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Pushed Out: Contested Development and Rural Gentrification in the US West Kindle Edition

by Ryanne Pilgeram (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
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A small town weighs the economic compromises of growth in the Rocky Mountain West

What happens to rural communities when their traditional economic base collapses? When new money comes in, who gets left behind? Pushed Out offers a rich portrait of Dover, Idaho, whose transformation from “thriving timber mill town” to “economically depressed small town” to “trendy second-home location” over the past four decades embodies the story and challenges of many other rural communities.

Sociologist Ryanne Pilgeram explores the structural forces driving rural gentrification and examines how social and environmental inequality are written onto these landscapes. Based on in-depth interviews and archival data, she grounds this highly readable ethnography in a long view of the region that takes account of geological history, settler colonialism, and histories of power and exploitation within capitalism. Pilgeram’s analysis reveals the processes and mechanisms that make such communities vulnerable to gentrification and points the way to a radical justice that prioritizes the economic, social, and environmental sustainability necessary to restore these communities.

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  1. Print length
    210 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    University of Washington Press
  5. Publication date
    May 11, 2021
  6. File size
    9144 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fascinating and well-documented case study of rural gentrification in the amenity West."―William Wyckoff, author of How to Read the American West: A Field Guide

"A great read. Makes articulate and compelling points about capitalist expansion, social inequality, and the misplaced goals of the US environmental movement."―Jennifer Sherman, author of Dividing Paradise: Rural Inequality and the Diminishing American Dream

"Few people understand the textures of rural Idaho the way Ryanne Pilgeram does ― or writes about them in a way that's this accessible, sharp, and clear-eyed. If we want to understand the fear, love, loyalty, and anger that undergirds rural life today, one place to begin is with Dover, a town whose past and present comes alive in Pilgeram's writing. Pushed Out is a case study, but it is also a celebration, a history, a requiem ― and above else, a masterwork."―Anne Helen Petersen, Buzzfeed

"The book...combines narrative storytelling, historical research and sociological theory to paint a complete and compelling picture."―Sandpoint Reader

"In clean and engaging prose, Pilgeram describes the heartache of a disenfranchised population, while also delivering a tough scholarly analysis."―Bookmonger

"Through extensive interviews and archival work, this sociological study draws on the descriptive power of ethnographic writing to trace the path of rural development in an engaging and accessible book."―Choice

"[I]t speaks to urgent changes in the contemporary West...the book's closing reminder that we can imagine, and enact, different futures is a hopeful and necessary one."―Western American Literature

"Pilgeram's work constitutes an excellent intervention into the problems associated with rural gentrification."―Contemporary Sociology

"Pilgeram's book is a thoroughly engaging, well researched, and important exploration of a type of gentrification often ignored and misunderstood in the broader social discussion of displacement."―Growth and Change

About the Author

Ryanne Pilgeram is associate professor of sociology at the University of Idaho.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B092RH4K1K
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Washington Press (May 11, 2021)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 11, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 9144 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 210 pages
  • Customer Reviews:

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
23 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the content insightful, entertaining, and written in a clear, straightforward style. They also say it's written to academic standards.

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ContentReadability
4 customers mention "Content"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book insightful, entertaining, and excellent for academic and casual readers. They also say the author does an excellent job introducing Dover, Idaho, and conveying exactly what new.

"...story of why western communities are vulnerable to gentrification is insightful and supported by research...." Read more

"Pilgeram does an excellent job of introducing you to Dover, Idaho, and conveying exactly what new developments have meant for the community...." Read more

"This book is easy to read, entertaining, and so very insightful...." Read more

"Astute, timely and relevant..." Read more

3 customers mention "Readability"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book clear, straightforward, and academic.

