Oregon Humanities Community Conversation: Urban-Rural Divides

Understanding Urban/Rural Divides with Nick Nash

Program description:mWe live in a time of increasing polarization that often correlates to divides between urban and rural regions in our state. This polarization is so extreme that it often seems like the two sides may have completely different experiences of the world. Join facilitator Nick Nash in a conversation that asks, How does the urban/rural divide affect the ways we relate to each other as Oregonians? What is the urban/rural divide, and how do we understand it? How does this divide affect our day-to-day lives, our experiences of being governed, and of the COVID-19 pandemic? This conversation is a chance to reflect on the beliefs we have about our urban or rural neighbors with a focus on discovering and abandoning misbeliefs, investigating and learning about the real differences between the urban and the rural, and trying to find things that we all share as Oregonians.

Facilitator: Nick Nash lives in Pendleton, where he teaches philosophy at Blue Mountain Community College and works as a community development consultant for Eastern Oregon Business Source. He and his wife, Rachel, moved back to northeastern Oregon after living outside the area for fifteen years.