The exclusive countryside post-pandemic

Publication type

Journal Article

Author

Publication date

June 11, 2023

Summary:

The processes through which the British countryside has become increasingly socially exclusive have been a theme of rural scholars' research since the 1970s, and these social changes are reflected in experiences of the pandemic. This paper begins by observing the central importance of power relations, and then discusses the pivotal role of housing as a motor of rural social change and exclusivity. Notwithstanding these processes, and indeed largely because of these asymmetric power relations, rural poverty remains. This paper summarises experiences of social exclusion in rural areas during the pandemic and reflects on the social redistribution of risk and the need to rebuild social protection in a continuing ‘permacrisis’. The emergence of the concept of the permacrisis indicates a recognition that the Covid-19 pandemic is only one of a series of continuing or recurring challenges or potential ‘shocks’ that we face, and this paper concludes by suggesting a research agenda for rural scholars as well as a potential rural policy agenda.

Published in

Geographical Journal

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12524

ISSN

167398

Subjects

Notes

Open Access

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The information, practices and views in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). © 2023 The Author. The Geographical Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers).

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