Constructing the object: taxonomic practices, ?counterurbanisation? and positioning marginal rural settlement

✍ Scribed by Halfacree, Keith

• Book ID: 102279047
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 167 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1077-3495
• DOI: 10.1002/ijpg.238

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Taxonomic practices, such as classification and categorisation, are an essential part of everyday life and of the work of academics. After introducing these practices and pointing out the selectivity that always goes with them, the paper explores the well‐known population geography phenomenon of counterurbanisation. It is claimed that taxonomic practices have worked hard in the construction of a ‘counterurbanisation story’, a relatively clear‐cut or purified account of population change in rural areas. Residualised within this talk is a range of ‘marginal settlers’. These include ‘new crofters’ in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and ‘new settlers’ from Southwest England, both of which are introduced here. Although these groups could be integrated within more conventional forms of counterurbanisation, and thus stirred into the counterurbanisation story, this strategy is not advocated here. Instead, through adopting a more dialectical perspective on counterurbanisation overall, marginal settlers can be seen to be examples of both ‘counterurbanisation’ and of a critical alternative to it. This more open perspective is important as it allows greater recognition of the dynamic, practical and social nature of taxonomic practices in general and, more specifically, facilitates an appreciation of a politically radical perspective on rural change. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.