Global Reflections on Positionality in Rural Access to Justice Research

This book offers a unique look at rural access to justice through a series of personal and professional reflections by leading scholars in the field. Engaging a position sensibility, it explores how our identities, class backgrounds, and professional privileges shape research and writing, and, correspondingly, how there can be no one size fits all approach to rural place and justice. Access to justice is a growing field of research, but interest in rural access to justice remains relatively rare. This presents a critical absence, for not only do rural regions have disproportionately large justice gaps, but they also present unique opportunities for innovation and policy development. Further, research in rural areas often looks and feels very different than in more familiar urban settings. To address these gaps, the book presents an honest, reflexive accounting of what has been done, why, and whats next to dismantle academic barriers and promote meaningful research on rural access to justice. The book provides a direct examination of the rural experience and is grounded in a specific contextual understanding of law. It is intended to inspire readers to incorporate rural perspectives in their legal studies; drawing out the relevance for deepening existing work and offering encouragement for pursuing new directions. It will also encourage readers to consider their own place in their scholarship, including whether and how their positionality might impact on their approach to rural access to justice.