Bringing together an interdisciplinary team of leading experts, this book examines the position of rural social and cultural geography at the beginning of the 21st century and suggests new agendas in the study of changing social and cultural geographies of rurality in 'developed' or 'Western' countries. It offers critical evaluations of theoretical positions and advances, introduces new conceptual and methodological tools and reports on recent empirical work from the UK, New Zealand, Denmark, France, Australia, USA and Ireland on aspects of rural change.

Contents: Geographies of rural cultures and societies: introduction, Lewis Holloway and Moya Kneafsey. Part I: Thinking Ruralities: Obese and pornographic ruralities: further cultural twists for rural geography?, Martin Phillips; Spatial stories: preliminary notes on the idea of narrative style in rural studies, Rob Fish; (Re)positioning power in rural studies: from organic community to political society, Graham Gardner; Constructing multiple ruralities: practices and values of rural dwellers, Hanne Kirstine Adriansen and Lene Mÿller Madsen. Part II: Rural Societies: Inclusions and Exclusions: Politics and protest in the contemporary countryside, Michael Woods; Geographies of invisibility: the 'hidden' lives of rural lone parents, Annie Hughes; Constable countryside? police perspectives on rural Britain, Richard Yarwood and Caroline Cozens. Part III: Community and Governance: Mobilizing the local: community, participation and governance, Bill Edwards and Michael Woods; A sense of place: rural development, tourism and place promotion in the Republic of Ireland, David Storey; 'Community'-based strategies for environmental protection in rural areas: towards a new form of participatory rural governance?, Susanne Seymour. Part IV: Cultures of Farming and Food: Lost words, lost worlds? Cultural geographies of agriculture, Carol Morris; Producing-consuming food: closeness, connectedness and rurality in four 'alternative' food networks, Lewis Holloway and Moya Kneafsey; Winners and losers? rural restructuring, economic status and masculine identities among young farmers in South-West Ireland, Caitríona Ní Laoire; Index.

Dr Holloway is a Senior Lecturer in Geography and Dr Kneafsey is a Research Fellow in Geography, both working for the Geography Subject Group at Coventry University.