Rural Geography

Rural geography is the study of place-based economies and cultures characterized by (a) low settlement densities, low levels of connectivity, and hence a certain degree of isolation; (b) livelihoods that are predominantly agricultural or organized around other forms of direct dependence on natural resources and landscapes; and (c) attachments to long-standing traditions that often make them emblematic of cultural differences. Geographic meanings of the rural have been approached through contrasting urban and rural places within specific national contexts as well as across the international realm.

While urban geography is usually viewed as constituting a well-defined subfield, rural geography has often been a less visible subdisciplinary endeavor, though agricultural development has been a key topic within the broader rubric of economic geography. The prominence of urban geography, however, should also be linked to the predominance of urban populations within advanced economies, especially North America and Western Europe. In less developed contexts, especially South and southeast Asia, a majority of the population continues to be directly linked to agriculture, highlighting the significance of rural geography for an understanding of global diversities. More recently, rural issues have come to the fore across developed and less developed contexts, partly due to increased conflicts over natural resources. Within the United States, the [Page 2492]urban-rural divide has become a new site of conflict due to increased migration of urban populations into rural areas as part of the processes of exurban growth.

Major themes in rural geography can be distinguished into broadly economic, cultural, and political categories, even as these aspects of rural places cannot be strictly separated from one another. The first step in understanding rural places, however, has to be in terms of clarifying the meanings of and approaches to the rural.