Social and economic equality: a territorial and relational perspective

This chapter examines the resurgence of rural protests and their role in confronting globalisation through three conceptual lenses. It positions rural protests as part of a new politics of the rural shaped by contests between competing discourses of rurality that are focused on the perceived meaning and experience of rurality. The chapter considers whether contemporary rural protests represent a return of class politics, and their contribution to struggles over global capitalism. It then turns to social movement theory as a framework for analysing the dynamics and organisation of rural protests and their variable geography. The emergence of rural protest movements over the last three decades has challenged rural social scientists to rethink our conceptual frameworks for the analysis of rural policy and politics. Finally, the chapter concludes by assessing the efficacy of rural protests in confronting globalisation and their legacy for rural society.