New Ruralism

By: J. David Chapman/December 15, 2022

The recent midterm election made it very clear that there is a significant divide between urban and rural communities. New Urbanism, a well-known movement about which I have written many times, aims to create more walkable communities. Less known is New Ruralism, which is focused on the preservation and enhancement of rural communities beyond the fringe of metropolitan regions. I teach this concept; however, I rarely think about it in practice. These towns are generally looked at as food sheds for metropolitan areas and have lost much of their character and vitality. In contrast to their importance to society, rural places now are associated with visions of economic decline, stagnation and resignation.
Rural space has changed dramatically because of mechanization and industrialization and has experienced mass out-migration of population. These spaces have served as extraction sites for natural resources, a revolution in farming, and the genetic modification of plants and animals to feed the world’s population. Water reservoirs and dams, wind farms, corn farms and solar farms are producing energy at an unprecedented scale to try to make up for the perceived harm from oil and gas production. It is strange that with all the importance put on the activities in these rural areas, that almost no attention to planning has been accomplished in these communities. Instead, the emphasis has been placed almost exclusively on urban communities.
New Urbanism has, at its core, a desire to build community and mandate the interaction of neighbors. This is accomplished with placemaking and density designed so that people will, by necessity, interface. I would propose that rural community participation in community activities is more by choice, with privacy options carefully preserved. Larger, less dense home sites, often separated by nature preserves or agricultural land, provide a buffer between neighbors.
I can see a time coming when the pace of day-to-day life challenges and pressures could cause the mass migration to urban centers that we have witnessed to pause. I anticipate a time when this concept of New Ruralism will become every bit as important as urbanism. Planners and architects may become environmental stewards of the land and become the driving force behind New Ruralism. I hope when this happens that we have enough rural towns left in Oklahoma to take advantage of the opportunity.
J. David Chapman is professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).