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The Fruit of Difference: The Rural‐Urban Continuum as a System of Identity 1
Author(s) -
Bell Michael M.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
rural sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.083
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1549-0831
pISSN - 0036-0112
DOI - 10.1111/j.1549-0831.1992.tb00457.x
Subject(s) - sociology , identity (music) , ethnography , social identity theory , social science , social group , anthropology , aesthetics , philosophy
Today sociologists tend to doubt the rural‐urban continuum, the idea that community is more characteristic of country places than cities. Based on an ethnographic study of an English exurban village, I argue that the continuum remains an important source of identity for country residents, one from which they derive social‐psychological and material benefits. They root this conception of themselves as country people in nature, making this identity a particularly secure one. These real social consequences suggest that sociology should no longer doubt the reality of the rural‐urban continuum, at least at the level of the definition of the situation. It, therefore, should remain an important topic of sociological study.