ABSTRACT
Youth in rural places around the globe face similar challenges within a steadily urbanizing world. Rural schools can also be instruments of social exclusion, reinforcing and reproducing local inequalities. The decoupling of regions from the prevalent economic dynamics of prosperous urban agglomerations results in constrained labour markets in rural areas. Rural communities were perceived as safer, as a resource for food in the event of urban food shortages, and as a way even to perhaps “re-localize” the economy for goods and services. The example of the United States suggests how COVID-19 can make significant in-roads into rural areas, a phenomenon that has occurred particularly in counties with meat-packing plants, Native American reservations, and other areas with high percentages of Black and Latinx residents. Traditional rural culture and local customs, which include large social gatherings coupled with strong rural social networks and the perception of decreased rural risk, can also contribute to the transmission of coronavirus.
