Translocal Ruralism: Mobility and Connectivity in European Rural Spaces (GeoJournal Library Book 103)

Rural areas are often viewed as isolated and stagnating areas and urban areas as their opposites. Against such a backdrop, this book seeks to unveil a set of dynamics that view rural areas as ‘translocal’ in the sense that they are ‘changing’ and ‘inter­connected’. Social transformations take place in rural areas as the result of intense exchanges between different people, settings and geographies. Accordingly, rural-urban but also rural-rural interrelations on international and national scales are strongly contributing to rural change. Translocal ruralism is exemplified through the analysis of local and global migratory flows, the activities of rural firms in national and glo­bal arenas, the spread of different forms of transportation and dislocation, and the growing information society, which enables rural spaces to be connected to the world and improves new ways of interconnection and sociability practices. The book is structured into two parts, which intertwine the dynamics of rural spaces. The first part, ‘__Linking nodes: people and networks connecting places__’, is concerned with mobilities such as migration and commuting, and the establishment of national and global networks. The second part, ‘__International mobilities: a tension between scales’__, analyses the dynamics of international migration and mobilities in rural areas. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Translocal Ruralism: Mobility and Connectivity in European Rural Spaces....Pages 1-9 Front Matter....Pages 11-11 Between Marginalisation and Urbanisation: Mobilities and Social Change in Southern Portugal....Pages 13-33 The Ties That Bind? Spatial (Im)mobilities and the Transformation of Rural-Urban Connections....Pages 35-53 “The Rural” Intervening in the Lives of Internal and International Migrants: Migrants, Biographies and Translocal Practices....Pages 55-72 Youth “Settled” by Mobility: Ethnography of a Portuguese Village....Pages 73-86 Migration Dynamics in Romania and the Counter-Urbanisation Process: A Case Study of Bucharest’s Rural-Urban Fringe....Pages 87-102 Local Embeddedness and Global Links in Rural Areas: Euclidean and Relational Space in Business Networks....Pages 103-121 Front Matter....Pages 123-123 When the World Goes Rural: Transnational Potentials of International Migration in Rural Swedish Labour Markets....Pages 125-142 Foreigners, Neighbours, Immigrants: Translocal Mobilities in Rural Areas in Spain....Pages 143-162 Transnational Immigration in Rural Greece: Analysing the Different Mobilities of Albanian Immigrants....Pages 163-183 Goloka Dhama: A Translocal Hare Krishna Community....Pages 185-201 Boundary Crossings: Migration, Belonging/‘Un-belonging’ in Rural Scotland....Pages 203-217 Back Matter....Pages 219-221 Rural areas are often viewed as isolated and stagnating areas and urban areas as their opposites. Against such a backdrop, this book seeks to unveil a set of dynamics that view rural areas as 'translocal' in the sense that they are 'changing' and 'inter connected'. Social transformations take place in rural areas as the result of intense exchanges between different people, settings and geographies. Accordingly, rural-urban but also rural-rural interrelations on international and national scales are strongly contributing to rural change. Translocal ruralism is exemplified through the analysis o Rural areas are often viewed as isolated and stagnating areas and urban areas as their opposites. This book corrects this misconception. It illustrates that rural areas are dynamic and interconnected by flows and mobilities. Rural areas are often viewed as isolated and stagnating areas and urban areas as their opposites. This text corrects this misconception. It illustrates that rural areas are dynamic and interconnected by flows and mobilities