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AbstractSocial class is a foundational sociological concept that cuts across all domains of interest within rural sociology. Structured inequity rooted in social class and its intersectionalities also was the spark that drew many rural sociologists into the discipline. This article first considers definitions of social class and provides a rationale for its being the theme for the 2016 meetings of the Rural Sociological Society in Toronto, ON. It provides a brief sketch of social class in the rural and urban United States through an analysis of data from the General Social Survey. This leads into a discussion of four dimensions of social class that rural sociologists have helped to inform and on which more research is needed. These include class as a relational concept, class and economic livelihoods, expressions of class as signifiers of success, and the consequences of class stratification. Along the way, a sampling of RSS members are given voice as they describe in their own words the spark that ignited their pursuit of our discipline.

Rural racial and ethnic minorities are among the poorest of all Americans. This article situates their plight both theoretically and empirically in the context of employment hardship. Defined by access to employment and job quality, employment hardship is more prevalent among nonmetropolitan African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans than it is among either their central city counterparts or non-Hispanic whites. The strengths and limitations of both individual-level frameworks (e.g., human capital) and macro-level theories (e.g., uneven development) in explaining the economic double jeopardy faced by rural minorities are discussed. Policy recommendations designed to ameliorate employment hardship are presented.

Since the mid-1960s, the United States has witnessed a new wave of immigration that has been characterized by dramatic increases in both the number of new arrivals entering to be reunited with kin and the flows from Asian and Latin American countries. The new immigration has given rise to concern that the United States is welcoming far too many people destined for the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. These fears run contrary to the traditional image of immigrants as being willing to make sacrifices via labor force commitment in order to prosper economically. To address these issues, this article studies immigrant-native differentials in the ability of secondary earners (family earners other than the family head) to lift families out of poverty. Using both descriptive and multivariate techniques to analyze the 1960, 1970 and 1980 U.S. Census Public Use Samples, it compares immigrant and native families among four key race groups: white, black, Hispanic and Asian. It is shown that the ameliorative impact of secondary earners is greater for immigrant than native families; that this generalization holds for whites, blacks and Hispanics but not Asians; and that the immigrant advantage in ameliorative effects vis-a-vis natives declined noticeably over the 1960–1980 period for all but Asian families. The implications of these results for the overall trend in poverty among immigrants is discussed.

Papers 1, 4 and 5 of this thesis are not available in Munin: 1. Leif Christian Jensen & Geir Hønneland: 'Framing the High North : Public Discourses in Norway after 2000', Acta Borealia (2011), vol.28, no.1:37-54. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08003831.2011.575659 4. Leif Christian Jensen: 'Seduced and surrounded by security : a post-structuralist take on Norwegian High North securitizing discourses', Cooperation and Conflict (2012), Online before print. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0010836712461482 5. Leif Christian Jensen: 'Norwegian petroleum extraction in Arctic waters to save the environment: introducing 'discourse co-optation' as a new analytical term', Critical Discourse Studies (2012), vol.9, no.1:29–38. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2011.632138 ; The objective of this thesis is essentially to understand better how the High North initiative has been framed and construed in official and public discourse in Norway. To this end, the dissertation consists of five articles which deal with different aspects of this initiative from thematically different angles, and different sources of data depending on whether public or official discourses are under scrutiny, but from the same theoretical and methodological perspective.An important concern in this thesis has been to explore and reveal the limits that determine which opinions, accounts of reality and future prospects are deemed 'legitimate' and possible to entertain. What is 'selected' to be included, and what excluded, given prevailing Norwegian conceptions of the High North? What is assumed as given and what is indexed as problematic? The point here is not necessarily what causes divisions and dissension. It might be more relevant to identify what is allowed to stand uncontested, unquestioned and taken as an indisputable premise for the ensuing discussion – and for political decision-making. A key point of departure for this project in particular and discourse analysis more generally is that discourses are involved in determining actual behaviour by narrowing the definition of what counts as acceptable actions and utterances in society at a given point in time. Against this background, discourses can shed light on political practice by defining the scope for action and which options are taken as politically feasible.

Combining elements of the Copenhagen school's securitization theory with a Foucauldian discourse analysis, this article examines certain discursive processes that emerged in the wake of Norway's 2005 High North Initiative. The Norwegian government's explicit politicization of energy issues appears to have acted as door opener, letting 'security' in to colonize the High North discourses once more. Russia is again firmly positioned as the 'radical other', leaving the discursive field open to various forms of securitizing discourses. The post-2005 discursive field of the Northern areas is, in many ways, more open-ended, complex and confusing than ever. The opening up and expansion of the concept of High North security means that 'everything' is seen as having a security potential. What does seem clear is the increasing presence of security in primary texts and the media debate: entry to and credibility in the discourse depends on 'security speak' across an ever-widening array of thematic contexts. The article also argues that a combination of securitization theory and discourse analysis seems a fruitful way forward in shifting more focus towards the active and important role of the audience in securitizing processes. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright NISA.]