Environment and Planning A 1995, volume 27, pages 1245-1260 Regulation theory and rural research: theorising contemporary rural change M Goodwin Department of Geography, Institute of Earth Studies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Llandinam Building, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Dyfed SY23 3DB, Wales P Cloke Department of Geography, University of Bristol, University Road, Bristol BS8 1SS, England P Milbourne Countryside and Community Research Unit, Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education, Francis Close Hall, Swindon Road, Cheltenham GL50 4AZ, England Received 24 January 1994; in revised form 7 September 1994 Abstract. In this paper we have tried to develop a theoretical and conceptual framework for analysing contemporary rural change. Initial results from a recent research project on changing lifestyles in rural Wales are used to investigate the potential contribution of regulation theory in rural research. The paper consists of four main sections. In the first and second sections, the main theoretical characteristics presented by a regulationist analysis of contemporary capitalist change are discussed in detail, stressing that regulation is a continuous but highly variable process. In the third section, some key findings from recent work on rural Wales—which highlights the cultural, social, and economic elements of change—are presented. In the fourth and concluding section we discuss the potential contribution which regulation theory might make to rural research, but in addition outline the ways in which an analysis of contemporary rural change might contribute to the continuing development of regulation theory. In particular, attention is drawn to several key issues which a regulationist account of rural change will have to consider. Introduction In this paper we will be more concerned with developing a theoretical and conceptual framework for analysing contemporary rural change, than with detailing its specific contents or patterns. We will, however, outline initial results from a recent research project on changing life-styles in rural Wales (Cloke et al, 1993), and this will enable us to discuss and conceptualise those broad processes which seem to us to form vital elements of any current rural transition. In recent years we have seen an increasing number of attempts to understand rural change by reference to wider theoretical concerns. For instance, during the 1970s Newby (1977; 1986; Newby etal, 1978) organised his work on the changing agricultural community around concepts of class and power, and in the 1980s concepts drawn from political economy were used to examine agricultural production and its integration, often via the state, into capitalist development as a whole (see Marsden etal, 1986; 1990). Also, in the 1980s theoretical notions of uneven development and locality were used to analyse rural 'restructuring' (Rees, 1984), and theories of the capitalist state were explicitly applied in work on rural policy and planning (Cloke and Little, 1990). More recently we have witnessed the first attempts at incorporating theories of postmodernity into rural studies (Halfacree, 1993; Murdoch and Pratt, 1993; Philo, 1992). In this paper we seek to contribute to these ongoing theoretical debates from which an understanding of contemporary rural change may be drawn. We do so by investigating the potential contribution of regulation theory in emphasising both the context of rural change and the multidimensional character of such change.