Staying in Place: Federalism and the Political Economy of Place Attachment

Abstract

A growing number of scholars have documented how social identities defined by an attachment to place influence individuals’ understandings about political power and representation. Drawing on this theoretical framework, we explore how place-based identities matter for American federalism by documenting how attachments to the American states alter individuals’ decisions to leave, or exit, as well as to welcome newcomers into their local communities. Using a set of conjoint experiments designed to measure individual attitudes about place, politics, and America’s federal polity, we find evidence that Americans hold deep and consequential attitudes about the places in which they live. Our evidence confirms that state identities are still highly relevant in shaping American federalism and the competitive pressures between intergovernmental jurisdictions. While federalism may encourage individuals to leave, federalism also nourishes place-specific attachments, motivating people to stay.

Rural Identity as a Contributing Factor to Anti-Intellectualism in the U.S.

“…Effective political appeals to certain groups also point to the existence of a social identity group; Jacobs and Munis ( 2019 ) find that rural imagery and rural-based appeals change average candidate evaluations for rural respondents. Another study finds that federalism encourages place-based attachments and social identification (Jacobs & Munis, 2020 ). Work by Cramer ( 2012 , 2016 ) argues that rural residents in Wisconsin feel looked down on and forgotten by people from other parts of society, particularly those in the urban centers of the state.…”

The cultural dynamics of declining residential mobility.

“…This fear of one’s fellow Americans, and sense that they simply do not share the same values, has at least some analogue in the way that they feel about where they live. The idea of breaking up the United States into smaller, more culturally-homogeneous countries is having an intellectual comeback in the 21st century (Kreitner, 2020), and research shows that there is an increasing divide between residentially static and residentially mobile in the degree that they wish to associate with people from different places (Lee et al, 2018; see also Jacobs & Munis, 2020).…”

Is Distance Really Dead in the Online World? The Moderating Role of Geographical Distance on the Effectiveness of Electronic Word of Mouth

“…We hypothesize that the negative relationship between geographical distance and eWOM effectiveness could be due to the identification processes of social media users. Specifically, a user who resides near the sender of the message is likely to share a common social identity with the sender based on their geographic proximity (Forman, Ghose, and Wiesenfeld 2008;Jacobs and Munis 2020;Newman 1972;Twigger-Ross, Bonaiuto, and Breakwell 2003) and thus might be more susceptible to WOM influence originating from this (local) sender. 6 Conversely, a recipient who resides farther away from the Notes: eWOM effectiveness analysis.…”

“…For instance, we examine the effectiveness of eWOM under conditions that strengthen the role of geographical location in the social identification process. Specifically, increased political homogeneity in the local area of the recipient of the eWOM message is likely to enhance the importance of the locationbased social identity of the recipient as it increases the salience and significance of individuals' social identity due to political entities operating at geographic levels (e.g., precinct, county, state) and the characteristics of the local information environment (e.g., increased number of times an individual is reminded of the local identity, positive perceptions of the local community) (Jacobs and Munis 2020;Roccas and Brewer 2002;Taylor, Gottfredson, and Brower 1985). As a result, a pronounced location-based social identity of the recipient is likely to engender biases based on geographical distance, accentuating the relationship.…”

“…Common social identity (between the message sender and recipient) can be used as a heuristic to make judgments and guide actions (Chaiken 1987; Chaiken and Maheswaran 1994). Thus, social identity (group identification) has a powerful influence on human behavior (e.g., Atefi et al 2018; Jenkins 2014; Shang, Reed, and Croson 2008).…”