ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, the ‘rural’ was revealed to be an elusive concept, a term that does not describe a hard, fast and indisputable material object, but rather refers to a loose set of ideas and associations that have developed over time and which are debated and contested. The rural sociologist Marc Mormont arguably put it best in referring to the ‘rural’ as a ‘category of thought’ (1990: 40), a description that emphasizes that the ‘rural’ is fi rst imagined, then represented, then takes on material form as places, landscapes and ways of life are shaped to conform to the expectations that the idea of the ‘rural’ embodied. Experiences of these ‘rural’ places and lifestyles are fed back into the collective imagination, refi ning and modifying the idea and thus contributing to a dynamic process through which the ‘rural’ is produced and reproduced.
