Teaching staff:
C. Kasimis
Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics & Rural Development, Agricultural University of Athens
L. Kazakopoulos
Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics & Rural Development, Agricultural University of Athens

The course aims at a holistic and critical presentation of rural development through the teaching of the basic concepts and methods for the understanding of a socially heterogeneous rural society. The frame of analysis will be that of Greece and the countries of the EU. The thematic areas of the course are:
Theory and method in the study of rural society. The concept of development and theoretical approaches to the sociology of rural development. Rural community and rural transformation. Socio-economic differentiation - social integration/exclusion - social recomposition and social conflicts in rural space. Demographic issues in rural development (rural exodus and new arriving migrants). Gender in rural development. Identity, locality/local knowledge and local development. New rurality, multifunctional countryside and the new policies for rural development. Globalization, family farming and the future of countryside