Rural Geography

The Rural Problematic

For city dwellers, the word rural typically conjures up stereotypes of green pastures and quaint villages. However, this image of the rural idyll stands in contrast to the reality of rural areas, where resource extraction, tourism, and other processes create social upheaval and environmental change. Hence, we must address the diverse ways in which we can perceive and define rural areas. There are at least three ways to do this. First, we can define rural dichotomously—city versus country, urban versus rural, or metropolitan versus nonmetropolitan areas. The U.S. Bureau of the Census defines settlements as rural if they have fewer than 2,500 people. An area is defined as metropolitan if it has a central county with at least 50,000 people. Hence, an area is nonmetropolitan if its largest settlement falls below this threshold.

However, these binary classifications mask the diverse geography of rural areas. Hence, geographers have developed indexes of rurality to recognize a rural–urban continuum. The Beale Code used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture places counties into 1 of 10 categories based on their respective population densities. Alternatively, areas may be defined as rural because of their economic base. A region reliant on natural resource extraction (e.g., agriculture, mining) might be viewed as rural. However, some high-amenity tourist regions (e.g., ski resorts) have low population densities but provide predominantly service-sector jobs.

A third way in which to define rural is to see it as being socially constructed. A region is rural if the people who live there perceive themselves as living in the countryside. Others suggest that we categorize communities based on the nature of human relationships. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Ferdinand Tönnies suggested that rural areas rely on familial and personal relationships. Urban areas, on the other hand, rely more on impersonal market-based relationships. The implication is that urban areas are more market oriented and therefore more modern—a common view during the 19th century, when a majority of Americans lived in the countryside. However, in the 21st century, nearly 80% of Americans live in urban areas. Therefore, it is prudent to view rurality as a multifaceted concept that has changed over time and is based on particular kinds of economic activity, demographics, and attitudes held by rural residents and visitors alike.

Studies of Rural Geography

North America became urbanized during the 19th and 20th centuries. Studies within rural geography reflected these demographic changes, and this section describes at least three themes that have emerged. The first theme is agricultural location theory. During the 19th century, Johann Von Thünen suggested that rural land uses changed as a function of the costs to transport agricultural commodities to urban markets. This model presaged central place theory, which explained the rise of urban systems within the context of an agricultural landscape.

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