ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses two contrasting yet interconnected movements reshaping rural Europe – the populist-inflected protests of farmers and the lifestyle-oriented back-to-the-land movement. Both are examined as responses to alienation – understood not only as economic marginalisation but also as political and existential disconnection – and as quests for authenticity, although expressed in divergent ways. Farmers’ protests demand sovereignty and protection from global markets and distant governance, whereas back-to-the-landers reject urban capitalist norms by cultivating alternative rural livelihoods. While both express discontent with the dominant food regime, their orientations diverge – one defensive, rooted in tradition and continuity; the other transformative, pursuing reinvention and prefigurative practices. Rural alienation thus functions not only as a source of grievance but also as a generative force shaping distinct visions of rural revival, highlighting the need for policy that recognises plural and contested identities and moves beyond narratives of “left-behindness” towards a politics grounded in rural agency, creativity and transformative possibility.
