The Routledge Companion to Rural Planning

The Routledge Companion to Rural Planning provides a critical account and state of the art review of rural planning in the early years of the twenty-first century.

Looking across different international experiences ? from Europe, North America and Australasia to the transition and emerging economies, including BRIC and former communist states ? it aims to develop new conceptual propositions and theoretical insights, supported by detailed case studies and reviews of available data. The Companion gives coverage to emerging topics in the field and seeks to position rural planning in the broader context of global challenges: climate change, the loss of biodiversity, food and energy security, and low carbon futures. It also looks at old, established questions in new ways: at social and spatial justice, place shaping, economic development, and environmental and landscape management. Planning in the twenty-first century must grapple not only with the challenges presented by cities and urban concentration, but also grasp the opportunities ? and understand the risks ? arising from rural change and restructuring. Rural areas are diverse and dynamic. This Companion attempts to capture and analyse at least some of this diversity, fostering a dialogue on likely and possible rural futures between a global community of rural planning researchers.

Primarily intended for scholars and graduate students across a range of disciplines, such as planning, rural geography, rural sociology, agricultural studies, development studies, environmental studies and countryside management, this book will prove to be an invaluable and up-to-date resource.

"Despite today?s intensifying globalisation, the traits of rural areas and perspectives of rural planning are still highly varied in different countries. The comprehensive scope of Companion to Rural Planning well captures such multiplicity of contemporary rural areas. The richly detailed essays in the companion provide a range of new insights about economy, social changes, energy and resources in today?s rural society. The companion will offer a valuable intellectual stimulus not only to scholars, but also actors engaged in rural development in Asian countries including Japan, where rural planning is generally lagging." - Tokumi Odagiri, Professor of Rural Policy and Governance, Meiji University, Japan

"The Routledge Companion to Rural Planning presents 54 chapters on the complex relationship between planning and rural land uses. Covering a huge variety of topics, the Companion is an invaluable source of information on the economic, social, legal, and political aspects of life in the countryside. This book is an excellent contribution to planning literature!" - Ben Davy, Professor of Land Policy, Land Management, and Municipal Geoinformation, University of Dortmund, Germany

"This is a hugely impressive tome that fully succeeds in its aim of arguing for the reinvention of rural planning. The editors? passionate belief in this recasting of rural planning shines through at every stage, not just in their opening and closing chapters and their introductions to each of the books? nine sections but also in their input to seven of the other 52 chapters and getting on board 77 other contributors from 21 countries to provide critical reviews of the current state of play. This book should be essential reading for all those involved in rural planning and, because of its espousal of holistic approaches, it deserves to be read by urban planners too and indeed by everyone concerned with the future of Planet Earth." - Tony Champion, Emeritus Professor of Population Geography, Newcastle University, UK 

"The Routledge Companion to Rural Planning is a brilliant piece of work! This 'state-of-the-art' book is essential reading for anyone in either research or practice with an interest in rural vitalization and integrated rural and urban planning. The book presents a particularly useful focus on rural planning issues across developing countries." - Hualou Long, Professor of Human Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

"Providing an inclusive perspective, The Routledge Companion to Rural Planning provides a fresh approach to analyzing rural realities. This edited volume should be mandatory reading for all planning curriculum whether it is in a rural-, regional- or urban-focused program. Not only is this book an outstanding resource for researchers, but it is an eye opening read for practicing planners, sociologists, and rural studies faculty and students. READ IT! You will never look at the countryside in the same way again." - Ann Ziebarth, Professor of Housing Studies, University of Minnesota, USA