Introduction: Exploring the Rural through a Relational Lens

This edited volume seeks to uncover and theorise the ‘relational rurals’, advocating a ‘relational turn’ in rural studies along the lines of previ- ous turns and paradigm shifts, including the more recent cultural shift in European depictions and conceptualisations of the countryside. Relations, relatedness and cooperation denote various expressions of association or assistance, through working together, geared towards the achievement of some economic, social or other benefit. These should not be confounded with collaboration, referring to joint efforts of working towards the achievement of more specific and often somewhat modest objectives. It is beyond the scope of this Introduction to present a detailed and exhaustive overview of all the intricacies of relations-, cooperation- and collaboration-focused analyses which have a long history of theorisation and application across sciences. Rather, the aim here is to introduce the need for knowing (the) relational rurals, to call for a relational turn in rural studies, as well as to demonstrate the ben- efit from doing so. The assessment of the relevance of these notions to discussions of rural spaces, as part of a relational turn, is preceded by a summary presentation of key theoretical contributions to ‘relational turns’ elsewhere.