The study of rural change from a social scientific perspective: a literature review and annotated bibliography

Abstract

This publication comprises a review of two decades of literature (1989-2009) on the social science of rural change. It was constructed as an aid to research on the changing nature of Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand, with particular emphasis on the Cromwell and Makarora Districts. In these areas the rural landscape has changed as a result of the introduction of a wide variety of new economic and social activities. Traditional pastoral agriculture remains but has been supplemented with activities associated with tourism, recreation, hospitality, heritage and nature conservation, amenity and retirement residence and new crops such as grapes and export grade cherries. The publication has two parts. Part 1 is a Review Essay (pp.1-20) which synthesises the 165 research articles included in Part 2 – the Annotated Bibliography (pp.21-99). The review essay will help the reader navigate through the many annotations (which are listed in Part 2 alphabetically by first author name, not by topics or themes). The bibliographic material was drawn from social scientific journals, government reports, book chapters and conference proceedings and covers work on: neo-liberal (rural) restructuring and the conceptual transition from productivist to post-productivist/multi-functional rural spaces, new rural governance, rural commodification, neo-endogenous rural development (and the culture economy approach to rural revitalisation), amenity migration and more recent theorising about the emergent global and hybrid countryside.