Urbanormativity : Reality, Representation, and Everyday Life

Urbanormativity examines the reality, representation, and consequences of living amid a cultural ideology that privileges urban over rural people and communities. The book analyzes and challenges the complex processes that work to devalue the rural and advocates for a rural justice ethic that reverses the present course.

Urbanormativity explores a cultural ideology that posits that urban is normal and desirable while rural is deviant, exotic, or undesirable. This work examines the relevance and meaning of this phenomenon in three parts: reality, which discusses the urbanization of the planet and the inherent conflict that emerges from the condition of urban dependency; representations, which discusses the cultural dynamics of urbanormativity; and everyday life, which focuses on the outcomes of urbanormativity in terms of the legal and political landscape, emphasizing the role of spatial inequality in creating urban-rural disparities. The book then examines life in rural communities amid urbanormativity, highlighting such processes as rural gentrification as well as the transformation of the character and tradition of rural communities through the process of place structuration. This book conclude by developing a new rural justice ethic that advocates for the incorporation of Sen’s notion of capability maximization along with a concerted effort to revalue the rural—socially, culturally, politically, and economically.