This book examines the current and future state of rural education in North America through the lens of Franco Berardi's Futurability. Through critical examination of examples and current trends towards corporatization and privatization of rural education, the volume highlights how future possibilities and social imagination in rural spaces has been limited by neoliberal forces, capitalist interests, and workforce education. Cervone demonstrates how Berardi's concept of creating future can be embraced to foster critical thought, challenge injustices, and open opportunity. With this line of analysis, the book ultimately supports an ethos of a return to education for the common good. Bringing an important perspective to the field of rural education scholarship, this work will be of interest to scholars and researchers in sociology of education and education policy.

This book presents a critical analysis of the anti-democratic and pro-authoritarian ideologies that exist in rural communities in the United States. The author book also explores and recontextualizes existing research in rural education within this anti-democratic framework, as well as theorizing the consequences of this ideology as it takes place in the rural United States, specifically in regards to the physical and ideological shaping of rural communities to meet the needs of capitalist accumulation. Finally, it discusses the ways rural youth can reclaim the public sphere within their communities through critical education.