Opportunities and methods for investigating rural image and local identity

Results from a systhematic literature review

Abstract

Presenting local characteristics and values, strengthening and developing rural identity and rural image is a growingly important topic for people living in rural areas, as those appear in the development strategies of the settlements and local communities, and influence the role of the area in tourism and migration. The interpretation of the rural has become more important also in Hungary, and parallel to it, a central issue of rural sociological studies as well. The study, based on a systematic literature review, aims to reveal how social sciences analysed rural image and rural identity in the last two decades. In the first part of the paper we present the use of rural image, rural idyll, representation of rural, and rural identity in the scientific literature, then based on the systematic literature review we analyse the methods (survey, interview, NLP, participatory and the main topics which are discussed together with the above expressions. We analyse how frequently and in what way the methods are used, and asses the consequences of choosing a certain method.