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

正如超过2.2万亿美元的联邦救济计划所证明的那样，COVID-19大流行的规模需要联邦政府采取历史性行动来遏制社会和经济后果。这些以及其他联邦政府对美国经济和社会的干预代表了政府角色的潜在转变。然而，在该国的许多农村地区，公众对联邦计划的反对一直很强烈。鉴于疫情的严重程度，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作用的长期态度？此外，公众对农村社区联邦援助的态度将如何影响援助的分配数量、形式以及农村社区如何接受援助？该项目考察了COVID-19大流行对公众对联邦援助的态度以及政府在美国农村社区中的作用的影响。该项目的调查结果将对各级政府的领导人有用，因为他们与社区合作分发援助以促进恢复。因此，研究结果也将对未来流行病或其他极端事件的领导人有用，从而促进美国的安全和保障。COVID-19大流行需要对联邦救济计划进行历史性的投资，但这些计划在该国农村地区往往被视为负面的。本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）农村社区居民进行新的两波代表性调查来解决这一问题。每一波将由1200名受访者组成，并将由专业调查公司通过电话和在线外展的方式进行。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。该调查还将补充33个半结构化访谈（每个州3个），访谈对象包括政府工作人员、民选官员和非政府组织领导人，所有访谈都是在调查抽样的县进行的。这些访谈将增加来自农村社区的信息，并从宏观层面了解社区如何受到大流行的影响。该项目的研究结果将为与极端事件背景下社会意识形态变化相关的社会学理论以及解释政治和道德身份的理论提供信息。此外，该项目整合了迄今为止主要不同文献的研究成果和概念，其中一个涉及农村社会学，另一个涉及灾害研究。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.