"Dying villages", "counterurbanization" and the urban field--a Canadian perspective

"This paper will review major theories on ¿rural-urban-turnaround' and the phenomenon of ¿dying villages'. It will then trace the evolution of one small settlement, Wroxeter, Ontario to describe and explain the factors that transformed it from the ¿most ghosted town in Ontario'...into a community experiencing both population growth and diversification in its economy. The Wroxeter experience will be evaluated against evidence from comparative case studies in the literature. Finally, conclusions from these studies will be weighted against those in contemporary studies of rural population turnaround, counterurbanization, rural renaissance, the urban field, and functional change in settlement systems. Idiographic findings at the local level will be compared with the conclusions of aggregate statistical studies and their nomothetic implications."