International typologies of rural areas

In: Russian Peasant Studies, Band 8, Heft 4, S. 41-53

Abstract

The article presents international, mainly European, typologies of rural areas, focusing on the features and differences in the criteria for identifying 'rural' territories in the European Union. The author explains the reasons for the need for more comprehensive typologies based on the transport accessibility of the territory, trajectories of its transformation, and macro-regional characteristics. The article considers the main methodological difficulties in developing a universal typology of rural areas for all regions of the world and emphasizes differences in the indicators and their threshold values used for typologies and in the levels of administrative-territorial analysis. The author provides references that reflect the methodological foundations of contemporary national typologies and mentions scientific innovations used in such research works. Finally, the article identifies the main common features of the presented typologies, focusing on their methodological limitations.