This collection offers a combination of insightful media analyses and examinations of knowledge construction that focus on popular culture and its portrayals of rural people and communities in the United States. It discusses and challenges the myths and stereotypes that reinforce urbanormative standards and render rural life as something unusual, exotic, or deviant.

Reinventing Rural is a collection of original research papers that examine the ways in which rural people and places are changing in the context of an urbanizing world. This includes exploring the role of the environment, the economy, and related issues such as tourism. While traditionally relying on primary sector work in agriculture, mining, natural resources, and the like, rural areas are finding new ways to sustain themselves. This involves a new emphasis on environmental protection, as one important strategy has been to capitalize on natural amenities to attract residents and tourists....

This book analyzes contemporary challenges and solutions to problems facing rural communities. The idea of reinvention is offered as a description of how rural communities adapt by changing focus to alternative economic development strategies and by focusing on improved quality of life. The image of rural given is one of dynamism and resiliency.