Rural and small towns across America have experienced a significant decline since the 1960s. Sociologists and journalists have offered rich accounts of some of the towns; what emerged from these accounts is a general picture of decline associated with external societal changes and global forces: first a postwar shift of the national development to urban economies and then technological change in the 1980s and globalization.
The direct economic consequence of this decline is a considerable segment of people living in poverty. The decline has important social, cultural, and political consequences too. Drug abuse is epidemic as “a sociocultural cancer.” A peculiar gun culture is widespread. The persistent dire socioeconomic situation in American small towns has recently contributed to and influenced national political dynamics, such as the rise of populism, and the 2016 presidential election with an outcome that surprised many Americans (the metropolitans).
A lesson learned: rural and small towns must be integrated into urban development so they can grow along the side of cities, and there is a role for guidance in development. Lacking large urban centers, the rural and small-town America is left in a darkness, literally, and from technological advances and social progress consequently, leading to a prominent spatial, social, and economic imbalance on the national level, which is now playing a critical role in shaping the nation’s political future.
It becomes a difficult problem once the pattern has formed. People have been trying hard to revive their communities with a lot of effort made in tourism and crafts (another example is PA Route 6 Alliance). These efforts lead to varying degrees of success. Large cities won’t come into being overnight and naturally, but all places should at least be covered by cellular phone systems and have access to the internet. So many times my cell phone failed to give me driving directions because there was simply no signal.
