Rural development patterns: in between community and networks

This paper is primarily conceptual. It reconstructs key frameworks that have shaped rural development approaches since the end of World War II. The result is a four-type classification – modernisation, centre-periphery model, endogenous development, and the social network approach – placing the approaches within a semantic and chronological order. After examining their mutual critiques, it is argued that the social network approach represents a culmination in rural development modelling. Recognitions and critiques of the social network approach have prompted productive expansions and developments. These emerging directions include the actor–network theory, the integration of social network approaches with institutional analysis, and the rise of a rural political ecology, yet to be fully codified. Finally, the paper proposes a synthetic model positioned between community and networks, a blend of loyalty to places and openness to distant worlds. Bringing these two classical sociological figures into dialogue generates new perspectives on processes of rural development, like international migrations, urban diasporas, industrial outsourcing, and the raise of social cooperatives.