One of the main challenges facing researchers
trying to understand the urban-rural shift
has been to develop a conceptual framework
capable of accommodating such empirical
diversity. Existing perspectives have tended to
fall into two main groups. First, during the
1980s, a number of theories were put forward
which each emphasised one particular aspect
of the rural environment in their respective
readings of the superior performance of rural
manufacturing enterprises compared with their
urban rivals (see North 1998, for a comprehensive
review). For example, in their Production
Cost Hypothesis, Tyler et al. (1988) focused on
spatial disparities in operating costs