This paper examines the destructive tendencies associated with the commodification of rurality in some of Australia's more scenic and accessible rural areas. While development based on the consumption of idealised rural landscapes and cultures can contribute to the accumulation of capital in rural areas, it can also result in the destruction of those aspects which consumers find attractive. These attributes include traditional farming landscapes, picturesque country towns, scenic rural environments, and perceptions of congenial and cohesive local communities. The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the processes that lead to the degradation of these attributes. The discussion is set within the context of the 'commodification of rurality' and 'creative destruction' perspectives, and uses the case of Bridgetown in the south-west of Western Australia to illustrate how an almost unfettered pattern of development is leading to the gradual destruction of the countryside ideal.
This paper attempts to reorientate locality specific studies of counterurbanisation within the wider processes of global and national socio‐economic change. It draws on concepts of Regulation Theory and begins with an explanation of the global and national influences associated with rural restructuring. These influences, together with the emergence of a reconstituted rurality, are traced through to the local level using Bridgetown in the south‐west of Western Australia as a vehicle for conceptual analysis.
died on March 29th this year, aged 88. We were fortunate enough to have spoken in depth with Stephenson late in 1995. We dedicate this piece to a person who was described in a recent obituary in The Australian (10.4.97) as "one of the great town planners of this century".
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