Atwater Commons Faculty Head
Office: Allen 154
Phone: (802) 443 - 3311
Research Areas:
• Rural restructuring in the United States
• Intersections of economy and culture
• Domestic migration
Courses taught at Middlebury College:
GEOG 0100 Place and Society: Local to Global
GEOG 0211 The Global Economy
GEOG 0212 Urban Geography
GEOG 0213 Population Geography
GEOG 0216 Rural Geography
GEOG 0320 Geographic Information Systems
GEOG 0339 Practicing Human Geography
GEOG 0413 Seminar in Population Geography
GEOG 0416 Geographic Explorations of the 'Global-Rural'
Selected Publications:
Articles and books
Nelson, P. 2005. Migration and the Spatial Redistribution of Nonearnings Income in the United States: Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Perspectives from 1975-2000. Environment and Planning A 37, 1613-1636.
Nelson, Peter B., James Nicholson, E. Hope Stege. 2004. The Baby Boom and Nonmetropolitan Population Change, 1970-1990. Growth and Change 24 (4), 526-544.
Nelson, Peter B. and Adam Sewall. 2003. Regional comparisons of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan migration in the 1970s and 1980s: age and place implications. The Professional Geographer 55 (1), 83-99.
Nelson, Peter B. (Forthcoming). Perceptions of restructuring in the Nonmetropolitan West: insights from the cultural turn. Society and Natural Resources.
Nelson, Peter B. 2001. Rural restructuring in the American West: land use, family, and class discourses. Journal of Rural Studies 17 (4): 395-407.
Beyers, William B. and Peter B. Nelson. 2000. Contemporary development forces in the nonmetropolitan west: new insights from rapidly growing communities. Journal of Rural Studies 16: 459-474.
Beyers, William B. and Peter B. Nelson. 1999. Service industries and employment growth in the nonmetropolitan South: A geographical perspective. Southern Rural Sociology 15: 139-169.
Nelson, Peter B. 1999. Quality of Life, Nontraditional Income, and Economic Growth: New Development Opportunities for Nonmetro Economies. Rural Development Perspectives 14 (2): 32-37.
Nelson, Peter B. 1999. Hegemony and the Rural: Economic and Cultural Perspectives on Restructuring in the 1900s. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle.
Beyers, William B. and Peter B. Nelson. 1998. Using Economic Base Models to Explain New Trends in Rural Income. Growth and Change 29: 321-344.
Nelson, Peter B. 1997. Migration, Sources of Income, and Community Change in the Nonmetropolitan Northwest. The Professional Geographer 49: 418-430.
Nelson, Peter B. 1996. The What and Why behind the West at War: An Empirical and Theoretical Comparison of Newcomers and Oldtimers in the Nonmetropolitan Northwest. Masters Thesis, University of Washington, Seattle.
Book chapters and other published reports
Nelson, Peter B. 2006. Geographic perspectives on amenity migration across the United States: national, regional, and local perspectives. In The Amenity Migrants: seeking and sustaining mountains and their cultures, ed. Lawrence Moss. Wallingford, UK: CABI Press.
Nelson, Peter B. and Alexander Vias. 2005. Changing Rural Livelihoods. In The Population of Rural America: Demographic Research for a New Century, eds. David Brown and William Kandel, 75-102. New York: Kluwer.
Nelson, Peter B. 2004. Nonearnings income migration in the United States: anticipating the geographic impact of baby boom retirement. Center for Retirement Research, Boston College. Summary report for Sandell Retirement Research Grant.
Beyers, William B. and Peter B. Nelson. 1998. The Economic Impact of High Technology Industries in the Washington State Economy. The Technology Alliance, Seattle, Washington. Available at http://www.technology-alliance.com/documents/economic_impact_1997.pdf
Book reviews
Community on Land: Community, Ecology, and the Public Interest, by Janel Curry and Steven McGuire. In Society and Natural Resources 17(8): 753-755. 2004.
Migration and Restructuring in the United States: A Geographic Perspective, edited by Kavita Pandit and Suzanne Davies Withers. In Urban Studies 38(10): 1870-1873. 2001.
Small Town and Rural Economic Development: A Case Studies Approach, edited by Peter Schaeffer and Scott Loveridge. In Journal of Regional Studies. 2001.
Rural Restructuring: Global Processes and Their Response. ed. T. Marsden, P. Lowe, and S. Whatmore. in Growth and Change 29: 236-241, Spring 1998.