This module introduces students to rural geography and contemporary issues facing the countryside. The module provides a history of the nature of rural geography and its struggle to define who and what counts as rural. The module considers contemporary rural change covering regimes of agricultural production and decline; the production and consumption of rural landscapes; contestation over the use of the countryside; and population change in rural environments, In developed and developing countries, the module considers debates over mineral extraction, agricultural development and approaches to rural development.

Demonstrate understanding of the development of rural geography and its theories and concepts;

Assess the merits of different approaches to defining rural space;

Understand the geographical bases for current rural controversies;

Relate theories from rural geography to real-life examples of rural change and controversies

• To be taught by a combination of traditional lectures (e.g. involving whole group survey and question/answer sessions) and seminars.

This module combines lectures, seminars and videos in order to give students a varied learning experience and also to expose them to other people’s, and indeed ‘real world’, views. Lectures are intended to describe, explain and illustrate key empirical processes and trends, and their relations to current theoretical debates, in contemporary environmental geography. However, students are actively encouraged to offer thoughts, questions and responses to issues and themes raised during lectures; a participatory model of education is sought.

1. Develop and apply critical thought to concepts of rural space and and their relevance to geography;
2. Preparing and presenting arguments and information in a variety of forms, e.g: written and oral.
3. Using IT in work preparation and presentation
4. Engage in small groups discussions

• Assessed by unseen exam (50%), and written essay (maximum 1500 words, 50%).

Type of assessment

%

Contribution

Title

Duration
(if applicable)

Approx. date of Assessment

Essay

50

Essay

2000 words

March 2016

Exam

50

Unseen examination

1.5 hrs

May 2016

The potential for reassessment in this module

Students are permitted to be reassessed in a module which they have failed, in line with the course regulations. The reassessment will usually take place during the summer.

Lectures and actitivies will cover the following subjects:

Rural Geography: the module will cover the evolution of rural geography as a distinct aspect of geography.

Defining the rural: Lectures will consider who or what is rural and how these questions have been explored by the discipline.

Rural Change: the module will consider population change in rural areas, the role of counterurbanisation and its impacts to rural services.

Rural Contests: the module will examine contests over the use of rural space.

Rural Development: the module will consider different modes of rural development used in the developed and developing world and their consequences.

Agricultural change: the module will cover changes to agricultural regimes and their impacts upon the countryside.

Rural Otherness: the module will consider social exclusion and the exclusion of ‘others’ from rural space.

Representations of rurality: the module will consider the construction of the rural idyll in different media

Indicative Reading and Resource List:

Cloke, P. ed. 2003. Country Visions. London: Pearson.

Cloke P and Edwards G 1986 Rurality in England and Wales 1981: A replication of the 1971 index Regional Studies: The Journal of the Regional Studies Association 20 289-306

Cloke, P. and Little, J. eds. 1997. Contested Countryside Cultures. London: Routledge.

Halfacree, K. H. 1993. Locality and social representation: Space, discourse and alternative definitions of the rural. Journal of Rural Studies 9(1), pp. 23-37.

Holloway, L. and Kneafsey, M. eds. 2004. Geographies of Rural Cultures and Societies. Coventry: Ashgate.

Ilbery, B. ed. 1998. The Geography of Rural Change. London: Pearson.

Milbourne, P. 2011. Rural Wales in the Twenty-First Century.Cardiff: University of Wales.

Woods, M. 2005. Rural Geography. London: Sage.

Woods M 2011 Rural  Routledge London