Poverty and Social Exclusion in Diversified Rural Contexts

This paper is summarising the state of the art of rural poverty and social exclusion research and the current developments in the field, and it proposes new research agendas. In particular, the importance of further Europeanisation and internationalisation of rural poverty research is emphasised to reduce the bias and oversimplification inherent in the tendency to apply concepts derived from the Anglo-Saxon reality to other European countries. It is recognised that rural poverty not only constitutes a quantitatively more serious problem in some European countries than, for example, in the UK, but also its form and drivers are different. In addition, the following agendas are proposed: to focus on the role of place and space in relation to rural poverty, to recognise the rising importance of global actors and processes transforming rural places, to focus on the multidimensionality of social disadvantage, including its socio-cultural aspects, and to investigate the dynamics of poverty and disadvantage in rural contexts.This paper is summarising the state of the art of rural poverty and social exclusion research and the current developments in the field, and it proposes new research agendas. In particular, the importance of further Europeanisation and internationalisation of rural poverty research is emphasised to reduce the bias and oversimplification inherent in the tendency to apply concepts derived from the Anglo-Saxon reality to other European countries. It is recognised that rural poverty not only constitutes a quantitatively more serious problem in some European countries than, for example, in the UK, but also its form and drivers are different. In addition, the following agendas are proposed: to focus on the role of place and space in relation to rural poverty, to recognise the rising importance of global actors and processes transforming rural places, to focus on the multidimensionality of social disadvantage, including its socio-cultural aspects, and to investigate the dynamics of poverty and disadvantage in rural contexts.