Placing the Rural in Regional Development

Ward N. and Brown D. L. Placing the rural in regional development, Regional Studies. Urban and regional development studies tend to focus on the urban as driving innovation and growth, with surrounding areas cast in a passive, residual role. As a result, rural and urban development debates are often conducted separately. This paper introduces a special issue on rural development. It sets out current rural development thinking in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, and explores two trends affecting the place of rural areas in regional development – the differentiation of ruralities in the context of global changes and the changing nature of travel and communications – or mobilities. It then introduces the papers in the special issue