RURAL AREAS: A CONCEPT AND APPROACHES TO TYPOLOGY

Abstract

The article discusses the essence of “rural area” notion. It is shown that geographical studies suggest different interpretations of rural areas: as a cultural landscape, as a habitat for the rural population, or as a socio-geographical space formed by rural residents in the course of their living. It is proposed to start with the idea of rural areas as a cultural landscape. According to the author, the originality of countryside is determined by the combination of its natural basis, to some extent modified by man, and the over-imposed center-peripheral structure of settlement and economy. The visual recognibility and identifiability of the rural areas are noted. The components (layers) of rural areas are named, as well as the elementary objects of which they consist. A special role of settlement network is emphasized. The author’s approach to the geographical typology of rural areas is suggested, based on the combination of the zonal typology of rural settlement developed by S.A. Kovalev and the ideas about the “ideal” types (“archetypes”) of rural areas associated with their functions. Geographic types of rural areas are the result of the superposition of archetypes over the zonal types of settlement. The diversity of geographic types of rural areas is shown for three principal zonal types of rural settlement in Russia.