THE CONCEPT OF RURALITY AND THE RURAL-URBAN RELATIONSHIP AS PERCEIVED BY YOUNG PEOPLE

The authors are jointly responsible for this paper, however B. de Gennaro wrote the paragraphs 1and 2; A. Fantini wrote the paragraphs 3 and 4; paragraph 5 was written by both. This paper explores the concept of rurality and the rural-urban relationship as perceived by young people. First, there is a brief review of the main theoretical approaches to the issue of the definition of “the rural”. Then, the theory of “social representation ” is taken into consideration to better understand what makes the rural and natural environment attractive, together with the perception of the difficulties which hinder rural development. The Region of Abruzzo, with its blurred boundaries between rurality and urbanization was chosen as the area to be studied to verify if it is possible to identify a distinction between urban and rural lifestyles and whether the residents of urban and rural areas have different criteria for evaluation. The differences found among a sample of students in the Region of Abruzzo in questionnaire responses on the concept of rurality and the rural-urban relationship are presented with a quantitative model. The analytical framework raises some important concerns for the governance of the socio-economic development of rural environments and suggests that greater attention must be paid to how different social groups in different social environments understand, explain and articulate the complexity of rurality and the rural urban relationship in their everyday life