Description

The book brings together rural scholars from the Global North and the Global South, who have contributed chapters based on their own contexts. The book aims to provide a general picture of how rural communities are responding to challenges in a global context. This general picture can be presented through three specific research questions, namely (1) What is the socio-economic status of rural development in the country? This research question tends to explore the socio-economic status of rural development in the contributor's country or in the country of study. It highlights the challenges to sustainable rural development in the country. (2) How are rural communities responding to these challenges? This research question focuses on analysing how rural communities are responding to challenges such as depopulation, spatial compression, economic marginalisation and climate change. (3) How can rural resilience to risks and future challenges be built? This research question aims to discuss possible approaches and actions to build rural resilience to current challenges and to seek transformation to better cope with and adapt to future challenges and unexpected risks.

The target audience of this book is researchers, postgraduate students and government officials in the field of rural and agricultural development. Readers can expect to gain a basic knowledge of rural resilience, a deeper understanding of rural development around the world, and different approaches to building resilience to challenges and shocks.