Mapping Intellectual Structure of Rural Geography Research: Using Co-Word Analysis and Science Visualization

The intellectual structure of knowledge and its research front can be identified by co-word analysis. This research tries to reveal the intellectual structure of rural studies in Human Geography, using co-word analysis, network analysis, and science visualization tools. Bibliometric methodology and social network analysis are used as the research methods. The research population comprises 11202 records in the field of Rural Geography during 1980-2015, which have been retrieved from Web of Science. Results indicated that “China”, “Migration”, and “Poverty” are the most frequent keywords in the rural studies; and “Rural--Urban”, “China---Migration”, and “China---Poverty” are the most frequent keywords coming co-occurrence. Use of hierarchical cluster analysis in coword created 7 topical clusters in rural studies. Clusters of "rural area" and "physical and natural environment of the village" located strategically in the best condition. In general, according to the results of this research it seems that in addition to geographical factors (such as the physical, natural, and spatial analysis), economic topics including livelihoods, poverty, income, and agricultural economy have gained the interest of researchers in in rural geography.