DEPRIVATION AND THE RURAL - AN INVESTIGATION INTO CONTRADICTORY DISCOURSES

This paper investigates the issue of 'rural deprivation' using materia l collected for the Rural Lifestyles Project, conducted at Saint David 's University College, Lampeter. The concept of 'deprivation' usually deployed within the literature in rural studies is problematic, and a number of criticisms are made about existing conceptualisations of the term. One of these criticisms is based on the finding that amongst re spondents interviewed for the study of lifestyles in rural areas of En gland, a number were highly critical of the application of the term 'd eprivation' to rural areas. This issue is explored through an investig ation of the discourses of 'the rural', taken to mean a system of mean ings that describe English rural areas. An examination of these discou rses shows how 'deprivation' is denied, and this is investigated throu gh a discussion of the representation of rural areas as problem-free a nd 'idyllic' in some way; through the portrayal of 'deprivation' as a fault of the individual; and through the construction of 'deprivation' as a feature of 'the rural's' 'other', i.e. the urban. The paper conc ludes with a call for the attitudes and beliefs of different groups of people living in rural areas to be taken account of in the production of research into lifestyles in rural areas.