Policy Press
Two The British countryside: nostalgia, romanticism and intervention
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Madhu Satsangi
Abstract
Popular conceptions of rurality are not accidental, nor are they natural representations of fact. Rather they are transforming social constructs, based on received remembrance of a past, and on antipathy to the dual opposite of the urban set against idealisations of the rural. The media through literature, film, painting, radio, and newspapers have enforced and transmitted these idealisations. Rural spaces and places have also permeated to images and coffee table books which showed myriads of woodland villages and romanticised Shakespearean countryside. These images served as picture-perfect illustrations of rural idyll on a pantomime state than reality. Such constructs of the rural spaces are powerful because they shape views on what countryside is actually like and what it should be like. This chapter discusses the British countryside. It explores how different actors have shaped, and are empowered, and constrained by the rural idylls.
Abstract
Popular conceptions of rurality are not accidental, nor are they natural representations of fact. Rather they are transforming social constructs, based on received remembrance of a past, and on antipathy to the dual opposite of the urban set against idealisations of the rural. The media through literature, film, painting, radio, and newspapers have enforced and transmitted these idealisations. Rural spaces and places have also permeated to images and coffee table books which showed myriads of woodland villages and romanticised Shakespearean countryside. These images served as picture-perfect illustrations of rural idyll on a pantomime state than reality. Such constructs of the rural spaces are powerful because they shape views on what countryside is actually like and what it should be like. This chapter discusses the British countryside. It explores how different actors have shaped, and are empowered, and constrained by the rural idylls.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures, tables and images vi
- Foreword vii
- Acknowledgements ix
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Introducing the rural housing question
- The rural housing question 3
- The British countryside: nostalgia, romanticism and intervention 9
- Protecting and consuming the countryside 19
- Evolving agendas in rural housing 31
- Housing and the rural economy 45
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People and movement in rural areas
- New residents in rural areas 57
- Retirement and ageing 69
- Buying second homes 79
- International migrants 91
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Planning, housing supply and local need
- Planning and land for housing 103
- Private house-building 111
- Planning and affordable rural housing 125
- Targeting ‘local’ needs 141
-
Tenure and policy intervention
- Social renting 155
- Private renting 169
- Rural low-cost home ownership 179
- Homelessness 193
-
Answering the rural housing question
- Strategic and community initiatives in Britain’s countrysides 207
- England, Scotland and Wales in context 223
- The rural housing question: towards an answer 237
- Defining rurality 243
- References 249
- Index 279
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures, tables and images vi
- Foreword vii
- Acknowledgements ix
-
Introducing the rural housing question
- The rural housing question 3
- The British countryside: nostalgia, romanticism and intervention 9
- Protecting and consuming the countryside 19
- Evolving agendas in rural housing 31
- Housing and the rural economy 45
-
People and movement in rural areas
- New residents in rural areas 57
- Retirement and ageing 69
- Buying second homes 79
- International migrants 91
-
Planning, housing supply and local need
- Planning and land for housing 103
- Private house-building 111
- Planning and affordable rural housing 125
- Targeting ‘local’ needs 141
-
Tenure and policy intervention
- Social renting 155
- Private renting 169
- Rural low-cost home ownership 179
- Homelessness 193
-
Answering the rural housing question
- Strategic and community initiatives in Britain’s countrysides 207
- England, Scotland and Wales in context 223
- The rural housing question: towards an answer 237
- Defining rurality 243
- References 249
- Index 279
