Enticott, Gareth  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5510-9597
2026.
Post-rural mental health: Developing Nye et al.’s research agenda for mental health in agricultural areas.
Journal of Rural Studies
124
, 104153.
10.1016/j.jrurstud.2026.104153
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Abstract
In this commentary, I respond to Nye et al.’s research agenda for mental health and wellbeing within agricultural communities. Noting the rise in research on rural mental health, and the number of publications in the Journal or Rural Studies, I ask what makes these studies ‘rural’; what versions of rurality are enacted by them; and what does this say about the nature and future of rural studies? Specifically, I call for rural studies to develop a critical engagement with the topic of mental health, involving three activities. Firstly, I suggest the need for greater these studies to make theoretical and conceptual developments to the understanding of rural space. Pointing to studies of the social impacts of animal disease, I show how this is already being achieved. Secondly, I call for deeper engagement with discourses of mental health and mental illness, and their politics within rural studies: what is it that discourses of mental health achieve and for whom? Finally, drawing on Murdoch and Pratt’s (1993) idea of the ‘post-rural’, I consider the nature of ‘post-rural mental health’ how this might shape rural studies.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Date Type: | Publication |
| Status: | Published |
| Schools: | Schools > Geography and Planning (GEOPL) |
| Additional Information: | RRS policy applied |
| Publisher: | Elsevier |
| ISSN: | 0743-0167 |
| Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 8 April 2026 |
| Date of Acceptance: | 24 March 2026 |
| Last Modified: | 08 Apr 2026 09:30 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/186249 |
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