Rurality, Locality and Industrial Change: Evidence from a Micro-Scale Investigation in Hereford and Worcester

Geographers have recently sought to understand countryside change by examining economic restructuring and its impact on local social coherences. However, despite renewed interest in the locale, many investigations of the rural economy have been at a macro-scale. It is argued that this broad brush approach has neglected many important aspects of rural restructuring and, in particular, social and cultural constructions of change. This paper considers manufacturing growth in rural areas and focuses on Western Hereford and Worcester. Based on the findings of a micro-scale investigation of a rural industrial estate, it examines the causes of manufacturing growth and assesses its impact on job creation, local restructuring and in-migration.