ABSTRACT
The analysis of social resources in rural areas in Chapter 5 established settlements as a secondary resource on which the primary resource of population depends and to which access to the tertiary resources of life-style requirements is allocated. The rural built environment may thus be viewed as a kind of fulcrum for a resource perspective of human elements in the countryside. Although it is people which are the most important commodity therein, the conflicts and incompatabilities between different types of rural resources often revolve around the role of settlements in the rural environment.
