ABSTRACT
In both urban and rural areas, significant economic changes have taken place over the last decades. Important trends affecting the economy are globalization and the related growth of competition, the introduction and spread of new technologies, as well as increasing personal mobility, including commuting, migration and tourism (Marsden, 1999). In rural areas, this has led to a decline in the importance of ‘traditional’ rural economic activities, such as agriculture and also forestry, fishing, mining and quarrying. At the same time, employment has risen overall in rural areas in the manufacturing, tourism and service sectors (Woods, 2005). However, like agriculture, the rural service sector has experienced considerable change in its form and function. The transition to larger production units in agriculture has resulted in progressively smaller numbers of farms and a shrinking farm population (Smithers et al, 2005). Transportation and communications technology have reduced the historical reliance of local households, including entrepreneurs, on their local community for goods and services (Fuller, 1994). In this more ‘open’ society, many services (e.g. banks, schools), traditionally available in rural settlements, have been consolidated and centralized, with implications for the employment base of rural towns and villages and for rural service users with limited mobility (Joseph, 2002). On the other hand, changes in the relative costs of housing, travel and transport have encouraged a diverse range of individuals, households and firms, often unrelated to agriculture or agricultural service industries, to relocate to rural settlements (van Leeuwen and Nijkamp, 2006; Smithers et al, 2005).
