ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Mediterranean tradition of rurality in Italy and traces the way this tradition has evolved in the recent revival of rurality and interest in de/re-peasantisation processes. It explains the literature on the main European Union traditions of rurality, differentiating the Mediterranean from core Continental and Northern traditions. The chapter analyses the rural development in Central and Southern Italy to exemplify two different developmental paths of Mediterranean ruralities. In the rural sociology literature, the Mediterranean tradition of rurality is presented as a 'denied tradition'. The chapter deals with a type of regional development based on local production systems of small and medium firms, that are specialised in different phases of a production process. The diversification of the rural economy is neither the modern, rational evolution of the traditional forms of production nor the outcome of new processes of widespread industrialisation.
