Mention of the British countryside commonly evokes visions of pastoral contentment; but the nature of rural Britain has changed dramatically since 1945. The declining importance of farming as a source of income and employment in the course of this century has undermined the simple identity of the rural economy with the agricultural sector. The social composition of many villages has been transformed by incomers who commute to nearby towns and cities for their work. And EU policy is playing an increasingly important role in both the regulation of the countryside and the promotion of development through structural assistance programmes. The Rural Economy and the British Countryside offers critical perspectives on the changing profile of rural Britain by leading contributors in the field. It considers the meaning of the term 'rural' and what might constitute a sustainable rural economy; present and future patterns of rural development; the role of markets; natural resource management; agricultural pollution; marketing policies in the agricultural sector; environmental valuation techniques; rural policies and politics; and the future of the rural political economy. Written by a team of experts at the Centre for Rural Economy, which took a leading role in the debate surrounding preparation of the 1995 Rural White Paper, the book is ideal for students of rural and environmental policy, countryside management, planning and recreation, rural geography, and agriculture and environmental studies courses. Paul Allanson is a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Dundee, specialising in evolutionary economics and structural change in agriculture. Martin Whitby is Professor of Countryside Management at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and is the author of Incentives for Countryside Management: the Case of ESAs and the European Environment and CAP Reform, among other titles. Originally published in 1996

For the past century, governments have been compelled, time and again, to return to the search for solutions to the housing and economic challenges posed by a restructured countryside. This book provides an analysis of the complexity of housing and development tensions in the rural areas of England, Wales, and Scotland. It looks at a range of topics related to community and planning issues, including attitudes to rural development, economic change, land use, planning, and counter-urbanization. The Rural Housing Question emphasizes the need for serious debate on government's rural housing policies and on the broad approach to development and communities in the countryside.

The rural fuse has been lit. The countryside is tinder-dry. Post offices and banks, shops and schools are closing. Farmers are going out of business. Houses are becoming unaffordable as prices soar ad poverty grows. Pollution and over-exploitation are destroying landscapes. Many rural communities are on the verge of collapse. Some fear the foot- and - mouth crisis will prove to be the last straw. This book offers disturbing evidence of the background to the crisis. A Countryside For All is a rallying cry for action, pointing ways towards a presciption for the future. This volume tackles many of the issues in a variety of new and original ways. Possibly the most controversial and radical call is for the creation of a Department for the Countryside, with a Secretary of State for the Countryside- who would be responsible for setting a coherent set of policies to reverse the decline of rural Britain. This timely book outlines the main problems facing the countryside, and starts to bring together a balanced range of proposals. Thought-provoking, filled with common sense, often controversial but always fascinating, it points the way forward for the countryside, and for town and country as a whole.

The rural areas of Britain, Europe and the developed world are undergoing massive changes, with increasing concern about productivity, agricultural methods and environmental policy. Rural Politics examines the issues affecting rural areas, such as water pollution, forestry, and the greening of agricultural policy. It looks in particular at the political parameters to these issues and how concern for the countryside is essentially a part of a wider set of political processes. Rural Politics provides a much needed examination of the evolution and content of policies affecting today's countryside, both in terms of major land uses and economic and social development.

This engaging history of rural England and Wales during the twentieth century looks at the role of the countryside as both a place of work and of leisure and looks at the many crises it has suffered during that time.

Focuses on how certain constructs are bound up with ideas of tradition, power, and conformity and have become privileged over other constructs. Provides examples of the experiences of certain marginalized groups within rural areas, explores the activities of a number of groups that have attempted to challenge mainstream perceptions and usage, and considers changing rural power structures and some key confrontations between new rural residents and traditional elites. Among the topics are re-negotiating the boundaries of race and citizenship, rural pollution and environmental others, hunt followers, diverging voices in a rural Welsh community, and gendered experiences of community in village life. Distributed in the US by Books International. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This is the 11th report from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (HCP 544-I, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780215524201) and focuses on the potential of England's rural economy. A report from the Rural Advocate to the Prime Minister in June 2008 (http://www.ruralcommunities.gov.uk/files/CRC74.pdf), estimated the untapped potential from rural business as between £236 billion and £347 billion per annum. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has not commented on these figures, but the Committee believes that if the figures are accurate, tackling the factors that inhibit growth of businesses in rural areas could make a substantial difference to the performance of England's economy as a whole. The Committee states that DEFRA should produce its own estimate and that the Department's present approach to the rural economy will not deliver the tailored solutions that rural business needs. DEFRA's new Departmental Strategic Objective (DSO) does not convince the Committee that this will identify the factors inhibiting economic growth. The DSO is spilt into two intermediate outcomes: (i) that the needs of rural people are met through mainstream policy; (ii) by supporting economic growth in rural areas with the lowest levels of performance. Both these outcomes are directed towards the objective of developing "Strong Rural Communities". For the Committee, DEFRA should focus on achieving economic growth across rural areas as a whole, and not exclusively concentrate on areas of the lowest performance and that the indicators obtained from the DSOs are incomplete, because they do not include transport, communications, planning and further education. Also, there is no distinction between different types and sizes of rural community. The Committee further states that DEFRA needs to consult with the Commission for Rural Communities on whether the indicators represent the best way of identifying problems. The delivery of the DSO's will also depend heavily on other Departments, Regional Development Agencies and local authorities and DEFRA needs to produce a delivery plan setting out what assistance it needs from these bodies.

"One of the most important, imaginative, solidly documented, well written books of medieval history that I have ever read. . . . It offers a unique combination of synthetic power and analytic perception, of bold judgment and Cartesian doubt, of hard economic facts and subtle psychological considerations."--

This book applies an economic and environmental perspective to the history of landscape and the rural economy, highlighting their inter-connections through specific case studies. After explaining how the author made his discoveries and when they started, it analyses relations between documentary and landscape evidence. It is based on exceptional first-hand observation of a dozen sites and close consideration of topics in the ecological and economic history of southern England. They range from reclaiming chalk down-land, occupying low-lying heaths and reconstructing parkland, to wool-stapling and the manufacture of gunstocks for the African slave trade. Additional themes include the tension between ecology and institutions in decisions about the location of economic activity; the decay of communal farming ahead of enclosure; and other interesting puzzles in rural economic history. This book offers an original approach to questions in economic history through its synthesis of different types of evidence. It will be of interest to a diverse range of readers because it addresses how economic change was registered in the landscape, and how that change was influenced by landscape. It is a book with highly original features, contributing simultaneously to economic, agricultural, environmental, and landscape history.

This collection of essays examines representations of the English countryside and its mutations, and what they reveal about a nation’s, communities’ or individuals’ search for identity – and fear of losing it. Based on a pluridisciplinary approach and a variety of media, this book challenges the view that the English countryside is an apolitical space characterised by permanence and lack of conflict. It analyses how the pastoral motif is actually subverted to explore liminal spaces and temporalities. The authors deconstruct the “rural idyll” myth to show how it plays a distinctive and yet ambiguous part in defining Englishness/Britishness. A must read for both scholars and students interested in British rural and cultural history, media and literature.