Abstract
“Rurality” within academic analysis has frequently been dismissed as something of an anachronism in modern times from primarily an ontological perspective. Yet, also as both concept and sensed reality it equally refuses to die. This chapter draws on recent rural scholarship, mostly from the UK and North America, to examine how in the light of this existential tension “rurality” is (to be) interpreted in the early 21st century. It begins by outlining briefly why rurality has often been seen as anachronistic, especially by critical scholars keen to distinguish robust “rational abstraction” from obfuscatory “chaotic conception.” However, not least from the perspective of how we go on within everyday life, any idea of rurality as almost completely effaced is inadequate. This leads to the chapter presenting four interpretations of rurality today. First, it is interpreted as “representation” and then, following a desire to ground this interpretation, also as “practice.” The chapter then interrogates the representational interpretation and the idea of rurality as invented further through first developing the idea of “rurality beyond the rural” but then, drawing upon recent social scientific interest on the more-than-representational, presenting a final interpretation of rurality as still being at least partly embodied and grounded. In conclusion, all four interpretations of rurality may be intellectually worthwhile in their own right today but each has its own demographic consequences. The chapter ends by reflecting on some implications of accepting inherently diverse interpretations of rurality for demographic practice in the 21st century.
It is back again: the recurrent onset of academic rural doubt in the US. It [has] been 20 years or so since the last onset… when Bill Friedland [1982] engaged a debate about the end of rural society and the future of rural sociology. But recent discussions indicate that US rural scholars are once more in the midst of this uncertain mood (Bell, 2007, p. 402)
In short, morbid thoughts about the rural abound (Bell, 2008, p. 6)
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Notes
- 1.
Thanks to Dr. María Jesús Rivera Escribano for this example.
- 2.
Carolan actually refers to “conceptions of the countryside” rather than rurality.
- 3.
At least in the global North, although much of what has been argued conceptually here, if not the specific illustrative cases, is equally applicable within the global South. Generally, in the latter rurality has been less totally effaced and rural localities (Halfacree, 2006) remain more strongly defined, at least in remoter locations. However, the appropriateness of our classifications for demographic analysis still require careful thought.
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Acknowledgements
The author extends special thanks to László Kulcsár for his initial invitation to write this chapter and for his unwavering support over its subsequent gestation, especially during the times that the author’s written progress was not always as rapid as he would have wished!
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Halfacree, K. (2012). Diverse Ruralities in the 21st Century: From Effacement to (Re-)Invention. In: Kulcsár, L., Curtis, K. (eds) International Handbook of Rural Demography. International Handbooks of Population, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1842-5_26
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