"This book, while up to to academic standards, is written in a clear, straightforward style and well-defined language accessible anyone in possession..." Read more

"...Her writing style is accessible and easy to follow, allowing you to sink into the story and not get caught up in what a word means...." Read more

"This book is easy to read, entertaining, and so very insightful...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Gracetta
5.0 out of 5 stars Astute, timely and relevant
Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2022
Verified Purchase
This book, while up to to academic standards, is written in a clear, straightforward style and well-defined language accessible anyone in possession of a brain and a conscience. It pulls together all the relevant threads of history, economics, politics, social relations and sense of place within the framework of capitalism, and reveals how the ruthlessness that is the nature of that system has determined the fate, not just of one small Idaho town and its residents, but the rural West overall. Even if the tiny town of Dover is not near you (as it is to me), much of this story is likely to be recognizable, as it is playing out again and again in the small towns that began as outposts of resource extraction and capital accumulation, were left to rot as these industries wound down and decamped, and ripe for the picking by the next round of capitalist opportunism. The question of who benefits, and who gets left out in the cold, is clearly answered in this timely book.
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T. Olson
5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read book if you live anywhere in the Western US
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2022
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Nothing about the circumstances of Dover, ID will be a surprise to anyone living in the rural west. Railroad camp gives way to logging town gives way to amenity migration as urban land values skyrocketed and people started investing in second homes near recreational and natural amenities. The story of why western communities are vulnerable to gentrification is insightful and supported by research. It is a cautionary tale for western communities who might be thinking that more development will mean better economic circumstances. A must read for anyone interested in economic development and the survival of rural communities.
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Zoe Ketola
5.0 out of 5 stars A great read about what gentrification does to small communities
Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2022
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Pilgeram does an excellent job of introducing you to Dover, Idaho, and conveying exactly what new developments have meant for the community. Her writing style is accessible and easy to follow, allowing you to sink into the story and not get caught up in what a word means. As I read, I couldn't help but see similarities to my hometown, where the wrath of bygone industry and new development also left its toll.
While I read this for a class, I think it's an excellent read for the academic and casual reader alike. I recommend it to my friends and family when they're looking for a relevant, nonfiction piece.

*My initial copy of this book was missing a handful of pages. While Amazon replaced it, the author and production manager also reached out to me directly to offer a replacement copy which I really appreciated.
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Mamma
5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for small town Americans
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2022
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This book is easy to read, entertaining, and so very insightful. A must-read for anyone concerned about small town America and allowing your children and grandchildren to live the American dream.
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KandiJ
5.0 out of 5 stars Best small town book
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2021
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This book details what happens to a small town when runaway growth and greed take over.
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Amy Renfro
5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and Well Researched
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2022
This book serves as a wake-up call to small rural communities in the west and provokes consideration of how capitalism fails to support those communities- or the residents who unwittingly allow rural gentrification at their own expense. Highly recommended.
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Pat Loughery
5.0 out of 5 stars FASCINATING look at rural gentrification, capitalism and "progress" in America's towns
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2021
I picked out this book after hearing a strong recommendation from author Anne Helen Petersen, who writes brilliantly about smaller cities, economic change and the people that are not in teh economic limelight.

Ryanne Pilgeram writes an anthropology of rural gentrification, using as her example the small town of Dover, Idaho - a few miles away from Sandpoint, where I spent many years as a youth.

In comparison to other critiques of gentrification, Pilgeram looks at the systems and economic forces that drive economic change, and how the people are impacted. She critiques capitalism, and particularly seeing that capitalism must expand geographically to strive, or destroy spaces and people and shift the target of profit.

Dover had been a fishing site for the Kalispel people before the American expansion. As America expanded westward, land and resources were granted to oligarchs like the railroad companies, who then used "their" land to extract profit from the timber resources in areas like Dover. Dover became a wood mill to process the timber and timber products. But as the timber industry processed all that could be processed, Dover's mill shut down, and the people working it were unemployed. The area then shifted to a site for recreation-based tourism, and became a site for second homes and retirement homes.

I saw this happen in the area of rural Montana that I grew up in, and in Sandpoint, and in Dover. I've seen it happen in the town that I live in now. I've never read a more grounded, fascinating, or TRUE exploration of the economic processes that have changed America and Americans.

HIGHLY recommended and well worth time to read.
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charlie's dad
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting thesis
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2022
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The author looks at her old almost hometown wistfully wishing for a return to the good old days. I’ve heard others yearn for the same from Key West to Bozeman Montana. I agree with the author that capitalism chews and spits out a community after it has taken everything. Historian K Ross Toole wrote about it in his great book Rape of the Great Plains. Yet no one has a solution. If there is a solution. Sometimes the old towns were worse than the new replacement. Livingston MT is a much better place now than 50 years ago when the railroad ran the town exposing workers to asbestos and the old knock down drag out fights in most neighborhoods. It’s now a better tier even though the high wage jobs are gone.
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