Salmonella is a leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States, yet rural–urban differences in incidence and their underlying drivers remain poorly characterized. We conducted an ecological analysis of deidentified probable and confirmed Salmonella cases from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS), 2011–2023, to evaluate temporal, regional, and population-level determinants of Salmonella incidence. Multivariable negative binomial models assessed rural–urban differences nationally and by U.S. Census region, and Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition quantified contributions of demographic, socioeconomic, healthcare access, and health-related factors. Age-adjusted incidence was consistently higher in rural than in urban counties. After adjustment, rural counties had higher incidence nationally and separately in all four regions (Northeast, Midwest, West, and South). County-level factors explained 66% of the national rural–urban gap, driven primarily by age structure, income, education, and food environment. Adults aged ≥65 years accounted for approximately 60% of the explained difference and were the dominant contributor in some regions. Regional variation was evident, with age predominating in the Midwest and West and education contributing more in the Northeast and South. A substantial unexplained component remained. These findings highlight persistent, regionally heterogeneous disparities and underscore the need for targeted, region-specific surveillance and prevention strategies.

In this paper, I trace the social life of law as it shapes—and is shaped by—quotidian motoring practices in urban India. While laws, rules, and codes that regulate humans and vehicles exist on paper, scholarship on how motorists and state actors understand, interpret, and enact these laws is still scant. In the backdrop of a continued public discourse around road safety, rule-disobedience, infrastructural aspirations, and class inequality in the country, how does law mediate driving (and riding, henceforth) in cities? Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, this paper analyses how motorists make sense of traffic law enforcement (with particular focus on speeding) and how these interpretations orient motorists vis-à-vis the everyday state and the city. The material, structural and infrastructural conditions of driving, I ultimately argue, produce situational and contingent relationships to traffic laws and to the state.

Scholars have shown that restrictive zoning is correlated with racial segregation, but we lack an understanding of why this occurs. I argue that the link operates through the clustering of housing costs generated by land use regulations. Using an agent-based model, I find that restrictive zoning produces racial segregation, but only when residents have homophilic preferences and unequal wealth. Then using a novel dataset of parcel-level zoning codes, I show neighborhoods that are restrictively zoned have higher home values, are less diverse, wealthier, and have more homeowners. Finally, I show that cities vary in the degree to which zoning regulations are geographically clustered. Collectively, these results indicate that land use regulations contribute to the maintenance of racial segregation across neighborhoods.

Are rural residents more likely to volunteer than those living in urban places? Although early sociological theory posited that rural residents were more likely to experience social bonds connecting them to their community, increasing their odds of volunteer engagement, empirical support is limited. Drawing upon the full population of rural and urban respondents to the United States Census Bureau’s current population survey volunteering supplement (2002–2015), we found that rural respondents are more likely to report volunteering compared to urban respondents, although these differences are decreasing over time. Moreover, we found that propensities for rural and urban volunteerism vary based on differences in both individual and place-based characteristics; further, the size of these effects differs across rural and urban places. These findings have important implications for theory and empirical analysis.

This paper examines the life trajectories, social contexts and living conditions of women of uncertain status in post-slavery, colonial-era Tabora, with a focus on those involved in the production and consumption of beer. It thereby searches insights into the aftermath of slavery in this region, particularly for women. It reflects on the persistent social unease surrounding slavery and its aftermath, and on the way it shapes and limits sources, arguing that a focus on post-slavery is nevertheless productive. Set in context, brewers’ life stories provide a vivid illustration of a competitive urban environment, the chances for self-emancipation that it offered, and the concomitant challenges and dangers. They thereby also enable fresh insight into the social history of alcohol and of urban women in colonial Africa. We find evidence of more successful brewing careers than existing studies would predict, but also of very stark vulnerability and persistent quests for safety in family networks. This spread of outcomes highlights the contingent nature of emancipation and the endlessly varied ways in which social constraints and personal motivations combined in individual lives.

The domination and exploitation inherent to colonialism entailed casting Africans as violators of European standards, expectations, and even aspirations. This article identifies messaging which permeated the everyday experiences of African wage earners by locating the ways in which employers embedded their understanding of Africans as potential violators into the employment relationship. It examines the records of the Tribunal de Première Instance in Dakar, Senegal, during the decades of high colonialism to reveal the nature of that dynamic, exploring implicit expectations among employers regarding their employees, particularly related to allegations of theft or abandonment of work brought against workers. Analysis of such cases particularly highlights domestic workers, who were overwhelmingly male. The interactions and claims in the justice records reveal clear constructions of violation within the attitudes and actions of non-African employers in colonial Dakar and present the court as a venue for perpetuating that rhetoric.

It is often assumed that the rural identity is linked to the Republican Party and the urban identity to the Democratic Party, but little scholarship has investigated how voters connect thiese identities to the parties in an electoral context and how that perception may influence their electoral preferences. Furthermore, recent elections have seen various political elites employ rural and Evangelical Christian identity labels in virtually synonymous ways in their association with the Republican Party. But are these partisan stereotypes really how Americans perceive these candidate identities? Utilizing a novel survey experiment, we find important distinctions between religious and place-based candidate cues. Our results show the enduring power of religion in partisan politics and suggest America’s urban-rural divide may be asymmetric in the minds of voters. These findings are subsequently meaningful for the study of religion’s place in America’s growing array of politicized social identities.

Loneliness is a major health concern for immigrant older adults. This study explores social influences on loneliness in neighbourhoods among immigrant older adults across five major urban centres in Ontario and Alberta, Canada. Data were collected from 435 older immigrants who participated in the Inclusive Communities for Older Immigrants (ICOI) Project. Data were analysed using multiple linear regression (MLR) to identify the influences of neighbourhood factors, family support, duration of residency in Canada, English proficiency, and gender. Results indicate that increased engagement in ethnic enclaves, not being reliant on transportation for social interactions, and perceptions of neighbourhood cohesion are associated with a significant reduction in loneliness. These associations remain significant after accounting for family support and language proficiency. This calls for further research into the interconnections among interpersonal factors, neighbourhood-level factors, and family and community-level support to address key influences on loneliness in this population.