Loka Ashwood studies how the state works, often to the ire of rural people. Her book, For-Profit Democracy: Why the Government is Losing the Trust of Rural America (Yale 2018), pinpoints corporate-state land takings as a motivator of rural unrest across racial lines. Her related research pulls apart corporations and property rights to understand environmental injustices. Specifically, she studies monopoly power, eminent domain, corporate landownership, and Right-to-Farm laws. She is especially interested in how social action works, and uses community-based research to find more direct pathways for change.