‘A Richness that is Lacking Now’: Country Childhoods, Nostalgia and Rural Change in the Mass Observation Project

For the Children: Notions of Childhood in Women's Narratives of Home in Rural Newfoundland*

“…I extend this observation to notions of rural childhood. One of the common social constructions noted in the literature related to both childhood and the rural is the idea of the rural idyll , a place‐based narrative that suggests that rural areas are safer, offer more positive community supports, and provide an enriching natural environment for children to explore (Edwards 2020; Powell, Taylor and Smith 2013; Vanderbeck and Dunkley 2003). The people I interviewed commonly understood rural through direct or implied comparison to urban.…”

“…These assumed advantages are strengthened by comparison to perceived urban lifestyles” (Powell et al 2013:119). More recently, rural scholars have begun to challenge the dominance of these positive narratives through examinations of “neglected rural geographies,” (Edward 2020; Philo 1992). While research showed that adults “both mobilize and contest notions of the rural idyll in describing their children's childhood” (Valentine 1997:147), the majority of adults continue to depict rural childhood as “a glorious place where children can grow up safely” (Matthews et al 2000).…”

Reconstructed Landscapes of Northern Youth

“…Farrugia 2014;Malinen and Tamminen 2017;Edwards 2019. See alsoTuominen and Löfgren 2018; Tuominen 2015.…”