Abstract
Rural by Mike Woods is one of the ‘Key Ideas in Geography’ series edited by Sarah Holloway and Gill Valentine and published by Routledge. Other books in the series include Nature, City, Home, Landscape and Mobility, and each aims to provide an ‘advanced introduction’ to their respective topics, locating key ideas within traditions of thought and providing understanding as well as critical discussion of the ideas presented by those working in the area.
My greatest concern on approaching Rural was that it would be treading now very familiar ground. There is a rich tradition of texts on rural geography in the UK – indeed Mike Woods himself has been responsible for one of the most recent and well informed – and I was not sure that another text could add much that went beyond the scope and approach of these existing examples. However, I realized very quickly that this was not a problem. Woods has managed to write a book that not only summarizes established ideas and concepts in rural geography but gives a seemingly fresh and at times original twist on familiar material. In his general approach and his choice of case studies new angles and insights from across a diversity of rural facing subdisciplines are woven together in a very articulate and informed way.
I particularly like the way that the book divides the material – providing, again, an original spin on the ways in which rural areas have been conceptualized, represented, exploited and experienced. The nine chapters, starting with ‘Approaching the rural’ and ‘Imagining the rural’ and ending with ‘Regulating the rural’ and ‘Re-making the rural’, seem to give the material a dynamic and up-to-date quality and manage to convey a real sense of not only the various meanings attached to rurality by academics and policy-makers but also the lived experiences of those occupying rural places as both residents and visitors. My only criticism with the way the chapters divide the material is the occasional repetition that creeps in. For example, there seems to be considerable overlap between the chapters on imagining, consuming and performing the rural. Having said that, the wealth of information and variety of case studies that Woods brings to these chapters means that none of the chapters suffers from a lack of originality in its own right.
Another positive aspect of the book is the prominence given to more sociocultural approaches in rural geography. Such approaches are not surprising in the discussion of representations of rurality or in the examination of tourism and heritage. They are perhaps less expected in, for example, the treatment of hunting and the examination of farm labour. Yet Woods, through both case studies and shorter examples, reminds us that some of the most important issues affecting rural communities and people are issues that are best understood through an examination of their emotional and embodied manifestations. He talks about the feelings of those affected by declining farm incomes, for example, and the bodies of those engaged in farm labour. These rich and novel perspectives help to make the book original, even in its treatment of well-rehearsed ideas and debates.
A familiar criticism of books on rural geography is the focus on the developed world and the almost complete lack of material from the global south. Rural is something of an exception to this since Chapter 5 of the book, entitled ‘Developing the rural’ includes not only examples of rural issues and policies facing those living in developing countries, but also explores the interconnectivity of economic and social relations between the north and the south. While some might quibble with the way in which the discussion of the global south is assigned and restricted to one chapter, credit must be given to Mike Woods for encouraging readers to think about the relationship between different rural areas on a global scale. In addition to the focus on the south, the book also includes examples from across Europe, the United States and Australia. Such examples are not simply included as a cynical response to satisfy a publisher’s request but make very real contributions to the understanding of, for example, the consumption of rural spaces, uneven development and global power relations.
Mike Woods writes fluently and with authority and in this Rural has much in common with his other work. His enthusiasm for rural geography comes across in every chapter and, as the book claims at the start, he really does capture the excitement of contemporary rural geography. While the book necessarily makes reference to past debates in rural geography and maps the development of different perspectives, it does not seem dated. On the contrary, one of the most impressive qualities of Rural is its inclusion of some highly topical academic and policy concerns. The discussion of the ‘more than human’ in the chapter on living in the rural, the exploration of governmentality in the chapter on ‘Regulating the rural’ and the examination of multifunctionality in ‘Exploiting the rural’, for example, all indicate and contribute to an awareness of current debates and concerns. Moreover, the book, as well as being informative in its treatment of the various issues, points the reader to a wealth of further reading and related research and will no doubt become an important source for scholars of rural studies and also human geographers more generally.