Sense of Place and Perceived Impacts in the Rural Industrialized Nexus: Insights for Sustainability Pathways

As representative of the water-energy-food nexus, fossil fuel development and industrial agriculture are rural industries that continue to expand and increasingly occur in the same areas. Being a top agricultural export county and the fossil fuel capital of California while ranking among the worst in the US for industrial pollution, Kern County is a poster child of rural nexus development and, thus, an essential place for initiating sustainability transitions. Such transitions rely on policy support and the adoption of methods by individuals and communities who may disagree with such changes. While sense of place and impact perceptions are recognized as playing critical roles in sustainability management, they have yet to be utilized in nexus research. A survey (N = 256) of the perceived impacts of nexus industries with place meaning and place attachment as possible drivers for perceptions was conducted in nexus industry pollution exposure risk zones. Factor analysis and bivariate correlations showed that place meaning and place attachment are drivers for perceptions while also being drivers for concern for changes in nexus industries. While perceptions of impacts indicated contested place meanings, participants strongly perceive the economy and environment as being in decline. To build support for sustainability policy, directing funds from Kern County’s renewable energy industry to local sectors of society, implementation of regenerative agriculture, cooperative management, and nurturing place meaning as aligned with nature’s restorative quality are important paths forward. These nexus management foci could strengthen place attachment, build trust in government, and repair environmental alienation.