Rural processes of change

Question 1

What changes happened in rural areas, productivist to post productivist phase?

Answer 1

WW2: We nearly surrendered due to lack of food because the Germans were blockading our shipments form the colonies

1950-80: green revolution - increase in farm output due to mechanisation, modernisation and industrialisation of farming so we could feed ourselves

1980s onwards:
- changes towards quality not quantity
- environmental considerations
- high production values
- didn’t creat jobs however

Question 2

What is the post-productive countryside?

Answer 2

rural areas that no longer make most of their income from primary industry e.g. farming/fishing/forestry etc and are now dominated by consumption and recreation

Question 3

Why has there been a loss of jobs in the post-productive countryside?

Answer 3

Globalisation
Technology
Social change

Question 4

How has globalisation caused job loss in the post-productive countryside?

Answer 4

• competition with the wider world has led to sectoral change
• other places have better/year round growing conditions so agriculture declines

Question 5

How has technology caused job loss in the post-productive countryside?

Answer 5

mechanisation, automation, transport and internet change the perceptions/realities of working in rural areas

• mechanisation: machines are more efficient and less expensive than humans
• society: people want to be in cities as they see city jobs as being more valued and better paid
• tertiary sector growth: jobs are higher paid, flexible and attractive
• retirees
• imports/globalisation (see other flashcard)

Question 6

How has social change caused job loss in the post-productive countryside?

Answer 6

• people want to eat out of season foods, increasing imports e.g. Almería, Spain
• people are more interested in exotic foods e.g. pineapples that aren’t grown in the UK countryside

Question 7

Why are accessible rural areas growing?

Answer 7

COUNTER-URBANISATION from 1970 onwards

KEY FACTORS AFFECTING:
- improved transport/increase in car ownership
- more jobs in reach of rural areas (not in city centres)
- changes in tech and increased use of IT
- increase in standards of living promote the desire to ‘seek the good life’ in the country. People will take a pay cut to live in a better env

Question 8

What are the push factors away from urban areas?

Answer 8

e.g.
- crime
- pollution
- congestion
- noise
- poor schools

Question 9

What are the pull factors towards rural areas?

Answer 9

e.g.
- rural idyll (bigger houses, gardens, green spaces, relaxed…)
- better QoL
- reduced pollution, crime, congestion
- less stress

Question 10

What is counter-urbanisation?

Answer 10

the migration of population and jobs from major urban areas to more rural settlements