This research focuses on the complex meaning and role of the city in American and French rural gay men's imaginary and life experience. It explores how gay men who grew up in the country build their sense of self through back-and-forth movement from rural to urban spaces. Therefore, it questions traditional gay migration studies, which have often…

Rural gentrification, which is linked in particular to the migration and permanent settlement in the countryside of middle-class or affluent urbanites, is increasingly affecting contemporary rural communities. Despite the significance of this trend, the complex and many-sided phenomenon of rural gentrification has hardly been explored in scholarly…

All the time the long economic growth period of 1992-2008 prevailed in Finland, the economic landscape was changing constantly and markedly. We analyse in this article how net migration plagued certain less competitive, mainly rural push-lose municipalities, and boosted in-migration to the pull-win municipalities in metropolitan environments…

This article examines the imagery and imaginaries of islander identity and makes an original contribution to the fields of gerontology and nissology. Drawing on data collected through in-depth interviews with 19 older residents of two small-island communities located off the island of Ireland, we address the central roles played by older people in…

Migration into rural areas is often explained in terms of the rural idyll, the attraction of the countryside with its less hurried way of life in a quiet, spacious and green environment. However, this migration phenomenon has mostly been researched in attractive, amenity-rich, popular rural areas. This paper investigates the characteristics and…

"Should I stay or should I leave my home region?" is one of the key life course questions that many young people must address as they grow to maturity. Social mobility increasingly presupposes geographical mobility, especially in rural areas. The consequences of the selective out-migration of socially mobile young people ("brain…

One of the most pressing questions in the rural gentrification literature is whether rural residents face difficulties in finding a home within their locality due to the influx of more wealthy newcomers. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which intended local movers and intended non-local movers have realised their rural residential…

In-migration is a key influence in the process of rural economic development in England, Continental Europe and the US. New arrivals are often viewed in the literature as contributors in new venture creation, as well as catalysts in enhancing rural-urban interdependencies in the countryside. This paper sets out to explore the validity of this view…

Although gentrification is a process commonly associated with urban landscapes, rural areas in advanced economies have also experienced gentrification over the past two decades. Largely based on case study approaches, the Rural Studies literature describes transformations in the housing market, changed cultural attitudes toward the environment,…

This paper examines gender differences in awareness, preparedness and attitudes towards bushfire amongst landholders in rural landscapes affected by amenity-led in-migration in southeast Australia. It considers the potential of conceptualising bushfire not as a gender-neutral natural phenomenon but as an important means by which traditional gender…

Multifunctionality in agriculture has received a lot of attention the last decade from researchers and policy-makers alike, perhaps most notably evidenced by the important changes made to the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. While the concept has been embraced by environmentalists envisioning positive impulses for decoupling and a range of local…

Many belonging to large post-war age cohorts in the western countries moved from rural areas to larger industrializing cities. They retire soon and can consider moving back to the childhood places. This article studies these baby boomers and the issues about their return to peripheral rural areas. The case regards one rural municipality,…

Rural researchers have found that women leave rural communities at a higher rate than men. Rural education researchers have also found that young women are significantly more successful in formal education than their male counterparts. Few studies though attempt to explain why this is so. This work presents data and analysis from two studies of…

Analysis of georeferenced population data for Finland, 1970-2000, showed that rural youth, particularly rural young women, have been moving out of sparsely populated areas to growth centers and more densely populated areas in general. Interview data from young people included attitudes toward migration versus staying put, usually related to…

Rural intentional communities withdraw from mainstream urban space, rejecting its materialism and consumption. In creating their own places in the countryside, they produce new spaces of rurality. Constructions of rurality by intentional communities can be perceived as "out of place" by local populations. This article draws on a wider…