The Value of Rural Spaces

Visual exploration of rurality: The Chianti countryside

By Alice Ferretti

I grew up in central Tuscany among rural villages, olive trees, and vineyards. Schools, sports venues, and friends’ houses were all spread amongst the rolling hills and not reachable within walking distance. This was never a problem for me until I began to explore options for higher education with the desire to meet new people in a more diverse environment. I felt the need to move into a more urban space. However, when asked where I envision myself in the future, the image of a collective self-sustained farm appears. Recently, I have been wondering—what does it mean to live and thrive in a rural landscape? How does it define and shape people’s lives and cultural norms? What does this homeliness mean for the individual and different communities?

Rurality is defined by Paul Cloke as “a condition of place-based homeliness shared by people with common ancestry or heritage and who inhabit traditional, culturally defined areas or places statutorily recognized to be rural.” Yet, what does it mean in practice?

The concept of rurality oftentimes comes in opposition to urban spaces; rural is what urban is not. It is framed as the antithesis of capitalist modernization, an idealized reality where human communities co-depend on the environment. An example of this is the case of the Vermont Life magazine, a state-based journal romanticizing rural areas and feeding a sort of rural nostalgia of an idealized vision of landscape and culture through dairy farms, fields, and viewsheds. The magazine ceased publication in 2018, as it seems that inhabiting rural areas is more complicated in current times, where a career-based society pressures us to look for jobs and relational opportunities in urbanized contexts.

I think that choosing to live in a rural space is a powerful decision. Connections with people are strengthened and the sense of environmental belonging is fed. There are plenty of communities and individuals who create educational projects, research groups, arts festivals, and localized activist struggles in rural areas all around the world.

Rurality may seem like an abstract concept. It comes with idealized images and stereotypes, such as the pastoral farming landscape in Vermont (or really anywhere else in the world) and as opposition to modern culture. However, rurality encompasses different meanings, experiences, and subjects. Rurality is a not only geographical concept and a political project, but also an artistic exploration. Rural spaces are abundant, rural communities do exist and thrive, and it is time to recognize and imagine another way for humans to live with the land.

If you are interested in learning more about this concept, I would suggest the independent Hinterlands Magazine. H

Art by Axel Carson and Photography by Alice Ferretti