Rural Regeneration in the UK

Rural Regeneration in the UK provides an accessible yet critical overview of rural regeneration policy and governance in the UK. It charts the key patterns and processes of rural change since 1945 and the emergence and evolution of rural regeneration policy and governance in shaping rural spaces. A key objective of the book is to highlight how, and to what extent, rural regeneration policy and governance are responsive to an increasingly differentiated and uneven rural economy and society.

Part One considers the context for rural regeneration, including theoretical frameworks of relevance and the ways in which rural regeneration policy and governance have been framed. In particular, it includes a consideration of how the rural has been made ‘thinkable’, and the extent to which this has moved beyond traditional concerns with agricultural development. Part Two highlights the key dimensions and spaces of rural regeneration. This includes responses to rural change from ‘within the rural’, including community-led approaches, the use of culture and the extent to which approaches may be converging or diverging within a devolved UK.

Rural Regeneration in the UK provides a comprehensive and integrated analysis of responses to rural change that will appeal to a broad audience of students, scholars and practitioners both in the UK and abroad.

Simon Pemberton is Professor of Human Geography at Keele University, UK. His academic work has a strong policy application and bridges the geography–planning–public policy interface. He has research interests in rural regeneration, rural and community planning, and the rescaling of the state. He has published widely in all of these areas.