Rural Futures: The Consumption Countryside and its Regulation

The paper outlines some of the main features of the ‘political and social economy of rural space’ from a British perspective. It details the trajectory of what is termed the ‘consumption countryside’ that is, the sets of increasingly diverse ruralities which tie rural space and people to the provision of goods and services that can be consumed by those in and beyond their particular boundaries. These trends have significance for the development of European rural social science; and particularly the development of a comparative rural sociology which can analyse the differentiation of rural space. In doing so, the paper suggests the need to forge a critical and interpretative set of new relations with the state (supra, national and, regional and local), and to play a much more engaging part in the differential evolution of new rural governance structures.