Landscape, imagination and experience: processes of emplacement among the British in rural France : Landscape, imagination and experience

Benson, Michaela (2010) Landscape, imagination and experience: processes of emplacement among the British in rural France : Landscape, imagination and experience. The Sociological Review, 58 (S2). pp. 61-77. ISSN 0038-0261

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Abstract

This paper traces the process by which the British residents of the Lot, a department in rural France, develop a deeper understanding of their new surroundings. While their initial perceptions of the landscape as providing a beautiful view and a backdrop to their everyday lives prompted their migration, once they are living in the French countryside these perceptions subtly change in response to their experiences of life there. As I argue, it is not simply the case that their initial impressions are replaced with the knowledge gained from their embodied experiences. Indeed, it becomes clear that their idealizations of rural living continue to frame, partially, their understandings of how really to live in rural France; through valorization and imitation of the lives and practices of their French neighbours my respondents lay claim to local belonging. The paper thus demonstrates the ways that imaginings and experience coalesce in the production of a continually renewed understanding of their new location.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
The Sociological Review
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3312
Subjects:
?? sociology and political science ??
ID Code:
156490
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
02 Jul 2021 13:55
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 21:46