ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the rural-urban dichotomy, whether defined traditionally or using the metropolitan-nonmetropolitan division, needs to be further subdivided, and that newly modified, official United States classification schemes represent an important step in recognizing rural diversity. In the United States and some other postindustrial countries, two residential categorizations have evolved side-by-side: rural and nonmetropolitan. The chapter presents a multidimensional approach for conceptualizing rurality that reflects economic, institutional, and cultural realities, alongside standard ecological criteria based on population size, density, and accessibility. Data from censuses and other nationwide surveys provide significant opportunities for inquiry by university-based and government researchers into the extent and nature of rurality in postindustrial societies. The chapter discusses ecological, economic, institutional, and sociocultural dimensions, and proposes a set of indicators that could be used to empirically develop a composite measure of rurality. Cloke's approach to defining rurality in Great Britain was largely inductive.
