ABSTRACT
This chapter approaches the rural through the lens of regional economic analysis. A range of spatial economic models are examined to consider how the rural is treated, or possibly not considered as an entity of interest. These include: neo-classical growth theory; cumulative causation and growth pole theory; export base and Dixon—Thirlwall—Kaldor models; the New International Division of Labour; the evolution of industrial structure, path dependency and long wave theories; and social and network concepts including the nexus of untraded dependencies. Some models, such as a neo-classical growth model, treat the rural as a spatial unit with specific trade and growth characteristics. Others, such as cumulative causation, envisage a system where the rural periphery is somehow linked to, and constrained by, the urban core. However, housing literature would point to one part of the rural within commuting distance of a concentration of employment as being distinct from another, namely the more remote rural. To some extent, the distinction between urban and rural labour markets is blurred (Ali et al. 2011), leaving the policy maker with the conundrum: should the commutable rural be seen as part of the urban or the rural?
