ABSTRACT
Recent discussion relating to the sustainability of rural systems has devoted considerable attention to the potentially deleterious effects on human health and on physical environmental quality of high-intensity methods of agricultural production (Commission of the European Communities 1992). The sustainability of rural economies during the transition from labour-intensive Fordist to capital-intensive, knowledge-based, post-Fordist methods of production, which seek proximity to scientific expertise and major markets, also receives attention in European Union (EU) and national government-funded initiatives such as LEADER (Champetier 1992). Relatively less attention is devoted in current debates to the demographic aspects of sustainability, although population retention is undoubtedly an underlying objective of many rural development initiatives. The maintenance of viable economies in rural areas requires that critical population masses which include the economically-active age groups, who play a special role in generating enterprise, maintaining birth rates and providing a basis for social action, are retained (Whitby and Powe 1995). In any particular national context, it is important for effective economic and social planning that population trends are monitored and that inter-area variations are identified. It is known that demographic structures are becoming increasingly differentiated between rural areas with implications for the capacity of different populations and areas to benefit adequately from any development measures that may be introduced. There is evidence forthcoming from several Western European countries of a close association between rural regeneration and proximity to large centres of population 340(Hoggart et al. 1995). At the same time, a gradual abandonment of peripheral geographical areas is taking place. Social and economic peripheralisation is becoming more common among rural subgroups, resulting in major societal inequalities and high welfare costs in both Europe and the United States (Cloke 1992, Furuseth 1992).
