A Threatened Rural Idyll? Informal social control, exclusion and the resistance to change in the English countryside

This is a fluent, engaging and thought-provoking text which challenges prevailing stereotypes about rural space. Kerrigan carefully dissects some of the wider issues relating to globalisation and Brexit within his analysis of identity, social control and resistance to change within rural environments. In doing so, he highlights the ways in which broader insecurities at a national level can play out within localised environments to the exclusion of diverse voices and narratives. The book is well structured, impeccably researched and has important implications for scholarship and policy. As such, this is an excellent addition to the existing literature on rural ‘othering’ and will appeal to a broad readership of academics, students, and practitioners.

Professor Neil Chakraborti,

Head of Department, Department of Criminology, University of Leicester

Overall the book makes a very timely and welcome contribution to scholarship on the topic of social exclusion ( and manifestations of racism) through the lens of a community, against the backdrop of notions of the ‘rural idyll’ in the English rural countryside. It also makes a valuable and an important contribution to the small but growing niche literature in this field by : (i) extending the application of theories of social control beyond criminology; (ii) focusing on those engaging in exclusionary practices, an issue which is much neglected in social exclusion research; and (iii) contributing to growing calls to connect the ‘local’ with the ‘global’.

Dr. Philomena De Lima

University of the Highlands and Islands, Inverness, UK