Rural Estrangement: Roadblocks and Roundabouts to Justice

This chapter uses an estrangement frame to explore the problem of rural injustice. We analyze four drivers of rural estrangement: stereotypes in favor of elites, mechanization in favor of resource extraction, corporate markets in favor of finance, and governance in favor of urbanity. While the concept of the rural “other” has value, we prefer the concept of estrangement because it treats the rural as diverse rather than monolithic. Doing so avoids the cultural and racial stereotypes that exacerbate the asymmetries of power between the rural and the urban, discrepancies frequently used to legitimize exploitation of rural peoples and the environment.Extractive and mechanization-intensive processes in resource-rich rural places globally often promote a transfer of wealth to urban absentee owners at the expense of the rural environment and public health. Likewise, corporatization makes rural areas vulnerable by collapsing local markets and dispossessing rural peoples. We also explore how the utilitarian orientation of the democratic state often results in what Ashwood (2018) calls a “for-profit democracy” that favors urbanity and diminishes the power of local governance. Finally, we propose some solutions to help mitigate the problems of rural estrangement.