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
interests--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
residents--both working-class and professional--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 themselves--and see their
neighbors doing the same--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 thenatural 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."--Laurie Taylor, "New Statesman & Society"
"Bell's achievement, and his perceptions, are impressive."--J.W.M.
Thompson, "London Times"
"Races along with all the gossipy compulsion of a
blockbuster."--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."--Wendy Griswold, "American Journal of Sociology"
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