New voices in rural areas

The research project has been carried out between September 2017 and November 2018. In particular, the project has sought to address two common understandings: 1) that moving in and out of rural areas are one-way processes that are either a loss or a gain for the rural area and 2) that rural areas are peripheral, relatively unconnected places whose human capital or human resources are determined on the basis of the resident population. Instead, we have focused on rural areas in what we call a 'translocal perspective'. With a translocal perspective, we mean viewing rural areas as well-integrated into global, national, regional and local 'flows' - of people, knowledge and resources. People are more mobile, they associate in more places than where they have a national registry address, and they like to engage in places where they feel connected.