LETS DO AWAY WITH RURAL

Research on rural areas has tended to adopt a theoretically undifferentiated approach to what is 'rural'. Differences across rural areas have been recognized, but they have been inadequately theorized and similarities in causal processes across the rural-urban divide have received far too little attention. This paper argues that the complexity of structure-agency interrelationships is little understood, so that theoretical advancement is perhaps better approached by simplifying research designs by evaluating the circumstances under which similar structural contexts are associated with both similar and dissimilar behavioural outcomes. It is argued that if this approach is taken rural locations will need to be differentiated on account of their very different structural circumstances, while rural and urban places will often belong to the same population for the purposes of theoretical sampling. © 1990.