Casey, Ruth
(2006)
The ‘Suburban Imaginary’:
Restructuring the rural village in Ireland and France.
PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
Abstract
The phenomenon of the proliferation of holiday homes, particularly in remote and
isolated areas, has provoked widespread concern regarding the fate of the indigenous
rural community. The central concern of this thesis is to investigate how the rural
community is adapting to the presence of the outsider as both a temporary and
permanent resident, by examining the interaction between local and outsider resident
in order to get a sense of the dynamics involved in the restructuring of the rural
community. The study approached this central problematic, by looking at how rural
space is being socially constructed as a result of this interaction, and how rural space
is determining the dynamic involved in this interaction.
The two rural villages which were chosen for this study, are located in regions of
unique cultural and historical interest: Dunfarraig in the Burren region in the west of
Ireland, and Gireux in the Cathar region in the south of France. Despite their
empirical similarities, these villages have demonstrated quite different responses to
the presence of the outsider, which has become apparent through a comparative
analysis of the way in which concepts such as ‘community membership’ are played
out in either context.
The central findings of this research, has been to show how the landscapes of
Dunfarraig and Gireux are being symbolically constructed as ‘suburban’ through the
social practices of its residents, taking an abstract or social form in the French context,
and a material form in the Irish context. Further, how these practices are appealing to
a vocabulary of ‘suburbia’, located in the suburban imaginary of residents. These
findings of ‘suburbia’ are premised on the theory that residents are constructing a
view of the physical landscape for private consumption in the Irish context, and a
view of the social landscape, for private consumption in the French context.
However, the thesis ultimately defends the rural character of these two villages,
maintaining that this interpretation of the ‘suburban imaginary’ is one way of
understanding the complexity of these social practices.
| Item Type: |
Thesis
(PhD)
|
| Keywords: |
Suburban Imaginary;
rural; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > Philosophy |
| Item ID: |
5232 |
| Depositing User: |
IR eTheses
|
| Date Deposited: |
24 Jul 2014 14:28 |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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