Rural Geography: Processes, Responses and Experiences in Rural Restructuring / Edition 1

by Michael Woods

Overview

"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

"For those students with an interest in rural change, this 'state of the art' book is essential reading." - Brian Ilbery, University of Coventry

"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 organized systematically in three principal sections: Processes of Rural Restructuring, Responses to Rural Restructuring, and 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900761947614
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	01/05/2005
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Michael Woods is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth

Table of Contents

INTRODUCING RURAL GEOGRAPHY
Defining the Rural
Understanding the Rural
PART TWO: PROCESSES OF RURAL RESTRUCTURING
Globalization, Modernity and the Rural World
Agricultural Change
The Changing Rural Economy
Social and Demographic Change
Changing Communities
Restructuring Rural Services
Environmental Change and Rural Areas
PART THREE: RESPONSES TO RURAL RESTRUCTURING
Rural Policy and the Response to Restructuring
Rural Development and Regeneration
Rural Governance
Selling the Countryside
Protecting the Countryside
Rural Conflicts
PART FOUR: EXPERIENCES OF RURAL RESTRUCTURING
Changing Rural Lifestyles
Living in the Countryside
Housing, Health and Crime
Growing up and Growing Old in the Countryside
Working in the Countryside
Hidden Rural Lifestyles
Poverty and Social Exclusion
Rurality, National Identity and Ethnicity
Alternative Rural Lifestyles
PART FIVE: CONCLUSION
Thinking again about the Rural

Editorial Reviews

'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

‘For those students with an interest in rural change, this "state of the art" book is essential reading - Brian Ilbery, University of Coventry

‘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

From the Publisher