Conference: Uneasy neighbours?: Rural-urban relationships in the nineteenth century

RHN 104/2013 | Event

Organiser: Southampton Centre for Nineteenth-Century Research

20 September 2013, Southampton, UK

 

Uneasy neighbours?: Rural-urban relationships in the nineteenth century
An International Interdisciplinary Conference

The relationship between urban and rural communities in the nineteenth-century Western world was increasingly strained by the unprecedented rate and scale of social, industrial, technological and economic changes. These included rural-urban migration and the difficulties this created in food-production and housing, perceptions about the breaking down of ‘natural’ social divisions, and the emergence of deeply-rooted anxieties about irreversible national decay.

This 1-day interdisciplinary conference, aimed at both academics and interested members of the general public, aims to explore how these issues were debated and articulated in different national, regional and generic contexts across the century.

Over 30 papers will address the conference themes, covering regional and social histories from rural Dorset and Ireland to the American South, the rise of the garden suburb in London, the impact of urbanisation on traditional rural trades, changing architectural and estate-management practices, and the roles played by literature and journalism in debates about national and regional charcter. The conference will culminate in a keynote talk by Keith Snell, Professor of Rural and Cultural History at the University of Leicester, titled 'Thomas Hardy's sense of rural and urban' communities': from 'The Mellstock quire' to Jude's urban obscurity.'

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Conference Poster
Draft conference programme

Contact: Verity Hunt
Source: http://www2.le.ac.uk