ABSTRACT
Any discussion of the processes of class formation in rural areas must first place those areas in their wider context. From the previous chapter we can see that economic restructuring and shifts in social aspirations, associated most notably with owner occupation and the desire to live in rural neighbourhoods, have come to shape rural development processes in crucial ways. As we mentioned earlier we will “ground” our analysis in one rural locality where we believe the processes of middle-class formation are leading to the reconstitution of rural space. This locality is Aylesbury Vale in Buckinghamshire, situated to the northwest of London. The area is now well known to have experienced high levels of economic growth, population increase and prosperity during the 1980s. These phenomena makes it a useful “test bed” in which to examine the arguments put forward in Chapter 1. However, in order to understand the key processes shaping rural Buckinghamshire we must first put the study area in its wider context. In this chapter we outline the development of the South East region (Se) during the 1970s and 1980s, concentrating particularly upon the western counties of the outer South East (generally known as the Rest of the South East – Rose, see Fig. 2.1). We then go on to trace the key processes of change in Buckinghamshire and Aylesbury Vale. The description of the economic, social and political context of the study area allows us to show the key pressures bearing upon rural land in the late 1980s and sets the scene for the land-development studies which follow.
