ABSTRACT
Rural regions in advanced capitalist nations are in the midst of a long restructuring (Parkins and Reed 2013). Traditional agricultural, resource, and manufacturing industries no longer employ the numbers they once did, due in large part to consolidation, rationalization, and international competition. In turn, this means that rural residents no longer have access to traditionally high-paying jobs, and many communities find themselves starved for revenue. In response, governments across the developed world are promoting ‘rural entrepreneurship’ as the long-term solution to these problems (Marsden 1998, 1999; Ray 1999; Terluin 2003). According to this view, rural economies need to be reinvented ‘from the ground up’ by creative local entrepreneurs who are both committed to their communities and willing to reach into broader markets (Young 2013).
