Bust Amidst the Boom: The Creation of New Insecurities and Inequalities within Pennsylvania’s Shale Gas Boomtowns Kai Schafft, Pennsylvania State University
Kai Schafft is an Associate Professor of Education in the
College of Education at Pennsylvania State University and the
director of Penn State’s Center on Rural Education and
Communities. Trained as a rural sociologist, his work focuses
broadly on the intersection between social inequality and spatial
inequality. His major areas of research include the
interrelationship between rural poverty and student transiency,
contexts for rural youth development, farm-to-school program
implementation, and rural health outcomes.
In November 2014, the Center hosted the conference “Poverty and
Place,” which focused on the implications of geography and
population density have for poverty. This conference brought
together a unique mix of researchers, policy professionals and
industry leaders to discuss their work studying the people,
geography, and the safety net as it relates to persistent
poverty.
