RAPID: Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Rural Attitudes about Federal Aid and Recovery

新冠肺炎疫情的规模要求联邦政府采取历史性行动来遏制社会和经济后果，超过2.2万亿美元的联邦救援计划就证明了这一点。这些和其他联邦政府对美国经济和社会的干预代表着政府角色的潜在转变。然而，在美国的许多农村地区，公众对联邦计划的反对在历史上是强烈的。鉴于疫情的严重性，这场危机将如何影响农村地区对联邦援助计划和政府在社会中的角色的长期态度？此外，公众对农村社区联邦援助的态度将如何影响分配多少援助，采取什么形式，以及农村社区如何接受援助？这个项目考察了新冠肺炎疫情对公众对联邦援助的态度以及政府在美国农村社区中所扮演的角色的影响。该项目的发现将对各级政府领导人有用，因为他们正在与社区合作，分发援助以促进恢复。因此，这些发现也将对未来大流行或其他极端事件背景下的领导人有用，从而促进美国的安全和保障。新冠肺炎疫情迫使我们对联邦救援项目进行历史性的投资，但在美国的农村地区，此类项目往往遭到负面评价。该项目将通过对美国西部11个州(亚利桑那州、加利福尼亚州、科罗拉多州、爱达荷州、蒙大拿州、内华达州、新墨西哥州、俄勒冈州、犹他州、华盛顿州、怀俄明州)的农村社区居民进行新的两波代表性调查来解决这一问题。每一波调查将由1,200名受访者组成，并将由专业调查公司通过电话和在线调查相结合的方式进行。第一波将在大流行期间立即进行，第二波将在2021年春季进行。调查还将对33名政府工作人员、民选官员和非政府组织领导人进行33次半结构化采访(每个州三次)，这些采访都基于调查中抽样的县。这些访谈将增加来自农村社区的信息，并将提供社区如何受到大流行影响的宏观图景。该项目的发现将为社会学理论提供有关极端事件背景下社会意识形态变化的信息，以及解释政治和道德认同的理论。此外，该项目整合了与迄今为止截然不同的文献相关的发现和概念，一个涉及农村社会学，另一个涉及灾害研究。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The scale of the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated historic action by the federal government to stem social and economic fallout, as demonstrated by federal relief programs exceeding $2.2 trillion. These and other federal interventions in the U.S. economy and society represent a potential shift in the role of government. Yet public opposition to federal programs is historically strong in many rural areas of the country. Given the magnitude of the pandemic, how will this crisis affect long standing attitudes towards federal aid programs and the role of government in society in rural areas? Furthermore, how will public attitudes towards federal aid in rural communities shape how much aid is allocated, what form it takes, and how it is received by rural communities? This project examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public attitudes towards federal aid and the role of government in rural U.S. communities. Findings from the project will be useful to leaders at several levels of government as they work with their communities to distribute aid to facilitate recovery. As such, the findings will also be useful to leaders within the context of future pandemics or other extreme events, thus promoting U.S. safety and security. The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated historic investment in federal relief programs, and yet such programs have often been viewed negatively in rural areas of the country. This project will address this development through a new two-wave representative survey of residents in rural communities across eleven states in the western United States (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming). Each wave will consist of 1,200 respondents and will be conducted through a mix of telephone and online outreach by a professional survey firm. The first wave will be conducted immediately, in the midst of the pandemic, and the second wave in spring 2021. The survey will be supplemented with 33 semi-structured interviews (three per state) with government staff, elected officials, and NGO leaders, all based in counties sampled through the survey. These interviews will augment information from rural communities and will provide a macro-level picture of how communities have been impacted by the pandemic. Findings from the project will inform sociological theories related to changes in social ideology in the context of extreme events, as well as theories explaining political and moral identities. In addition, the project integrates findings and concepts related to heretofore largely distinct literatures, one involving rural sociology and the other involving disaster research.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.