Chapter 5 in: Convery, I., Corsane, G., and Davis, P. (eds) Making Sense of Place: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, pp 57-66
There is a long and fundamental connection between rural place and the land. Whereas land is simply the foundation for the construction of towns and cities, whose urban culture and economy thrive on human ingenuity and industry that may have little direct attachment to the physical ground over which it occurs, historical discourses of rurality place the land at the heart of the rural economy and society. Rural people, such discourses hold, live on the land, work the land, tend the land and know the land.