Listening to Rural Voices: Understanding and Mitigating Rural Resentment through a Citizen Council in a Real-World Experimental Study

Rural resentment - the perception that one’s region and its inhabitants are being treated unfairly by urban citizens and elites - has become a crucial factor in understanding the geography of discontent in Western democracies. While there is an increasing body of research comparing municipalities within countries at the meso level, less is known about the foundations of rural resentment at the micro level, particularly in terms of how resentment can be mitigated. To address this gap, we examine three key questions: (i) what subjective and objective factors contribute to rural resentment within a rural municipality, and (ii) can local participatory measures, such as a citizen council, reduce resentment, and if so, (iii) for which individuals? We answer these questions using data from a real-world experiment in a German rural municipality, where a local citizen council deliberates on the future of a community-owned building. We analyze whether rural resentment varies within this rural place based on subjective attachment and objective peripherality and deprivation. In addition, we examine whether contact with the local citizen council reduces resentment and identify heterogeneous effects conditional on place attachment and contact intensity. We argue that by involvement in the citizen council, individuals in rural municipalities feel heard and better taken care of by authorities. This research offers new insights into the social underpinnings of rural resentment and the potential for local participatory measures to mitigate such tensions.