An exclusive countryside? Crime concern, social exclusion and community policing in two English villages

Using the example of two English villages, this paper examines whether rural crime concern is evidence of an 'exclusive society' in the countryside. Specific attention is given to concerns expressed by residents as part of a consultation exercise to establish community-based policing partnerships in rural areas of the West Mercia Constabulary. Based on these findings, the paper goes on to question whether local policing partnerships are capable of shaping idyllic visions of rural space in an exclusionary way. It is argued that while it is important to examine the spatialised rhetoric of rural crime concern, structural processes, rather than localised discourses, make a greater contribution to exclusion in the countryside. © 2010 Taylor & Francis

Risk, rescue and emergency services: The changing spatialities of Mountain Rescue Teams in England and Wales

This paper considers the role of the emergency services in society and, in particular, their role in controlling, mitigating and resolving risk. Using a network approach, Mountain Rescue Teams are studied in order to examine how people, agencies, animals, technology and knowledge are deployed to resolve emergencies. The paper traces the changing nature of risk in rural places and the impact of state regulation on the deployment, spatialities and practices of the emergency services. In doing so, it argues that greater attention should be paid to the emergency services by geographers. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Rurality, Locality and Industrial Change: A Micro-scale Investigation of Manufacturing Growth in the District of Leominster

Geographers have recently sought to understand countryside change by examining economic restructuring and its impact on local social coherences. However, despite renewed interest in the locale, many investigations of the rural economy have been at a macro-scale. It is argued that this broad brush approach has neglected many important aspects of rural restructuring and, in particular, the importance of social and cultural constructions of change. This paper considers manufacturing growth in rural areas and focuses on western Hereford and Worcester. Based on the findings of a micro-scale investigation of a rural industrial estate, it examines the causes of manufacturing growth and assesses its impact on job creation, local restructuring and in-migration. Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd

A Lleyn Sweep for Local Sheep? Breed Societies and the Geographies of Welsh Livestock.

In this paper we use Bourdieu's concept of habitus to examine human animal relationships within capitalist agricultural systems. In the first part of the paper we examine how Bourdieu's ideas have been used by academics to provide insights into the ways that livestock affect and are affected by farming practice. In the second part we build on these conceptual, empirical, and policy insights by examining some of the national and international social networks that contribute to human animal relationships in capitalistic farming.We focus on a case study of Welsh livestock and, in particular, the historic and contemporary roles that breed societies play in the imagination of farm animals and the creation of capitals in agriculture

Livestock, Locality and Landscape: EU Regulations and the New Geography of Welsh Farm Animals

Geographers and policy-makers alike have, until recently, ignored the importance of specific breeds of livestock in agricultural systems. However, the European Union has recently introduced a series of regulations aimed at protecting breeds of livestock with a local tradition. Some British rural agencies, notably the Countryside Council for Wales, have begun to consider how these measures can be included within rural development plans. Based on current thinking in ‘new animal geography’, this article highlights the conceptual and practical problems of defining and identifying breeds for inclusion in these policies. Through detailed mapping, it is demonstrated that Welsh livestock breeds tend to exhibit three distinct geographical patterns. These patterns have been reshaped by agricultural policy, increasingly to meet the goals of agri-environmental conservation. Through the case study of Wales, the paper concludes that applied geography can be used to increase the effectiveness of these policy measures, especially given their new emphases on breed and locality

Getting just deserts? Policing, governance and rurality in Western Australia

This paper examines the perceived shift from police to policing in developed world countries. It focuses on the development of multi-agency policing in rural Western Australia and, using ideas from governance theory, questions whether these partnerships are leading to more inclusive policing and new forms of rural governance. Evidence is taken from the development of a Rural Crime Prevention Strategy and interviews with various stakeholders in rural Australia. It is concluded that multi-agency work does offer a more inclusive way forward but that it is still mainly driven by government, rather than radical changes in rural society and power

Miniaturisation and the representation of military geographies in recreational wargaming

Miniaturisation affects space in many ways: projecting it, transforming it and co-producing it with those who make and gaze upon models. This paper draws on Stewart's work On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993) to demonstrate how concepts of miniaturisation have the ability to contribute to geographical study. The empirical focus for the paper is a study of scale models deployed in the hobby of miniature or figure wargames in which players fight battles on the table top using model terrain and miniature figures. In this paper, I use examples of scaled terrain and figures to explore the process of miniaturisation and how this represents and transforms space. In doing so, the paper contributes to understanding the ways in which military geographies are represented through the media of models and performances of playing with them

Sustainable deathstyles? The geography of green burials in Britain

In the context of a wider literature on ‘deathscapes’, we map the emergence of a new mode of burial and remembrance in Britain. Since a ‘green’ burial ground was established in Carlisle in 1993, sites for so-called ‘green, ‘natural’ or ‘woodland’ funerals have proliferated. There are now over 270 such sites in Britain. Drawing on a postal and email survey sent to all managers/owners and visits to 15 green burial grounds (enabling observations and semi-structured interviews with their managers), we chart their growth, establishment and regulation and describe the landscapes associated with them. This requires, and leads to, wider reflections on nature, capital, consumption, culture and the body

The Relational Geographies of Policing and Security

This paper considers the roles of policing and security in the geographies of everyday public and semi-public space. We contend that while security is concerned with territory, policing relates to place. We consider the relationship between security and territory before examining the relationship between policing and place. In the final section, we argue that a relational view of space is needed to understand how practices of policing and security shape space and, in turn, the lives of people using it