Contemporary Rural Geographies

"Michael Woods has taken on the formidable task of giving an overview of rural places and society in advanced economies as a single author and has presented a book that rightly deserves to be called state-of-the-art." - Geographische Rundschau "With Rural Geography Michael Woods remedies the often underestimated dynamism of rural places and rural society by providing the much-needed synthesis of the European and North American literature on rural restructuring and globalization processes." - Patrick H Mooney, University of Kentucky Rural Geography is an introduction to contemporary rural societies and economies in the developed world. It examines the social and economic processes at work in the contemporary countryside - including the more traditional: like agriculture; land use; and population; as well as wider themes like: rural health, crime, exclusion, commodification; and alternative lifestyles. With a contextualising section defining the rural, the text is organised systematically in three principal sections: Processes of Rural Restructuring Responses to Rural Restructuring Experiences of Rural Restructuring Using the most recent empirical material , statistical data and research, the text is global in perspective using comparative examples throughout. Rural Geography is a systematic introduction to the processes, responses, and experiences of rural restructuring.

Rural Geographies provides a critical, contemporary and accessible introduction to rural change by using geographical ideas to understand current issues affecting the countryside. The book discusses how the countryside has been studied by geographers across a range of different scales, from village community to the global countryside. Each chapter provides a concise and well-illustrated introduction to a key theme in rural geography, using current literature and contemporary examples. The book is divided into four sections that cover rural contexts, changes, contests and cultures. The volume takes a global perspective but is largely centred on the Global North, reflecting the tradition of scholarship in rural geography. Rural Geographies is driven by thinking in human geography. It reflects how major paradigmatic changes in the discipline have impacted, and have been informed by, the sub-discipline of rural geography. The aim is to introduce key ideas and concepts that will teach students the critical skills necessary to analyse rural issues themselves. The text will be a valuable resource for undergraduate students studying rural geography and rural studies.

This edited volume is the sixth publication of the series "Rural areas: Issues of local and regional development". It aims at intensifying scholarly exchange on topical questions of social, political, economic and landscape-related transformations of rural areas in Germany and Europe. Europe is a meaningful frame and research topic for rural geography. This edited volume assembles 14 contributions from various countries that shed light on the variety, as well as the differences and commonalities of rural regions in Europe. The volume aims at initiating general reflections about common development mechanisms and structures in the European context in contrast with specific national conditions and path dependencies. By assembling both regional and country case studies as well as cross-national comparisons, the anthology provides a sound basis for future European research in rural geography. It pleads for more cross-national and comparative approaches.

This book provides a cohesive set of research statements on critical related issues in British rural geography, as well as echoing the priorities identified by an influential figure in British rural geography, Richard Munton. This book demonstrates that the rural world needs to be seen in a far wider perspective than that of agriculture/ food production, in order to comprehend how resources are being appraised and exploited in new ways, and to respond to the pressing challenges of sustainability for the decades ahead. Chapters adopt a time perspective to explore a series of key themes: the rise of productivist farming ways of conceptualising agricultural change the evolution of landownership and property rights rural and urban agendas for nature conservation the gap between policy and action for sustainable development. The final set of chapters is devoted to policy-related issues associated with agricultural change and the profound challenge of rural diversification for the future. The last chapter traces the prominent career of Richard Munton.

An introduction to contemporary rural societies and economies in the developed world, 'Rural Geography' examines the social and economic processes at work in the contemporary countryside.

The last decade or so has witnessed a flourishing of research in rural geography; in particular, approaches which have developed socio-cultural perspectives on rural issues. This book brings together well-established and newer researchers to examine the position of rural social and cultural geography at the beginning of the 21st century and to suggest new research agendas. It offers critical evaluations of theoretical positions and advances, introduces new conceptual and methodological tools and reports on recent empirical work on a variety of topical issues in a number of countries. With diverse theoretical and empirical content, the book makes a valuable contribution to the development of research into changing social and cultural geographies of rurality in 'developed' or 'Western' countries.

The division of ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ is one of the oldest ideas in Geography and is deeply engrained in our culture. Throughout history, the rural has been attributed with many meanings: as a source of food and energy; as a pristine wilderness, or as a bucolic idyll; as a playground, or a place of escape; as a fragile space of nature, in need of protection; and as a primitive place, in need of modernization. But is the idea of the rural still relevant today? Rural provides an advanced introduction to the study of rural places and processes in Geography and related disciplines. Drawing extensively on the latest research in rural geography, this book explores the diverse meanings that have been attached to the rural, examines how ideas of the rural have been produced and reproduced, and investigates the influence of different ideas in shaping the social and economic structure of rural localities and the everyday lives of people who live, work or play in rural areas. This authoritative book contains case studies drawn from both the developed and developing world to introduce and illustrate conceptual ideas and approaches, as well as suggested further reading. Written in an engaging and lively style, Rural challenges the reader to think differently about the rural.