ABSTRACT
The OECD (1994) notes that more than one-third of the combined population of its member countries live in rural communities, dispersed over 95% of their territories. Traditionally, rural areas have been associated with agriculture but their economic functions are now more varied. The processes of rural change have become more complex. Industrial production, infrastructural provision, residential housing, tourism and natural resource conservation are part of the multifunctional use of rural space. These processes of change do not impact evenly on rural territories but do so in different ways for individual areas, depending on the particular internal and external relationships of any area, and with different positive and negative effects at the local level.
