ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on rural residents and, particularly, on their response to changing opportunities in rural areas of developed countries. It examines changes which have taken place in rural areas, using the first five waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), comparing them with what has happened in urban areas. The BHPS consists of a national representative sample of approximately 5,500 households recruited in 1991, containing a total of around 10,000 individuals. The chapter explores the findings that result from modelling the transition probabilities into and out of low income. One of the immediate consequences of the globalization process has been that of restructuring, and more specifically, that of regional restructuring, involving a lessening of the social homogeneity of regions and localities as individuals adapt to the globalization process. Rural areas of developed countries have undergone major changes in their economic system, political balance and social relations.