Paradigm

The 20th Century was not kind to
rural America. By the end of the century
rural areas were losing population and
were in economic ruin. The rural
resource economy
collapsed.

The
combination of dwindling
resources, as well as
increased environmental
and land use regulation led
to the closure of mines,
fisheries and forests.
Corporate and mechanized
agriculture reduced the
need for workers. Finally, the new global
order let foreign competitors undercut
the price of domestic resource products.
The only alternative for some areas was
to pursue a tourist-based economic
development strategy with low paying
jobs.

According to the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA), 25
percent of Americans live in rural areas.1
Since 1990, nearly 75 percent of the
nation’s 2,304 rural counties have gained
population.2 The USDA also notes that:
“The decade of the 1990’s has been
a period of rebound in rural and small
town population growth as more people
move into nonmetro counties than are
moving out. The nonmetro population
grew by 5.3 million, or 10.3 percent,
during the 1990’s compared with just a
1.3-million increase in the 1980-90
decade.”3

Part of this population shift has to
do with people taking a conventional
retirement or buying a second recreation
home in rural areas. However, the more
important trend is technological – it’s
based on the freedom that comes from
the ability to telecommute.

One of the more important changes
fostering the new urban flight is
technology. My new neighbors are a good
example. They both work at home. He is
a securities broker and she is an insurance
claims adjuster. All they need is high
speed Internet and
telephone access. That is
because of a major
breakthrough in which
the new satellite
technology gives you
television and high-speed
Internet. As a result, you
are no longer restricted by
the need for DSL or cable
land lines.

These folks can live absolutely
anywhere in the world. And now they
live in the hills of southwest Washington.
In an article on this subject, land use
planner Ray Quay noted that:
“One possible future this could lead
to is the re-ruralization of America. With
the decisions about location of work and
home now separate, people unsatisfied
with the urban experience but still
desirous of current urban employment
opportunities could retain employment
and relocate to rural areas. Between 1980
and 1990, there was a 1.5% shift (3.7
million) in US population from rural
areas to urban areas.

Even if only 20% of
potential telecommuters chose to move
to rural America, this could represent a
potential 4 million people. Essentially
this would completely reverse the loss
from rural communities over the last 10
years!” 4

*************

Urban flight will
bring with it people
who still have urban
wants and biases.

New technology lets city dwellers move to rural
areas – and one result is a culture clash.

************

This population shift brings with it
some fundamental changes in rural
economics. The economic shift will be
from the traditional agrarian and
resource-based industries, to more
knowledge-based industries. There will
also be social changes. Urban flight will
bring with it people who still have urban
wants and biases.

Changing Rural Character

According to western statesman and
author Daniel
Kemmis, rural
Americans are
characterized as “the
last of what is best in
America” and by their
“plain-spoken,
uncomplicated
neighborliness.”5 However, the growth
in the rural areas is resulting in a more
cosmopolitan resident moving in. It’s a
form of gentrification of rural areas that
is not easy for the original inhabitants or
the newcomers.

Rural centers were
typified by a few establishments – that
being a post-office, a church, a general
store, and a tavern. Stores catered to
loggers, farmers, and their families.
However, the new urban immigrants
want expresso bars, day care, a video
store and a tanning salon. A restaurant
that was called Fatty Patty’s will be
renamed Augustino’s.

This results in a clash of cultures.
Consider that rural area natives believe
everything is “constitutionally
protected.” That generally means it’s o.k.
to occasionally discharge your rifle, ride
your unmuffled dirt bike and start your
diesel truck engine at 4:00 a.m.
However, these are all actions that
former urbanites hate, and they routinely
complain to their local government.
Immigrant urbanites also protest any new
mining, logging or farming activities
because they ruin views and are too
noisy or smelly.

Politics of Ruralism

New American Ruralism is sure to
bring us back to some basic
Constitutional issues. The framers of the
Bill of Rights and the Constitution were
drawn from two very different groups
with very different perspectives about
what the America experience should be.
One group led by people like Alexander
Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
wanted a more urbanist, federalist and
interdependent America. The other
group, led by Thomas Jefferson and John
Quincy Adams, wanted a more ruralist,
decentralist and self-reliant America.

The new rural
America will be the
product of residents who
have traditionally
worked the land and
newcomers who want to
live in what they
perceive as a peaceful,
pastoral landscape. These are two kinds
of people, with very different values and
motives for living in rural America.
Daniel Kemmis says that, “Places have a
way of claiming people. When they
claim very diverse kinds of people, then
those people must eventually learn to
live with each other; they must learn to
inhabit their place together… and
nurture the old-fashioned civic virtues of
trust, honesty, justice, tolerance,
cooperation, hope and remembrance.”6

Let’s hope he his right.
Richard H. Carson is a theorist, writer and
practicing planner with 30 years experience
in the Pacific Northwest states of Oregon
and Washington. He is Director of the
Clark County Community Development
Department in Washington State and can be
reached at [email protected].

1. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic
Research Service (http://www.ers.usda.gov/
Briefing/Rurality/WhatisRural)

2. Kenneth Johnson and Calvin Beale, The
Continuing Population Rebound in Nonmetro
America, Rural Perspectives, vol. 13, no. 3.

3. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic
Research Service
(http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/Population/)

4. Ray Quay, Telecommuting: Possible Futures for
Urban and Rural Communities, McQuay
Technologies, 1995.

5. Daniel Kemmis, Community and the Politics of
Place, University of Oklahoma Press, 1945.

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