This volume aims to unpack the uneasy relationship between utopia and rural spaces in the context of global pressures. The ethnographies presented here offer a rich array of examples combining rural spaces, utopian representations, and neoliberal practices. In attempting to reconcile the desire to preserve the traditional image of rural landscapes in the context of neoliberal practices that threaten the ideal of a rural utopia, imaginaries appear as powerful devices for understanding the world and motivating action.

Hana Horáková is an Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at Metropolitan University Prague, Czech Republic. Andrea Boscoboinik is a Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Robin Smith is a Post-doctoral Researcher at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University, the Netherlands.