Relational Rurals: Some Thoughts on Relating Things and Theory in Rural Studies

Autor/inn/en	Heley, Jesse; Jones, Laura
Titel	Relational Rurals: Some Thoughts on Relating Things and Theory in Rural Studies
Quelle	In: Journal of Rural Studies, 28 (2012) 3, S.208-217 (10 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0743-0167
DOI	10.1016/j.jrurstud.2012.01.011
Schlagwörter	Social Science Research; Climate; Geographic Location; Politics; Rural Environment; Rural Population; Rural Economics; Rural Sociology; Rural Areas; Global Approach; Social Environment; Agricultural Production; Social Theories; Sociocultural Patterns; Social Change + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Social scientific research; Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung; Klima; Politik; Ländliches Milieu; Landbevölkerung; Agrarsoziologie; Rural area; Ländlicher Raum; Globales Denken; Soziales Umfeld; Agriculture; Production; Landwirtschaft; Produktion; Agrarproduktion; Landwirtschaftliche Produktion; Gesellschaftstheorie; Soziokulturelle Theorie; Sozialer Wandel
Abstract	This paper considers how shifts within the social sciences towards conceptualising spatiality in relational terms have unfolded in rural studies in particular ways over the past decade or so. A period in which networks, connections, flows and mobility have all established themselves as compelling conceptual frames for research, the rural has increasingly been recast in relational terms as a multi-authored and multi-faceted space, constituted through local-global interconnections and their place specific, sometimes contested, manifestations. In this way, the multiple meanings of the rural continues to be a focus of critical concern, as are the implications "of" and "in" rural spaces for some of the major issues currently being faced by governments and citizens around the world; including climate change and food security. Apprehending the complexity of the rural in these terms, we argue, requires not only "thinking" space relationally, but at the same time "being" epistemologically relational or theoretically pluralist. That is, recognising the co-constituent production of rural space through material "and" discursive phenomenon, processes and practices, and thus the value of existing theoretical resources (social constructionism, political and economic materialism) in relation with the critical and rigorous appraisal of "new" concepts and ideas to better comprehend rural space in its multidimensional complexity and particularity. To this end, we identify Cindi Katz's notion of "countertopography" as a promising conceptual and methodological addition to the rural scholar's toolkit insofar as it attends to a politics of location and differentiation in relation to global processes. We conclude our discussion by sketching out possible objects of countertopographical analysis for understanding ongoing processes of change in rural space(s). (As Provided).
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Update	2017/4/10