ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book examines a set of questions concerning the context for and operation of rural development practices across different European countries. Relationships between national contexts and the concepts deployed in the analysis process raise some interesting questions for comparative research on European rural development. This comparative project started with a template of basic issues to be addressed in the search for common ground. European rural development policies and programmes need to learn from experiences of implementation in different national contexts, just as they need to be based on a rigorous, theoretically-informed conceptualisation of the logic and consequences of development policy. Different countries' contrasting state structures are also critical to understanding the extent to which even seemingly transnational rural development policies can come to embody very different meanings and nuances.
