Table of Contents

PART ONE: APPROACHES TO RURAL STUDIES
Pathways in the Sociology of Rural Knowledge - Terry Marsden
Conceptualizing Rurality - Paul Cloke
Reconfiguring Rural Resource Governance - Stewart Lockie, Geoffrey Lawrence and Lynda Cheshire
The Legacy of Neo-Liberalism in Australia
Rural Space - Keith Halfacree
Constructing a Three-Fold Architecture
Rural Society - Ruth Panelli
Rural Economies - Matteo B Marini and Patrick H Mooney
Rural Policy and Planning - Mark B Lapping
PART TWO: RURAL RESEARCH: KEY THEORETICAL COORDINATES
A Cultural Representation
Landscapes of Desires? - E Melanie DuPuis
Idyllic Ruralities - Brian Short
Variations on the Rural Idyll - David Bell
Constructing Rural Natures - 03S NatureNoel Castree and Bruce Braun
Networking Rurality - Jonathan Murdoch
Emergent Complexity in the Countryside
Non-Human Rural Studies - Owain Jones
Sustainability
The Road Towards Sustainable Rural Development - Terry Marsden
Issues of Theory, Policy and Practice in a European Context
Sustaining the Unsustainable - Frederick H Buttel
Agro-Food Systems and Environment in the Modern World
Social Forestry - Paul Milbourne, Lawrence Kitchen and Kieron Stanley
Exploring the Social Contexts of Forests and Forestry in Rural Areas
New Economies
Commodification - Harvey C Perkins
Re-Resourcing Rural Areas
Agricultural Production in Crisis - Jan Douwe van der Ploeg
Neo-Endogenous Rural Development in the EU - Christopher Ray
Power
Global Capital and the Transformation of Rural Communities - Thomas A Lyson
Regulating Rurality? Rural Studies and the Regulation Approach - Mark Goodwin
The State and Rural Polity - Alessandro Bonanno
New Consumerism
The Rural Household as a Consumption Site - Sonya Salamon
Consumption Culture - Mara Miele
The Case of Food
Tourism, Consumption and Rurality - David Crouch
Identity
Gender and Sexuality in Rural Communities - Jo Little
Rurality and Racialized Others - Paul Cloke
Out of Place in the Countryside
Rural Change and the Production of Otherness - A I (Lex) Chalmers and Alun E Joseph
The Elderly in New Zealand
Exclusion
Inclusions/Exclusions in Rural Space - David Sibley
Rural Poverty - Ann R Tickamyer
Rural Housing and Homelessness - Paul Milbourne
PART THREE: NEW RURAL RELATIONS
Rurality and Otherness - Paul Cloke
Political Articulation - Michael Woods
The Modalities of New Critical Politics of Rural Citizenship
New Rural Social Movements and Agroecology - Eduardo Sevilla Guzmán and Joan Martinez-Alier
Performing Rurality - Tim Edensor

Reviews

"This book captures the vitality and theoretical innovation at work in the field. It explains new ′theorizations′ of rural life, landscape, and work and leisure over the last 10 years. The three main sections are devoted to: key approaches to the sociology of rural knowledge, spatial, social, economic, resources, planning, key theoretical coordinates in survey of the state of the area, and ′new ruralities,′ new formulations of rural citizenship and social movements."
*APADE*

“The Handbook of Rural Studies attempts to address that question by bringing together scholars from both sides of the Atlantic to consider key approaches, theoretical developments, and contemporary conditions in rural communities. The editors contend there is revival afoot, and their aim is to convey what they see as new intellectual excitement and heightened relevance of rural studies. The 35 diverse essays include work by scholars trained in sociology, geography, planning, economics, psychology, tourism management, and development. One of the clear strengths of the book is its broad, even eclectic, approach. The stronger chapters include well-written, thoughtful introductory road maps to their argument, review the relevant literature to date, and assess what it adds up to for the field or a particular subfield. These authors bring a rural lens to key contemporary concerns about issues such as racial, gender, and class inequality, politics, environmental degradation, and new community and regional development efforts.”
*Journal of Regional Science*

"SAGE Handbooks set a standard amongst compendia for fields within the social sciences...The book is well produced and includes an excellent index..one that will prove useful to graduate students..."
*Agriculture and Human Values*