ABSTRACT
The ecological modernisation theory analyses possibilities for a process of 're-embedding' economic practices-in view of their ecological dimension-within the institutions of modernity. This chapter aims to demonstrate, alternatively, how a wider theoretical and conceptual landscape, based around environmental social theory, can help to assist contemporary rural sociology in progressing its agenda. The rural sociology of advanced economies has for a long time now drawn very productively from the field of development studies, even if both have remained quite distinct sub-disciplines with their own communities of interest and professional publication outlets. Food as a culturally hybrid entity, becomes unevenly embedded into the fabric of new rural development practices; and new synergies become developed between food, agricultural practice, consumption practices and associational and institutional arrangements. A key feature of extant rural and environmental arenas comes then in needing to address aspects of both territorial and environmental justice.
