This article looks at a unique form of American rural industrial development in the early 20th century: rural farming machinery companies producing gas-powered washing machines during the off season. Prior scholarship on the washing machine industry in North America has tended to focus on the mass dissemination of electric washing machines into suburban and urban homes, spreading from urban centers to rural fringes. In contrast, this article portrays the rise of washing machines as substantially rural in character. Case studies of three companies in Iowa and rural Ontario challenge our standard understanding of both consumption and production patterns, refocusing on rural technological innovation and capitalism. These machines allowed rural communities to engage with modernity on their own terms, purchasing gas-powered household appliances alongside gas-powered farm equipment.

By involving stakeholders to identify issues, co-design facilitates the creation of solutions aligned with the community’s unique needs and values. However, genuine co-design with consumers across all stages of nutrition intervention research remains uncommon. The aim of this review was to examine notable examples of interventions to improve diets in rural settings that have been co-designed by rural communities. Six studies were identified reporting on community-based and digital interventions to improve diets in rural settings that have been co-designed by rural communities. The level of co-design used varied, with two interventions describing co-design workshops and focus groups over a period of between 6 and 11 months, and others not reporting details on the co-design process. Collectively, most interventions demonstrated positive impacts on dietary markers, including an increase in purchase of fruit and vegetable, an increase in percentage energy from nutrient dense foods and a decrease in intake of high fat meats. While these interventions show promise for improving diets in these under-served communities, it is widely recognised that there is a lack of dietary interventions genuinely co-designed with and for rural communities. Future research should build on these studies to co-design dietary interventions that integrate the benefits of both community-based and digital interventions.

Although family factors are considered important for children’s language acquisition, the evidence comes primarily from affluent societies. Thus, this study aimed to examine the relations between family factors (family’s socioeconomic status [SES], home literacy activities, access to print resources, and parental beliefs) and children’s vocabulary knowledge in both urban and rural settings in China. Data from 366 children (urban group: 109, 4.85 years; rural group: 257, 4.89 years) were collected. Results showed that whereas family’s SES significantly predicted access to print resources and children’s vocabulary knowledge in the rural group, parental beliefs directly predicted children’s vocabulary knowledge in the urban group. Multigroup analysis showed that the associations of family’s SES and access to print resources with children’s vocabulary knowledge were stronger in the rural group than in the urban group. Our findings highlight the importance of considering contextual settings when conceptualising the role of family factors in children’s language acquisition.

Group-based identities are an important basis of political competition. Politicians consciously appeal to specific social groups, and these group-based appeals often improve the evaluation of parties and candidates. Studying place-based appeals, we advance the understanding of this strategy by distinguishing between dominant and subordinate social groups. Using two survey experiments in Germany and England, we show that group appeals improve candidate evaluation among subordinate (rural) voters. By contrast, appeals to the dominant (urban) group trigger a negative reaction. While urban citizens’ weaker local identities and lower place-based resentment partly explain this asymmetry, they mainly dislike group-based appeals because of their antagonistic nature. If the same policies are framed as benefiting urban and rural dwellers alike, candidate evaluation improves. Thus, people on the dominant side of a group divide reject a framing of politics as antagonistically structured by this divide, even if they identify with the dominant group.

There has been a decline in the rural population of India from nearly 82% to about 65% over the past six decades. The National Mental Health Survey of India (2015–2016) reported a lower prevalence of mental disorders in rural areas compared with urban ones. Mental health services in the country are skewed towards the urban areas, and more families are pushed below the poverty line while getting treatment for a member with mental illness. India has expanded its District Mental Health Programme over the past two decades, and it now covers nearly all the districts in the country. Despite that, significant numbers of people with mental disorders, ranging from 70–90%, do not receive adequate treatment. This paper discusses the rural–urban divide in the mental health services, examining the problem and need, and the initiatives taken by the government of India in this direction.

This study aimed to understand rural–urban differences in the uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations during the peak period of the national vaccination roll-out in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). Using a linked national dataset of health service users aged 12+ years and COVID-19 immunization records, age-standardized rates of vaccination uptake were calculated at fortnightly intervals, between June and December 2021, by rurality, ethnicity, and region. Rate ratios were calculated for each rurality category with the most urban areas (U1) used as the reference. Overall, rural vaccination rates lagged behind urban rates, despite early rapid rural uptake. By December 2021, a rural–urban gradient developed, with age-standardized coverage for R3 areas (most rural) at 77%, R2 81%, R1 83%, U2 85%, and U1 (most urban) 89%. Age-based assessments illustrate the rural–urban vaccination uptake gap was widest for those aged 12–44 years, with older people (65+) having broadly consistent levels of uptake regardless of rurality. Variations from national trends are observable by ethnicity. Early in the roll-out, Indigenous Māori residing in R3 areas had a higher uptake than Māori in U1, and Pacific peoples in R1 had a higher uptake than those in U1. The extent of differences in rural–urban vaccine uptake also varied by region.

This scoping review aimed to explore international evidence on the impact of Food Policy Groups (FPGs) on local food systems, in urban and rural regions of high-income countries. Peer-reviewed and grey literature were searched to identify thirty-one documents published between 2002 and 2022 providing evidence on the impact of FPGs. Activities spanned domains including increasing food equity (e.g. strengthening school meals programmes); increasing knowledge and/or demand for healthy food (e.g. food literacy programmes with children and adults); increasing food access (e.g. enhancing local food procurement); environmental sustainability (e.g. promoting low-waste food items on café menus); economic development (e.g. ensuring local businesses are not outperformed by large food distributors); and increasing food system resiliency (e.g. establishment of local produce schemes). Most FPGs reported conducting activities that positively influenced multiple food system domains and reported activities in urban areas, and to a lesser extent in rural areas. Our study highlighted a range of qualitative and quantitative evaluation strategies used to measure FPGs’ impact on local food systems. Our recommendations focus on regular and systematic evaluation and research surrounding the impact of FPG activities, to build the evidence base of their impact. Ideally, evaluation would utilise comprehensive and established tools. We recommend exploring the establishment of FPGs across more regions of high-income countries, particularly rural areas, and forming partnerships between FPGs, local government and universities to maximise implementation and evaluation of activities.

Physical activity and social interaction among rural older adults are important, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic when restrictions on physical gatherings were placed. The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain a deeper understanding of rural older adults’ experience with physical activity and social interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. An interpretative phenomenological approach was used to explore the experience of 10 older adults, 67–82 years of age, from rural communities throughout Saskatchewan. Findings revealed that many rural older adults acknowledged the health benefits of physical and social activities and experienced loneliness when COVID-19 restrictions were placed, even when living with a partner. For some, the restrictions placed on physical and social activity provided a welcome break from daily responsibilities. Rural communities, often at a disadvantage, were also perceived by participants as being protected against COVID-19. The resilience demonstrated among rural participants to persevere and adapt to their changing environment during the pandemic was evident in the findings.