Amenity migration or the movement of people to places that are perceived as having greater environmental quality and differentiated culture is a relatively new concept in the geographical literature. In that spirit, this paper seeks to encourage further discussion on the topic and its implications for understanding the development of rural communities. Building on the concepts of mobilities (Urry 2000) and lifestyle (Giddens 1991), I have proposed the concept of lifestyle mobilities "as the movements of people, capital, information and objects associated with the process of voluntary relocation to places that are perceived as providing an enhanced or, at least, different lifestyle". This paper takes a very broad view of both the lifestyle migrants themselves (e.g. entrepreneurs, exurbanites, peripatetic recreation workers, retirees) and the loci of relocation (e.g. seaside resort, mountain village, city centre, urban periphery, rural town). Drawing on recent research on migration in rural areas across a number of countries, this analysis illustrates the pervasive impacts of lifestyle mobilities in late-modern society. A concluding section interprets the recent history of rural development in North America through the lens of resilience theory and complex-adaptive system analysis. Overall the intent of the paper is to move the discussion of voluntary relocation beyond the restricted and restrictive notions of "people mobility" and "amenity" to encourage a more wide-ranging and comprehensive assessment of the phenomenon.
