ABSTRACT
The 'geography' of rural change has moved the arena of rural development firmly into the political, social, economic and cultural domains of regional, national and European Union policies. This chapter explores discourses of rural change through the transition from top-down rural development strategies to the more locally designed and integrated frameworks more recently being promoted. In rural Ireland the debate is moving toward an exploration of the changing relationship between state and citizen represented by the emergence of new forms of rural governance and the recognition of the role of local actors in rural development discourse. New forms of rural governance and organization are therefore required 'to break out of the entrenched patterns of patronage and exclusion and focus collective efforts on problems common to all groups'. The role of community and voluntary organizations however restricted is an important domain in rural development.
