Critiques the usage of "rurality"--a key term in the field of "rural" studies. Suggests that the multiple meanings of "rurality" demonstrate the rupture of sign and signification discussed in recent debates concerning ideology, hegemony, and poststructuralism. Argues in favor of a productive dialog between Gramscian…

Responds to Philo's article calling for rural studies to focus research on marginalized groups and communities within rural areas. Recommends a reconstructed sociology of postmodernism that would end the use of global concepts such as "rural" and focus on the ways in which power relations contribute to the construction of rurality (and…