Synopses & Reviews
In Childerley a twelfth-century church rises above the rolling quilt of pastures and grain fields. Volvos and tractors share the winding country roads. Here, in this small village two hours from London, stockbrokers and stock-keepers live side by side in thatched cottages, converted barns, and modern homes.
Why do these villagers find country living so compelling? Why, despite our urban lives, do so many of us strive for a home in the country, closer to nature? Michael Bell suggests that we are looking for a natural conscience: an unshakeable source of identity and moral value that is free from social interestsand#8212;comfort and solace and a grounding of self in a world of conflict and change.
During his interviews with over a hundred of Childerley's 475 residentsand#8212;both working-class and professionaland#8212;Bell heard time and again of their desire to be "country people" and of their anxiety over their class identities. Even though they often knowingly participate in class discrimination themselvesand#8212;and see their neighbors doing the sameand#8212;most Childerleyans feel a deep moral ambivalence over class. Bell argues they find in class and its conflicts the restraints and workings of social interests and feel that by living "close to nature" they have an alternative: the identity of a "country person," a "villager that the natural consicence gives."
Yet there are clear parallels between the ways in which the villagers conceive of nature and of social life, and Bell traces these parallels across Childerleyans' perspectives on class, gender, and politics. Where conventional theories would suggest that what the villagers see as nature is a reflection of how they see society, and that the natural conscience must be a product of social interests, Bell argues that ideological processes are more complex. Childerleyans' understandings of society and of the natural conscience shape each other, says Bell, through a largely intuitive process he calls resonance.
For anyone who has ever lived in the countryside or considered doing so, this book is not to be missed. It will also be of particular interest to scholars of British studies and the sociology of knowledge and culture, and to those who work on problems of environment, community, class, and rural life.
"[An] exemplary piece of fieldwork. . . . These gentle conclusions . . . reminds us (when we most need reminding) of the skillful ethnographer's enduring capacity to make the everyday seem truly extraordinary."and#8212;Laurie Taylor, New Statesman and Society
"Bell's achievement, and his perceptions, are impressive."and#8212;J.W.M. Thompson, London Times
"Races along with all the gossipy compulsion of a blockbuster."and#8212;Frances Hardy, Daily Mill
"I believe this view of how people relate to the different domains of their experience is absolutely right. . . . The reader, this ready anyway, finishes Childerley with the feeling that she has just returned from visiting a remote Hampshire village and has learned something, not just about that place, but about human social life lived in other places and lived through place itself."and#8212;Wendy Griswold, American Journal of Sociology
Synopsis
AcknowledgmentsRounds1. The View from Winter Hill2. A parish on the FringeClass and Community3. A "Slightly Feudal" Village4. The Front Door and the Back Door5. Country People and City PeopleNature and Self6. Finding Nature7. The Natural ConscienceReflections8. The Foreground and the Background: Class9. The Pursuit of the Inedible: Politics10. The Mouse in the Sprinkler Pipe: GenderResonance11. The View from the Bell TowerMethodsNotesReferencesIndex
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-268) and index.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Rounds
1. The View from Winter Hill
2. A parish on the Fringe
Class and Community
3. A "Slightly Feudal" Village
4. The Front Door and the Back Door
5. Country People and City People
Nature and Self
6. Finding Nature
7. The Natural Conscience
Reflections
8. The Foreground and the Background: Class
9. The Pursuit of the Inedible: Politics
10. The Mouse in the Sprinkler Pipe: Gender
Resonance
11. The View from the Bell Tower
Methods
Notes
References
Index