ABSTRACT
In this book we contend that rural people and communities continue to play important social, economic and environmental roles in post-industrial societies such as the UK and US. This is the case even as localities experience dramatic socio-demographic and economic transformations, and profound changes occur in the governance and economic contexts in which they are embedded. Place of residence remains an important aspect of personal identity, and where one lives and works continues to affect opportunities and life course trajectories. Yet dramatic technological and organisational changes have fundamentally transformed rural and urban communities during recent decades so that society and economy have been reconfigured around ‘mobilities’ rather than ‘stabilities’ (Urry 2000, 2007). While many scholars argue that we live in a world of flows rather than of discrete places (Castells 1989), others also recognise the continuing importance of place. The interrelationships among social and economic environments are of paramount interest in contemporary society, yet many chapters in this book establish that local agency has by no means been completely undermined by macro-structural changes. The durable social relationships that characterise many local communities produce endogenous social and economic change and resistance thereby countering, at least to an extent, these large-scale, universalising exogenous forces (Shucksmith 2000a).
