ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a coherent approach to the study of the rural economy and consider the implications for the design of sustainable development policies. The approach is ambitious because it attempts to inform various social science perspectives on the rural; particularly those of agricultural economics and rural sociology. People commute from rural areas to work in urban centres, and many rural communities depend on visitors from towns for part of their livelihood. Evolutionary theory has long been applied to social systems, but the paradigm has been given fresh impetus by the emerging science of complexity and associated theories of self-organisation. Allanson et al have also sought to illustrate the direct applicability of the evolutionary perspective to the rural economy by detailed consideration of three issues which touch directly on the concerns of both rural sociology and agricultural economics. In conclusion, the management of a complex, open, dynamic rural economy requires a society which is both information-rich and information-sensitive.
