Rural transformations, rural futures: introduction to theme section

ABSTRACT

This theme section editorial introduction presents a collection of papers brought together under the heading Rural transformations, rural futures. The papers are elaborations of work presented at a European Society for Rural Sociology ‘satellite event’ entitled Transitioning Rural Futures. Contributions to the theme section add to the emerging corpus of work that examines potentially transformative immediate and medium-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural areas, and also speak to other ‘grand challenges’ likely to transform rural places and shape rural futures: specifically, resilience, digitalisation, wellbeing, socio-economic inequalities, shifting rural policy landscapes and impacts of transnational economic events.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural futures
• resilience
• digitalisation
• inequalities
• wellbeing
• rural policy

Acknowledgements

The co-editors of the theme section wish to thank all those who contributed work to this collection of papers, many of whom also contributed as peer reviewers, providing supportive and constructive feedback. We record our thanks to the Scottish Geographical Journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Chris Philo, for his support for this project and meticulous editorial oversight of all contributions to the theme section.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The satellite event was organised by Leanne Townsend, Mags Currie and Christina Noble.