A CivicSpace Conversation on Rural-Urban Powerbuilding

CivicSpace, a New America Chicago initiative, presents a virtual roundtable focused on finding common ground and powerbuilding across rural and urban spaces. This discussion will explore how rural and urban communities can better understand one another and work together to address shared civic challenges. The roundtable will include a moderated dialogue followed by an opportunity for questions from the audience.

While these communities are often viewed as culturally and politically opposed, many face parallel struggles—such as underinvestment in public infrastructure, unequal access to public services, weakened democratic institutions, and exclusion from policy processes. Yet there are few spaces where rural and urban leaders can come together to explore common ground, exchange experiences, and uncover shared priorities.

Speakers:

Daniel Ash, Executive Director of the Field Foundation

Loka Ashwood, Sociologist and MacArthur Fellow

Catherine Coleman Flowers, Founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice (CREEJ) and MacArthur Fellow

Suzanne Mettler, John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University and co-author of Rural Versus Urban: The Growing Divide that Threatens Democracy