From measuring the rural to the rural made to measure: social representations in perspective.

Flávio Sacco Dos Anjos,Nádia Velleda Caldas

doi:10.1590/s0104-59702014000200002

Flávio Sacco Dos Anjos, Nádia Velleda Caldas

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-59702014000200002

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Abstract

The founding myth of rural sociology established an opposition between countryside and cities, classifying these notions as separate spatial and social realities. In the last two decades, an idyllic and divinized image of the rural has been constructed, especially in countries from the European Union. What reasons have conspired to foster this new appreciation of the rural? Is there a mutually accepted, recurring meaning between the way this new discourse about the rural is created in Europe and in other countries? This study aims to explore some of the contradictions associated with what the authors call the emergence of a rural "made to measure" in a context marked by post-productivism and the increasing weight of post-materialist values, taking social representations of the rural as the focus of the analysis.

Highlights

It would be stating the obvious to say that since the late twentieth century, rural and sparsely urbanized areas have become the object of renewed appreciation
In Europe there are powerful arguments behind this rediscovery, which is strongly linked to the resurgence of a discourse that includes terms widely used in the academic and political/institutional environments, such as the multifunctionality of the rural, the territorial focus, intersectoriality, or even what has been called “new rurality”, all of which has a strong influence on the design of proposals for development interventions for areas considered peripheral and/or underprivileged
The transition operated by the Common Agricultural Policy since the late 1990s and the emergence of instruments for interventions in sparely urbanized or rural areas help shed quite a clear light on the nature and scope of this process

Summary

Nádia Velleda Caldas

ANJOS, Flávio Sacco dos; CALDAS, Nádia Velleda. From measuring the rural to the rural made to measure: social representations in perspective. Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, v.21, n.2, abr.-jun.

Social representations

The rural idyll

The rural as a synonym for nature

Findings

Final considerations