Hardback
Rethinking Rural Studies
Rethinking Rural Studies presents an explicitly trans-disciplinary perspective on rural social science. David L. Brown and Mark Shucksmith identify emerging issues and research avenues on the topic, highlighting opportunities for rural studies to contribute towards greater collective wellbeing.
More Information
Critical Acclaim
Contents
More Information
Rethinking Rural Studies presents an explicitly trans-disciplinary perspective on rural social science. David L. Brown and Mark Shucksmith identify emerging issues and research avenues on the topic, highlighting opportunities for rural studies to contribute towards greater collective wellbeing.
This timely book moves away from a binary division of rural and urban to posit that rural and urban areas are closely interrelated through social, economic, demographic and environmental processes. The authors emphasize the central role that power plays in structuring vulnerabilities and opportunities, and indicate the emerging possibilities caused by greater rural agency. Ultimately they argue that this is a critical time to rethink rural studies, asking how and what rural studies can contribute towards better rural futures.
Written in an accessible style, this book is an invigorating read for scholars of sociology, human geography, planning and urban studies and population studies. The sustained focus on how social science research can promote social and spatial justice and equality also makes this an important read for those studying inequality.
This timely book moves away from a binary division of rural and urban to posit that rural and urban areas are closely interrelated through social, economic, demographic and environmental processes. The authors emphasize the central role that power plays in structuring vulnerabilities and opportunities, and indicate the emerging possibilities caused by greater rural agency. Ultimately they argue that this is a critical time to rethink rural studies, asking how and what rural studies can contribute towards better rural futures.
Written in an accessible style, this book is an invigorating read for scholars of sociology, human geography, planning and urban studies and population studies. The sustained focus on how social science research can promote social and spatial justice and equality also makes this an important read for those studying inequality.
Critical Acclaim
‘A comprehensive treatment of a complex subject, Rethinking Rural Studies both traces where the discipline has been and provides multiple pathways for scholars to pursue in the future. Written accessibly by two of the most venerable experts in the field, it takes on a wide range of topics, methods, and theoretical approaches while never losing sight of the interconnections of people, place, and environment.’
– Jennifer Sherman, Washington State University, USA
‘In Rethinking Rural Studies, David Brown and Mark Shucksmith combine their extensive experience to construct a timely and critical review of the major challenges facing rural societies and map a pathway to a hopeful rural studies. An essential read for all rural researchers.’
– Michael Woods, Aberystwyth University, UK
‘Brown and Shucksmith, giants in the field of rural scholarship, provide a critically important set of perspectives regarding how we understand social, economic, political, and institutional dynamics across urban and rural spaces. Rethinking Rural Studies appears at an historical moment in which deeper and more relational understandings of spatial inequalities and processes – and the social and political consequences that result – have perhaps never been needed more.’
– Kai A. Schafft, Pennsylvania State University, USA
– Jennifer Sherman, Washington State University, USA
‘In Rethinking Rural Studies, David Brown and Mark Shucksmith combine their extensive experience to construct a timely and critical review of the major challenges facing rural societies and map a pathway to a hopeful rural studies. An essential read for all rural researchers.’
– Michael Woods, Aberystwyth University, UK
‘Brown and Shucksmith, giants in the field of rural scholarship, provide a critically important set of perspectives regarding how we understand social, economic, political, and institutional dynamics across urban and rural spaces. Rethinking Rural Studies appears at an historical moment in which deeper and more relational understandings of spatial inequalities and processes – and the social and political consequences that result – have perhaps never been needed more.’
– Kai A. Schafft, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Contents
Contents
Introduction: Rethinking Rural Studies
2 Beyond the urban hierarchy: rethinking power and
dominance in a dynamic settlement system
3 Rethinking rural economy and family livelihoods
4 Wellbeing, governance and rural development: towards an
agenda for research and policy
5 Poverty, social inequality and rural studies
6 Spatial inequality, spatial justice and a ‘right to the countryside’
7 Rural population matters, but demography is not destiny
8 Science, technology and the food and fibre system:
legacies and transformations
9 Rethinking natural resources, energy and rural environments
10 Conclusion: a hopeful rural studies
Bibliography
Introduction: Rethinking Rural Studies
2 Beyond the urban hierarchy: rethinking power and
dominance in a dynamic settlement system
3 Rethinking rural economy and family livelihoods
4 Wellbeing, governance and rural development: towards an
agenda for research and policy
5 Poverty, social inequality and rural studies
6 Spatial inequality, spatial justice and a ‘right to the countryside’
7 Rural population matters, but demography is not destiny
8 Science, technology and the food and fibre system:
legacies and transformations
9 Rethinking natural resources, energy and rural environments
10 Conclusion: a hopeful rural studies
Bibliography
