Rural critical policy analysis (RCPA) goes beyond questions about whether a policy will "work" in a particular place, to examine the impact of policies on rural places. RCPA recognizes that policies represent the allocation of values--and that policy analysis cannot be separated from views of right and wrong. RCPA asks us to consider policies from a position of advocating for people who have often been disenfranchised or disempowered by policy. This means recognizing two things about rural policy--(1) that for centuries, policies have positioned places as in service to urban places--a perspective that assumes that rural places exist to provide urban centers with resources that can be harvested or mined (food, forests, energy, recreation opportunities) and; (2) accompanying this metrocentric belief is often an assumption that rural places are deficit or deficient--lacking in resources, out of step with the "modern" world, and unable to care for themselves. Devon Brenner examines RCPA which moves beyond what works and, instead, asks for whom while examining geographies alongside race, class, gender, and other demographics.