In No-Man’s Land. Community, Identities and Moral Lives in Depopulated Settings in the North of Spain

Angel Paniagua

.

DOI: 10.4236/aasoci.2011.11002                

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to study the different ways depopulation is reflected from moral or ethical perspectives of geographical thinking. The objective here is to determine how moral lives (that reflect different opinions about the situational justice, spatial-environmental identity, affective morality and individual trajectory) are maintained in depopulated regions. It has been acknowledged that socio-cultural traditions in each space orientate the moral construction of depopulation, both in relation to socio-ecological repercussions, and also to construction of the community, or in processes of intra or extra-area socio-political negotiation. Some case studies are presented which have been analysed from a qualitative methodological approach, which considers residence in the area, systematic observations and semi-structured interviews.

Keywords

Depopulation, Identities, Moral Lives, Spain

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Agnew, J. (1993) Representing space: Space, scale and culture in social science. In J. Duncan and D. Ley (Eds.), Place/culture /representation (pp. 251-271). London: Routledge.
[2]	Bondi, L., Davidson, J., & Smith, M. (2005) Introduction: Geography’s “emotional turn”. In L. Bondi, J. Davidson and M. Smith, (Eds.), Emotional geographies (pp. 1-16). Aldershot: Ahsgate.
[3]	Brown, F., & Hall, D. (2000) Introduction: The paradox of peripherality. In F. Brown and D. Hall (Eds.), Tourism in peripheral areas (pp. 1-6). Channel View Pub: Clevedon.
[4]	Castree, N. (2005) Nature. London: Routledge.
[5]	Carson, D., et al. (2011) Demography at the edge. Remote human populations in developed nations. London: Ashgate.
[6]	Cloke, P. (2002) Deliver us from evil? Prospects for living ethically and acting politically in Human Geography. Progress in Human Geography, 26, 587-604. doi:10.1191/0309132502ph391oa
[7]	Cloke, P., et al. (2005) Introducing Human Geographies. London: Hodder Arnold.
[8]	Collantes, F. (2009) Rural Europe reshaped: The economic transformation of upland regions, 1850-2000. Economic History Review, 62, 306-323. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2008.00439.x
[9]	Conradson, D., & Pawson, E. (2009) New cultural economies of marginality: revisiting the West Coast, South Island, New Zealand. Journal of Rural Studies, 25, 77-86. doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2008.06.002
[10]	Convery, I., Bailey, C., Mort, M., & Baxter, J. (2005) Death in the wrong place? Emotional geographies of the UK 2001 foot and mouth disease epidemic. Journal of Rural Studies, 21, 99-109. doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2004.10.003
[11]	Crang, M. (2002) Qualitative methods: The new orthodoxy? Progress in Human Geography, 26, 647-655. doi:10.1191/0309132502ph392pr
[12]	Crang, M. (2005) Qualitative methods: There is nothing outside the text? Progress in Human Geography, 29, 225-233. doi:10.1191/0309132505ph541pr
[13]	Creswell, J. W. (1998) Qualitative inquiry and research design. Choosing among five traditions. London: Sage.
[14]	Davies, G., & Dwyer, C. (2007) Qualitative methods: Are you enchanted or are you alienated? Progress in Human Geography, 31, 257-266. doi:10.1177/0309132507076417
[15]	Doel, M. A. (2010) Representation and difference. In B. Anderson and P. Harrison (Eds), Taking-Place: Non representational theories and Geography (pp. 117-130). Farnham: Ahsgate.
[16]	Elwood, S. A., & Martin, D. G. (2000) “Placing” interviews: Location and scales of power in qualitative research. Professional Geographer, 52, 649-657. doi:10.1111/0033-0124.00253
[17]	Holloway, L. (2002) Smallholding, hobby-farming, and commercial farming: Ethical identities and the production of farming spaces. Environment and Planning A, 34, 2055-2070. doi:10.1068/a34261
[18]	Holloway, L., & Hubbard, P. (2001) People and place. The extraordinary geographies of everyday life. Harlow: Prentice Hall.
[19]	Holloway, L., & Kneafsey, M. (2004) Geographies of rural cultures and societies: Introduction. In L. Holloway and M. Kneafsey (Eds.), Geographies of rural cultures and societies (pp. 1-15). Aldershot: Ashgate.
[20]	Jones, O. (2005) An ecology of emotion, memory, self and landscape. In J. Davidson, L. Bondi and M. Smith (Eds.), Emotional geographies (pp. 205-219). Aldershot: Ahsgate.
[21]	Lawrence, M. (1999) Contested countryside cultures. Journal of Rural Studies, 15, 237-239. doi:10.1016/S0743-0167(98)00059-X
[22]	Lee, R., & Smith, D. M. (2004) Introduction. In R. Lee and D. M. Smith (Eds.), Geographies and moralities. International perspectives on development, justice and place (pp. 1-12). Oxford: Wiley- Blackwell.
[23]	Leyshon, M., & Bull, J. (2011) The bricolage of the here: Young people’s narratives of identity in the countryside. Social and Cultural Geography, 12, 159-180. doi:10.1080/14649365.2011.545141
[24]	Little, J. (1999) Otherness, representation and the cultural construction of rurality. Progress in Human Geography, 23, 437-442.
[25]	Morris, C. (2004) Lost Words, Lost Worlds? Cultural geographies of agriculture. In L. Holloway and M. Kneafsey (Eds.), Geographies of rural cultures and societies (pp. 241-261). Aldershot: Ashgate.
[26]	Nyseth, T. (2009) Place reinvention at the Northern rim. In T. Nyseth and A. Viken (Eds.), Place reinvention: Northern perspectives (pp. 1-14). Burlington: Ashgate.
[27]	Paniagua, A. (2009) The politics of place: Official, intermediate and community discourses in depopulated rural areas of Central Spain. The case of the Riaza river valley (Segovia, Spain). .Journal of Rural Studies, 25, 207-216. doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2008.12.001
[28]	Philo, C. (1992) Neglected rural geographies: A review. Journal of Rural Studies, 8, 193-207. doi:10.1016/0743-0167(92)90077-J
[29]	Pile, S. (1997) Introduction. Opposition, political identities and spaces of resistance. In S. Pile and M. Keith (Eds.), Geographies of resistance (pp. 1-32). London: Routledge.
[30]	Riley, M. (2011) “Letting them go”—Agricultural retirement and human-livestock relations. Geoforum, 42, 16-27. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2010.08.004
[31]	Sack, R. D. (1992) Place, modernity, and the consumer’s worlds. A relational framework for geographical analysis. London: John Hopkins University Press.
[32]	Sack, R. D. (1997) Homo geographicus. London: John Hopkins University Press.
[33]	Sack, R. D. (1980) Conceptions of space in social thought. A geographic perspective. London: MacMillan.
[34]	Shields, R. (1991) Places on the margin. Alternative geographies of modernity. London: Routledge.
[35]	Sibley, D. (1998) The problematic nature of exclusion. Geoforum, 29, 119-121. doi:10.1016/S0016-7185(98)00002-5
[36]	Sibley, D. (1995) Geographies of exclusion. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203430545
[37]	Smith, D. M. (2000) Moral geograhies. Ethics in a world of difference. Edimburg: Edimburg University Press.
[38]	Valentine, G. (2008) Living with difference: Reflections on geographies of encounter. Progress in Human Geography, 32, 323-337. doi:10.1177/0309133308089372
[39]	Whatmore, S. (2002) Hybrid Geographies: Natures, cultures, spaces. London: Sage.
[40]	Woods, M. (2011) Rural. London: Routledge.