Seeking Authenticity in Place, Culture, and the Self: The Great Urban Escape [Paperback]

In recent times, there has been a substantial push by people to escape the metropolis for lifestyles in small coastal, country, or mountainside locales. This book explores the narratives emerging from amenity-left migration using methods developed within the 'strong' cultural sociology.The Great Urban Escape The Promises of the Natural World  Escaping the City for Pristine Landscapes A Sense of Community  Cultural Heritage, Nostalgia and Sociability The Culture of Planning  Coding in Policy Initiative The Perils of Seachange  Threats, Unintended Consequences and the Future of Place The Local Experience, Seachange Communities and Mythologies The Seachange Story  Authenticity, Place and the Self

This fine book significantly contributes to our understanding of modern social and emotional life. Written from a neo-Durkheimian perspective, it persuasively demonstrates that the contemporary search for a bucolic Eden derives from a pervasive desire for authenticity and self-realization. The unintended consequence is that the 'last real places' tend to evolve into overcrowded playgrounds for the rich. This irony, and much else, is fully explored in a text that is both sophisticated and elegiac. - Charles Lindholm, University Professor of Anthropology, Boston University

In this pioneering book, Osbaldiston sheds light on the cultural phenomenon of seachange, the migration of urbanites in search of meaning. Through the lens of cultural sociology, he presents a compelling and theoretically rigorous argument for how the construction of authentic places by planners, promoters, and seachangers is thoroughly and inextricably entangled with a sense of the authentic self. The result is unmatched, with Osbaldiston narrating a nuanced and thoroughly engaging account of the impact of seachange on places and on individuals. - Michaela Benson, author of The British in Rural France