The sustainability of rural systems: global and local challenges and opportunities

Abstract

The chapters in this volume were among papers presented at the 19th Colloquium of the Commission on the Sustainability of Rural Systems (CSRS) of the International Geographical Union, held at the National University of Ireland Galway, in August 2011. The chapters were peer reviewed. They are organised under four main thematic headings which reflect key research interests of CSRS members: Land Use, Agriculture and Food; Rural Population; Rural Development; Rural Tourism. The chapters are preceded by an Introduction by Mary Cawley and the text of four keynote lectures. Guy M. Robinson conceptualises agricultural sustainability with reference to local challenges in a global context. Michael Woods invokes the ‘relational politics of the rural’ as a framework for gaining insights into global challenges and responses. Ana Maria de S. M. Bicalho and Lucette Laurens illustrate how local actors exercise agency in responding to contemporary challenges in the very differing environments of Amazonia and the environs of Montpellier in France. The volume ends with the text of a fifth keynote lecture by Tony Sorensen who encourages geographers to expand their theoretical frameworks in studying the sustainability of rural systems.