ABSTRACT
We now turn to the ‘contested countryside’ which we previously described as located in areas where growing numbers of middle-class activists confront a wellentrenched set of developmental actors (who are still well represented in local political structures) thereby giving rise to increased conflict around land uses (Marsden et al., 1993). Using Devon in the South West of England as an exemplar of the contested countryside type, we assess how developmental and environmental networks come into conflict around rural economic development issues. In contrast to the ‘preserved countryside’, where preservationist coalitions are seen as representative of the local social context and where development is something imposed via national-to-local networks, in the ‘contested countryside’ we find that it is the environmental groups that are seen as ‘external’ actors while development networks purport to reflect the interests of the locality and its traditional rural residents.
