RURAL STUDIES OF POWER AND THE POWER OF RURAL STUDIES - A REPLY

We seek to clarify some of the issues raised by Chris Philo [(1993), J ournal of Rural Studies 9, 429-436] in his reply to our paper entitled 'Rural studies: modernism, postmodernism and the 'post-rural'' [Murdo ch, J. and Pratt, A.C. (1993), Journal of Rural Studies 9, 411-427]. W e argue that a sociology of postmodernism would allow orthodox sociolo gical tools to be used in the analysis of a changing social situation. These tools should be used reflexively and should be employed to show bow the rural is the outcome of multiple sets of power relations. Soc iological and geographical analyses can also be considered as social p rocesses which give rise to particular conceptions of the rural. Thus, the practice of rural studies is also the practice of power.