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Rural Geography
Processes, Responses and Experiences in Rural Restructuring

First Edition


December 2004 | 352 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
"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.

 
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

'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


Excellent student centred publication. Very valuable for undergraduate use in particular.

Dr Maura Bridget Farrell
Geography Department, National University of Ireland, Galway
October 21, 2015

very useful and informative text which trainees have found helpful when studying a new topic.

Ms Kate Glanville
Faculty of Education, Birmingham City University
June 25, 2015

Good text supporting the changes being made as part of Rural Restructuring.

Mr Owen Lewis
Faculty of Business, Finance and Management, University of Wales, Trinity St David
June 10, 2015

Sample Materials & Chapters

Pdf File of chapter 1

Pdf File of chapter 8


Michael Woods

For instructors

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ISBN: 9780761947615
£51.00

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