defined the countryside
‘‘as those areas which lie beyond major towns
and cities and which are, therefore, rural as
opposed to urban (y) it includes a number of features,
such as forests, reservoirs, canals, beaches
and agricultural land’’ (p. 13). The Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) has also conceptualized ‘‘rural’’ as ‘‘a
territorial or spatial concept, not restricted to any
particular use of land, degree of economic health,
or an economic concept’’ (p. 23).