"Based on papers presented at the XVIII Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology, this volume introduces the key themes and issues currently being addressed in rural sociology. It demonstrates the striking reorientation of the field in recent years by incorporating new concerns with consumption and society-nature relations alongside older concerns with the social and technical organization of food production, and with social relations and collective action in the countryside." "Focusing on the distinctive ways in which rural, social, economic and political life is experienced in developed societies in late modernity, the chapters draw their empirical material from a wide range of countries within and outside the EU. It also incorporates comparative case studies from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The concerns of aspiring EU member states about the fate of their rural populations illuminate both the positive and the problematic aspects of EU rural policy. Accounts of what it was to be rural under socialism and more recently in the post-socialist transition add essential new dimensions to our understanding of the modern European rural experience."--BOOK JACKET.