For many people, the defining characteristics of rural England are found in the variety of its natural and cultivated landscapes and in its characteristic settlement pattern of different mixes of small towns, villages and hamlets. These features have remained relatively stable over time. In contrast, the demographic, social and economic structures of rural England have undergone dramatic changes in the past four or five decades which has led to new policy concerns.
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Phase 1 of the RERC research programme is set out in detail in the original consortium research proposal to Defra, although this has undergone some change as research requirements have been examined in detail. ‘Rural Places’ research has been concerned to a large extent with applying the new rural definition to various sources of evidence and areas of policy interest.
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In the second phase of the RERC research programme, the perspective changed from one mainly concerned with ‘rural places’ to one mainly concerned with ‘rural networks’. The conceptual setting for this work lies in social network analysis, though at this early stage in its application to rural development and policy, use of the term consists of a set of approaches to and perceptions to research, rather than a strict methodological framework.
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