Philip Lowe

Terry Marsden

Sarah Whatmore

The volumes in this series provide a review of the progress of current research taking as their focus one major theme per volume.

Global Processes and Their Responses

Rural Restructuring

Sustainable rural development and food production has faced significant new challenges since the early 2000s. Cheap food is no longer readily available, and climate change and depleting natural resources have created the conditions for a contested and unstable political economy. A new understanding of agri-food and its relationships with rural and urban development is vital to tackling the demands for sustainability and security in our globalized and vulnerable world. This volume offers a thorough investigation of different sets of justifications for sustainability: political, scientific, technological and social. Despite widespread agreement about the importance of a sustainable future, the form this should take is contested by public, private and civic interests. Moving beyond the compromises of late 20th century post-productivism, this ambitious study suggests guiding principles and frameworks for a new phase of sustainable development in a world which is fast exceeding its natural resources.

Sustainable Place-Making

Agri-Food and Rural Development

Kevin Morgan

Jonathan Murdoch

From farm to fork, the conventional food chain is under enormous pressure to respond to a whole series of new challenges - food scares in rich countries, food security concerns in poor countries, and a burgeoning problem of obesity in all countries. As more and more people demand to know where their food comes from, and how it is produced, issues of place, power, and provenance assume increasing significance for producers, consumers, and regulators, challenging the corporate forces that shape the 'placeless foodscape'. Far from being confined to niche products, questions about the origins of food are also surfacing in the conventional sector, where labelling has become a major political issue. Drawing on theories of multi-level governance, three leading scholars in the field explore the geo-politics of the food chain in different spatial arenas: the World Trade Organization, where free trade principles clash with fair trade concerns in the debate about agricultural reform; the European Union, where producers are under pressure from environmentalists for a more traceable and sustainable food system; and the US, where there is a striking contradiction between the rhetoric of free markets and the reality of a heavily subsidised farming sector. To understand the local impact of these global trends, the authors explore three different regional worlds of food: the traditional world of localised quality in Tuscany, the peripheral world of commodity production in Wales, and the frontier world of agri-business in California.

Place, Power, and Provenance in the Food Chain

Worlds of Food

Alessandro Bonanno

Josefa Salete Barbosa Cavalcanti

This book looks at labor in agriculture and food in a global era by studying salient characteristics of the conditions and use of labor in global agri-food. Written by experienced and also emerging scholars, the chapters present a wealth of empirical data and robust theorizations that allow readers to grasp the complexity of this topic.

Labor Relations in Globalized Food

Samarthia Thankappan

Andrew Flynn

Robert Lee

Major questions surround who, how, and by what means should the interests of government, the private sector, or consumers hold authority and powers over decisions concerning the production and consumption of foods. This book examines the development of food policy and regulation following the BSE (mad cow disease) crisis of the late 1990s, and traces the changing relationships between three key sets of actors: private interests, such as the corporate retailers; public regulators, such as the EU directorates and UK agencies; and consumer groups at EU and national levels. The authors explore how these interests deal with the conundrum of continuing to stimulate a corporately organised and increasingly globalised food system at the same time as creating a public and consumer-based legitimate framework for it. The analysis develops a new model and synthesis of food policy and regulation which reassesses these public/private sector responsibilities with new evidence and theoretical insights.

Beyond the Food Crisis?

The New Regulation and Governance of Food

A thorough examination of tremendous changes apparent in traditional rural society in recent years and their affects on modern, national societies. Studies the broad trends that have altered the parameters employed by policymakers at different scales in western societies including Sweden, Australia, Britain and the United States. Explores the inadequacies of the rural sociology approach used over the past two decades to examine changing rural social relations and stresses the need for a new, holistic approach.

Ian Drummond

This book examines the political economy of sustainable development. The authors consider why most approaches to sustainable development have proved inadequate. Bringing together key ideas from social theory, food regimes and sustainability debates, the book presents a new and more dynamic way of thinking about sustainable development and a methodology for applying these ideas. Case study material focuses on the food system particularly the sugar industry in Australia and Barbados.

The Condition of Sustainability

Michelle Harrison

Combining theory, research and policy Consuming Interests provides a topical interdisciplinary exploration into the nature of food provision, policy and regulation. The book provides a detailed examination of corporate retailers, state agencies and consumer organisations involved in the food sector. The analysis explores questions including: * what can the public expect from the state * what limits are there on state action * what are the most appropriate balances between public and private interests in the provision of 'quality' foods.

The Social Provision of Foods

Consuming Interests

Leo Granberg

Kjell Andersson

Stefan Sjöblom

Peter Ehrström

During modernity metropolitan ruralities have been regarded as land reserves for urban expansion. However, there is a growing insight that there are limits to the urban expansion into rural areas. This volume discusses potential developments in urban (and rural) policy and planning which need to be considered.

Metropolitan Ruralities

"This book brings together key debates and empirical cases from an international perspective exploring the ways in which more sustainable communities might develop. The book critically reviews the literatures on sustainable communities before addressing through empirical case studies of Firm, State and Resource perspectives on attempts to create them. The volume is a synthesis of research work and debate conducted over recent years by members of the Economic and Social Research Council's research centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society (BRASS), under its sustainable communities programme."--BOOK JACKET.

Sustainable Communities

An ambitious retrospective and prospective overview of the field that aims to position Nature, the environment and natural processes, at the heart of interdisciplinary social sciences.

The SAGE Handbook of Nature

Jonathon Murdoch

Richard C Munton

Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning Terry Marsden

As the first book in the Restructuring Rural Areas series, "Constructing the countryside" presents a new methodological approach to the analysis of rural change. The authors seek to link wider developments in the global political economy to the behaviour of local actors and, in so doing, they place research into rural studies much more firmly than hitherto in the mainstream of social science enquiry. The outcome is a book that promotes a truly interdisciplinary approach through which the constant "reconstruction" of the countryside can be properly understood. This holistic perspective, sustained by an historical analysis of rural change, has been made possible by the extensive research experience of the authors.; The book is a product of the work done at the London Countryside Research Centre, which was set up in 1989 by the Economic and Social Research Council. The Centre's research has focused upon the social and political forces for change in rural areas and how these relate to rapid alterations in national economic circumstances and to public policies affecting the countryside for example, the Common Agricultural Policy of the EC .; On the one hand, the book provides a set of insights into the trends that will guide rural change in advanced economies into the next century; on the other, it offers a challenging account of how they can be investigated.; "Constructing the countryside" will appeal to both students and staff in a wide range of social science disciplines, including agricultural economics, environmental management, planning, land economy, geography and rural sociology, and to all those concerned with the future development of rural areas.; This book is intended for students and researchers in rural planning and environmental/geographical studies, whether within a geographical or a sociological milieu.

Terry Marsden

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