What rural restructuring?

This paper emerges from a growing sense of disquiet over the regularity and often loosely utilised appearance of the concept 'rural restructuring' in the literature. The paper examines rural restructuring from two perspective s - as an analytical approach that emphasizes the need for a holistic view of change processes, and as a statement on the character of change in the c ountryside. The argument put forward is that restructuring ideas have much to commend them as an approach, even if theoretical improvement will requir e more diversity in 'starting' theoretical perspectives and a stronger will ingness to engage with other theoretical stances when the weaknesses of a ' starting' perspective are revealed. This will entail approaching questions of rural restructuring from a broader range of perspectives than currently dominant visions, which are grounded in political economy. In exploring res tructuring ideas as 'facts', the paper focuses on England, as this is a cou ntry in which rural restructuring is commonly reported to have occurred or be occurring. The paper argues that this vision of the English countryside is too poorly articulated and that support for this vision is far from conv incing. It cautions that restructuring processes are less widespread than i s often implied. Moreover, there are grounds for seeing restructuring proce sses are reifying the past, not heralding a new social dynamic. (C) 2001 El sevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.