Changing places in a rural world: The population turnaround in perspective

Over the past three decades rural areas in the industrialised world have experienced a renaissance in their population turnaround has generally been conceived within the wider process of the decentralisation and de-concentration of urban activities, often termed counterurbanisation, and considered by many to be unexpected and likely to be short-lived. Despite its widespread occurrence there has been considerable debate about the turnaround's long-term pervasiveness and underlying causes and the relevance of net population change and net migration change as true indicators of the process. The significance of the turnaround in effecting social and economic change in the countryside is not well understood.