Higgins, Vaughan, Potter, Clive, Dibden, Jacqui, and Cocklin, Chris (2014) Neoliberalising rural environments. Journal of Rural Studies, 36. pp. 386-390.

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Abstract

[Extract] Scholarly debate about the conditions for, and extent of, 'neoliberal nature' continues to thrive. Rural researchers have contributed to this in many different ways, reflecting "the subjection of more and more areas of ... [rural] environmental life to the logics of capital accumulation" (Castree, 2007, p. 8). Over the last three decades rural places worldwide have arguably been transformed by the market processes and commodification of nature that are widely seen as trademarks of neoliberalisation. Longer term socio-demographic trends have been exacerbated by a combination of globalisation and neoliberal economic policies that have profoundly restructured "the material, social and economic conditions of life in rural areas"(Cocklin et al., 2002, p.2). The forms that this restructuring takes are varied, but include the withdrawal of or cuts in expenditure on services, reduced subsidies to agriculture, the liberalisation of international trade, and a shift to policies encouraging efficiency, self-reliance and competitiveness. Yet, while the social, economic and environmental impacts of neoliberalisation on rural communities and the farming sector are well documented (e.g., Cheshire, 2006, Coleman et al., 2004, Jaffe, 2006, McMichael, 2012, Nousiainen and Pylkkänen, 2013 and Wolf and Bonanno, 2014), there has been little systematic attempt to investigate the interplay between neoliberal principles and policies and the governing of rural environments. This is a significant gap since, as Woods (2011, p. 259) contends, "state regulation of the rural environment has increasingly been challenged, re-assessed and re-oriented by the application of neoliberal rationalities".

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