"Energizing" Rural Space: The Representation of Countryside Culture as an Economic Development Strategy

Abstract

The last three decades have witnessed substantial changes in the role of rural spaces amid the restructuring of advanced capitalist economies and in the way that they are approached as a focus of inquiry. The significance of the "rural" is shifting from a production orientation (e.g., agriculture) to a consumption–oriented role (i.e., the symbolic value of a rural identity by which to market a particular place to inhabitants, investors, visitors, and funding sources). "Rurality" has become a dominant theme, characterized by its central concern with the construction and representation of appealing countryside identities. Strategic representations of rurality are most commonly achieved by valorizing the cultural and historical resources of a particular place and time. This paper examines the processes of "energizing" rural space in this manner by way of a site of a booming entertainment complex founded on Ozark themes in Branson, Missouri. A series of five assertions provide structure for the analysis.