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This edited book contains a selection of papers that were originally presented at the XII World Congress of Rural Sociology held in Goyang, South Korea, in July 2008. Contrary to the case of conference proceedings, this volume includes papers that underwent a peer review process and, therefore, possess the quality of finished research manuscripts. The idea of publishing a selection of the most significant papers read at the 2008 World Congress stems from the desire to share the wealth of research presented at the conference with interested individuals who could not attend the event. Additionally, this will be the first of a series of volumes containing the most salient works presented at world congresses and reflecting the research characterizing contemporary rural sociology. As this sociological sub-discipline evolves along with society and the rural world, it appears of paramount importance to make salient research available to the international scientific community.

From a post-colonial feminist perspective, this chapter explores how themes of gender and ethnicity combine to produce an embodied narrative of the everyday lived experience of one immigrant woman in a small country town. Her story was told to me as part of an interpretive study via a face to face interview. Her personal history of trauma and dislocation influenced by the wider cultural frameworks and expectations that inform her way of doing gender and ethnicity shape the way she experiences the pleasures and pains of a rural life. In this rural place, she finds that her embodied narrative does not conform to the set of socially constructed meanings that lead to inclusion so her body is reconstructed as “other” and as such is subjected to covert and overt practices that exclude and marginalize her. The discussion is situated within the field of rural studies as the settlement of immigrant women in rural places is seen as a process of social restructuring contextualized and influenced by the social and cultural meanings attached to those places.

The organizational structure of the modern poultry industry that developed in the US South has been advanced as the future model of agriculture and agro-industrial globalization. This “Southern Model” characterized by asymmetrical power relationships between the integrating firms and production growers and reliance on informal labor patterns in processing is being diffused to other countries. Research on the diffusion of this model deserves special attention from those concerned with the socio-economic implications of the globalization of the agri-food system. This chapter first provides an overview of the industrialization of the poultry industry in the United States, then documents the diffusion of this model globally and in Mexico through the activities of Tyson Foods, Inc. and Pilgrim's Pride, Inc. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the relationship between neoliberal restructuring in Mexico and the globalization of the poultry industry.

The community can be considered as an empirical category of thought and hope. This is how various understandings of real, imagined, invented, local, and global communities are created. Sociological studies give meaning to this heuristic category and its historical representations and its values centered around a world of proximity, primordial loyalties, solidarity, face-to-face communication, production, reproduction, knowledge, and environmental preservation. Community equally expresses the existence of a territory where populations reproduce; a place for a convivial exchange among generations, traditions, and respect to cultural heritages and ethnic boundaries. The rural community is seen as the guardian of present and past histories of groups identified by struggles for subsistence, resistance, and celebration of memories from ancestors. Community provides the foundation for sociability and sustainability. In the context of a fluxional, risky, and individualized society, community members are becoming more vulnerable as their pleas for solidarity and safety are unheard. Although the rural community described here has been an object of speculation and violence that affect our world, the concept of community is still desired. Accordingly, its relevance is renewed for a prosperous rural future in a globalizing world.

This chapter explores how the retiring Japanese “baby boomer” generation is rethinking the role of later life and potentially provides a new future for depopulated areas in rural Japan. Drawing on a case study of the Hokkaido prefecture, the chapter highlights three points. First, the baby boomer generation in Japan has very different ideas about the meaning of later life, and the spatial implications of these may present opportunities for regeneration. Secondly, hard-pressed rural local authorities are looking to exploit these opportunities to build a new socioeconomic base from the needs and aspirations of older people. Third, the chapter questions what kind of rural futures might be built.

Direct farmer–consumer relationships have been mostly described in the Western world. They are reviewed as efficient forms of resistance to global distribution chains, in particular as regards farmer incomes, consumer trust in product safety, and solidarity between farmers and consumers. Research was carried out in Vietnam to measure the importance of this type of sales in the vegetable sector and how farmers and consumers perceive it relative to other forms of supply. Consumer surveys and focus groups were conducted as well as inventories of vegetable retail point of sales and a case study of a farmer group based on in-depth interviews with group leaders. Consumers buying directly from farmers desire product freshness and the ability to receive specific information relative to product origin and safety. Farmers value direct retail sales because it enables higher incomes. Yet, only the wealthiest farmers have access to this type of sales as it requires renting their own outlet shops or market stalls. Direct farmer to consumer sales in Vietnam may be viewed as a first step toward an interpersonal food distribution system providing an alternative to faceless mass chain-market distribution.