About
My research focuses on five overlapping areas. First, I study mostly ‘internal’ expressions of human migration and have published widely on urban-to-rural ‘counterurbanisation’, cultural perspectives on migration, and on how migration helps structure institutions such as family and place. Second, I investigate discourses of rurality, mostly in the global North, outlining the content of our representations of rural and exploring how these link to practices such as migration, developing a sense of place, and leisure. Third, building on the latter, I engage with conceptual debates on rural change and the shaping of rural futures, very ‘live’ topics in these post-Brexit / Covid times. Fourth, I have become increasingly interested in how rural places are not solely produced by humans but also bear the imprints of other forces, both animate and inanimate. In this context, I am developing research with a colleague on the extent to which our uplands are co-produced by sheep. Finally and strongly reflecting personal interests, I very much enjoy teaching and researching ‘marginal geographies’, the geographical expressions of all things ‘counter-cultural’ and geographical issues entangled in Americana and folk music.