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Ourselves, Our Rivals

Unsettling Communities During Rural School Consolidation

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Interdisciplinary Unsettlings of Place and Space

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Abstract

This chapter examines the hidden transcripts (Scott in Domination and the arts of resistance: hidden transcripts. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1990) which emerged after the attempted school consolidation of two communities in the rural USA following the Great Recession of 2008. Exploring the official school documents, media reporting, and online conversation, patterns emerged demonstrating a miss alignment between the official story supporting consolidation and a ‘hidden transcript’ in opposition. Using case study (Yin in Case study research and applications. Sage, New York, 2012) analysis to tell this one consolidation outcome allows researchers to hear voices not normally represented in rural areas. This chapter explores how resistance to consolidation emerged and how rural areas, continuously engaged in consolidation studies, are unsettled and therefore lose cohesion.

With deep emotional commitment, believers define themselves by their organizational affiliation, and in their bond to other believers they share an intense sense of the unique. (Clark 1972, p. 183)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State University of New York, Albany, USA

    Casey Thomas Jakubowski

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  1. Casey Thomas Jakubowski
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Correspondence to Casey Thomas Jakubowski .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Deakin University, Burwood, VIC, Australia

    Sarah Pinto

  2. Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

    Shelley Hannigan

  3. Deakin University, Burwood, VIC, Australia

    Bernadette Walker-Gibbs

  4. Deakin University, Warrnambool, VIC, Australia

    Emma Charlton

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Jakubowski, C.T. (2019). Ourselves, Our Rivals. In: Pinto, S., Hannigan, S., Walker-Gibbs, B., Charlton, E. (eds) Interdisciplinary Unsettlings of Place and Space. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6729-8_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6729-8_7

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-6728-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-6729-8

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