‘Dying villages’, ‘counterurbanization’ and the urban field — A Canadian perspective

The changing functions and populations of rural communities in the western world were initially attributed to rural-urban turnaround, rural renaissance and counterurbanization. In North America, the urban field, the regional city and the cityʹs countryside have been invoked to explain the resurgence of ‘dying villages’. Others argue that evolving census definitions account for much rural ‘growth’. Several of these hypotheses are complementary and ‘rural renaissance’ is the result of diverse and complex factors, many of which are place-specific. A case study of Wroxeter, Ontario illustrates the process by which a declining rural service center became a tourist-amenity community with renewed prosperity. Rural sentiment, entrepreneurial effort, heritage architecture, access to metropolitan populations and an amenity location facilitated its rejuvenation. Comparative data from case studies and aggregate statistical analyses suggest that we should combine our conceptual frameworks to explain recent changes in rural settlements. A scheme is suggested to integrate these complementary concepts.