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Excerpts from Qualitative Studies Hollowing Out the Middle, a new book by Network co-members Maria Kefalas and Patrick Carr, based on their work in Iowa, is due out from Beacon Books in Fall 2009.See a book trailer video clip here Excerpt from: Straight from the Heartland: Coming of Age in Ellis,
Iowa Ellis, Iowa (all names are fictional to protect identity), is located in the northeastern part of the state. Ellis, population 2000, has the look and feel of a farming community with its roots deep in the land. But farming communities like Ellis are not exactly what they seem, given that few people in the area still farm. The median age in Ellis is steadily approaching 50. In search of bigger cities, hipper crowds and warmer weather, educated young people are fleeing their small towns in such numbers that demographers predict that many rural areas will face a drastic labor shortages within two decades. One of the most dramatic examples of the this trend is state of Iowa, where between 1995 and 2000, the state lost 22% of its single, college-educated population. The Iowa site included 104 young people who graduated from high school between 1986 and 1988 and between 1991 and 1993. The story that emerged was one of five groups of youth: leavers seekers, leaver achievers, stayers, boomerangs, and high-flying boomerangs. Leavers see opportunities beyond their small town or find they cannot resist the lure of larger cities that are more diverse and exciting. Stayers were more likely to describe “country-living” as comfortable and familiar, in contrast to the world beyond, which seemed to them overwhelming and unpredictable. For some leavers who returned, life beyond Ellis had not lived up to its promise. In other instances, personal ties and opportunities pulled them back. To the majority of respondents, leaving, staying, or returning is a decision about where one’s future lies. Others end up on their pathway after a series of smaller decisions that, on the surface, do not seem to be about leaving, staying, or returning. These minor decisions cumulatively result in the young person taking a path that will either keep them in or lead them away from Ellis. As the Network’s book, On the Frontiers of Adulthood identified,
entry into adulthood has become a more “gradual, complex, and
less uniform” process, and “the timing and sequencing of
traditional markers of adulthood—leaving home, finishing school,
starting work, and getting married, and having children—are less
predictable, more prolonged, diverse and disordered.” Yet, Ellis’ stayers
and returners continue to follow the sort of speedy trajectory from
adolescence to adulthood that characterized life half a century ago.
On average, they settle into long-term, full-time employment during
their early 20s and establish separate households, very often purchasing
their first homes by the age of 25, a time of life when young people
who have attended college may be struggling to find their first full-time
job. |