Social Landscapes of the Inter‐Mountain West: A Comparison of ‘Old West’ and ‘New West’ Communities*

Abstract

Rural communities have experienced dramatic demographic, social, and economic transformations over the past 30 years. Historically characterized by close links between natural resources and social, cultural, and economic structures, few of today's rural communities remain heavily dependent upon traditional extractive industries like ranching, forestry, and mining. New forms of development linked to natural and cultural amenities, including tourism and recreation, have evolved to sustain the link between community and resources. The Inter-Mountain West region offers an excellent example of this distinction. Many of the region's rural communities have experienced substantial population growth resulting from the inmigration of a new kind of rural resident. Their arrival, in a process some have associated with the emergence of a ''New West,'' has transformed rural places. However, amenity-related social and economic structures have not occurred uniformly across space. This paper uses factor analysis and exploratory spatial data analysis to analyze demographic characteristics related to the ''New West'' phenomena in Inter-Mountain West communities and the spatial patterns found in the degree of ''New West-ness'' that each community exhibits.Rural Sociology rsoc-72-03-06.3d 12/6/07 18:59:37 478

Amenity migration: diverse conceptualizations of drivers, socioeconomic dimensions, and emerging challenges

“…Economists focused on the so-called New West, e.g. Thomas Power and Ray Rasker, have published many articles documenting the ways in which amenity migration is contributing to the transition and revitalization of western rural economies formerly dependent on extractive industries like timber, mining, and grazing (Power 1996;Rasker and Hackman 1996;Rasker and Hansen 2000;Power and Barrett 2001;Winkler et al 2007). …”

Changing Community Variations in Perceptions and Activeness in Response to the Spruce Bark Beetle Outbreak in Alaska

“…Another major thread of comparative rural community analysis employing community as the level and unit of analysis is the construction of community typologies based on specific topics, such as resource dependence [15,50], amenity orientation [51,52], rural sanitation demand [53], community vulnerability and capacity [45,54,55], general rurality [56], and sociodemographic and economic changes [16,57,58]. Most of such analyses measured structural characteristics of local places with data available from public sources (e.g., census and statistical bureaus) and used multivariate statistical techniques (especially factor analysis and cluster analysis) to differentiate community types.…”

“…Recent comparative community studies on environmental or natural resource-related problems generally focused on rural communities with intimate ties to natural resources, or the so-called resource-based or resource-dependent communities (e.g., [12][13][14][15][16]). These communities are often particularly vulnerable to the attendant social and environmental impacts of various natural disasters such as droughts, floods, and wildfires.…”

The economic importance of air travel in high-amenity rural areas

“…However, the West may have an additional advantage not readily found elsewhere in the world. One of the comparative advantages of the West is its high quality of life, particularly in the form of the environmental and recreational amenities provided by public lands, with vast stretches of wild country, many of them protected as National Parks and wilderness areas (Winkler et al, 2007;Nelson, 2006;Lorah and Southwick, 2003;Duffy-Deno, 1998;). Workers in occupations that are flexible in where they can live, in law, finance, insurance, real estate, business, health, and engineering, for example, are attracted to the West in large part because of its amenities (Johnson and Rasker, 1995;Gude et al, 2006).…”

“…Telecommunications have held some promise, making it possible for business owners to live in remote, picturesque parts of the rural West, even though the clients and factory floor may be at opposite ends of the world (Beyers et al, 1995;McGranahan and Wojan, 2007). Winkler et al (2007) point out that public lands of the West, with rivers, lakes, mountains and recreational opportunities, serve as an attractive backdrop that has transformed the economy from dependence on resource extractive industries to one that has seen growth from in-migration, tourism, and modern economy sectors such as finance, insurance and real estate. Rudzitis (1999Rudzitis ( , 1996 has shown empirically that the environmental qualities of the rural West play a key role in creating a sense of place and serve as a primary motivation for migrants.…”