Gary Bosworth – författare

The British countryside is a national institution; most people aspire to live there, many people use it for leisure and recreation and we can all watch rural life played out on our television screen, read about it in novels or consume its imagery in art and cinematography. The aim of this book is to explore the way that these aspirations and perceptions influence the way that the term "rural" is interpreted across different academic disciplines. Definitions of rural are not exact, leaving room for these interpretations to have a significant impact on the meanings conveyed in different areas of research and across different economic, social and spatial contexts.In this book contributors present research across a range of subjects allowing critical reflections upon their personal and disciplinary interpretations of "rural". This resulting volume is a collection of diverse chapters that gives an emergent sense of how the notion of "rural" changes and blurs as the disciplinary lens is adjusted. In drawing together these strands, it becomes clear that human relations with rural space morph materiality into highly complex representations wherein both disadvantage and social exclusion persist within a rurality that is also commodified, consumed and cherished.

The British countryside is a national institution; most people aspire to live there, many people use it for leisure and recreation and we can all watch rural life played out on our television screen, read about it in novels or consume its imagery in art and cinematography. The aim of this book is to explore the way that these aspirations and perceptions influence the way that the term "rural" is interpreted across different academic disciplines. Definitions of rural are not exact, leaving room for these interpretations to have a significant impact on the meanings conveyed in different areas of research and across different economic, social and spatial contexts.In this book contributors present research across a range of subjects allowing critical reflections upon their personal and disciplinary interpretations of "rural". This resulting volume is a collection of diverse chapters that gives an emergent sense of how the notion of "rural" changes and blurs as the disciplinary lens is adjusted. In drawing together these strands, it becomes clear that human relations with rural space morph materiality into highly complex representations wherein both disadvantage and social exclusion persist within a rurality that is also commodified, consumed and cherished.

This edited collection showcases the evolution of rural entrepreneurship research over the first quarter of the 21st Century. Contributions examine what we have learnt about different aspects of rural entrepreneurship and what still needs to be understood. Each chapter looks for inspiration from the past to consider opportunities and challenges for the future. Critiques of current understandings of the dynamic rural economic landscape acknowledge the need for agility and new ideas to inform future research and policy challenges.The book has been motivated by the growing community of researchers that participate in an annual Rural Entrepreneurship Conference. Further strengthening that community, chapters are co-authored by experienced and early-career scholars, forming new connections that blend past and future perspectives to address prescient challenges facing rural economies. After 20 years of fertilising exchange of ideas between rural stakeholders and academics, this edited collection sets a marker in the timeline of the evolution of an increasingly international network of rural entrepreneurship researchers.