The agencies of landscape in rural gentrification: Impressions from the wood, the village and the moortop

Abstract

This paper brings together research on rural gentrification with emerging work on lived landscapes that has emphasized the intertwining of the human and more-than-human with the performance of activities of everyday living and their affective significance. It draws on research examining rural gentrification in three contrasting landscapes, termed 'the wood', 'the village' and 'the moortop'. These landscapes connect to earlier studies of rural social change and gentrification in England, with 'the wood' and 'the village' being sites research by Ray Pahl and the 'moortop' one of the landscapes identified in Darren Smith and Deborah Phillips' examination of the role of representations of rurality in processes of rural gentrification. The paper draws on research that returned to the locations of this earlier research, and seeks to re-examine arguments advanced by these studies about the formation of socially differentiated worlds and representations of rurality through a lived-landscape perspective.

The actions of key agents in facilitating rural super-gentrification: Evidence from the English countryside

“…potential 'super-gentrifiers') as well as those who had been in the area for a much longer period of time (defined as 'established residents' -see Table 1). This approach is consistent with recent research on rural gentrification/super-gentrification, and the perceptions and actions of both estate agents and local people (for example, see Phillips et al, 2021;Phillips et al, 2020;Smith et al, 2019;Smith, 2002).…”

“…Likewise, Phillips et al (2020) also draw attention to the in-migration of those with high incomes to Tewin Wood -and the associated refurbishing or re-building of (already substantial) properties. Furthermore, when researching rural gentrification and differentiating the lived landscape into 'the wood', 'the village' and 'the moortop', Phillips et al (2021) advocate that Tewin Wood has experienced super-gentrification. In so doing, they highlight a difference between the landscapes of 'the wood' and 'the village', highlighting that 'the woods surrounding the village are experiencing super-gentrification owing to mock-Tudor houses being demolished to be replaced by properties of a larger size and different design.…”

“…In simple terms, this has also been referred to as the local rich being displaced by the super-rich (Forrest et al, 2017), and portrayed through the conceptualization of the 'haves' and 'have yachts' (Burrows and Knowles, 2019). Typically, the limited work on this topic in rural contexts has generally focused on displacement and outcomes emerging with super-gentrification (see Stockdale, 2010;Mamonova and Sutherland, 2015;Smith et al, 2019;Phillips et al, 2020Phillips et al, , 2021.…”

‘Everybody loves living here’

“…However, just as health and well-being studies have seen moves to more-than-representational approaches, so have rural studies, including some addressing rural gentrification (e.g. Phillips, 2014;Phillips et al, 2021a). In the following section we will further explore this perspective and its relevance to understanding relations between rural gentrification and well-being, drawing on an empirical investigation of gentrification in nine villages in the six contrasting rural districts in England (Figure 4.3).…”

Placing the more‐than‐human in environmental gentrification

“…Her work in Geneva discusses how the labour of living plants is harnessed towards urban development and notes an urban planning shift towards the appreciation of vegetal intelligence and plant capacities as a way to ‘optimize resources’ (12) in urban greening. Research on environmental gentrification in rural settings has also emphasised the role of more‐than‐human elements like plants in influencing migrational patterns and in drawing newer, affluent residents into particular regions (see Phillips et al, 2021; Smith, 2002; Smith & Phillips, 2001). These elements are taken up in imaginaries of rural life and become attached to ideals of health, wellbeing, nature, and escape from urbanity (see Bryson & Wyckoff, 2010; Gorman‐Murray et al, 2012).…”