Rural Idyll and Social Exclusion - Essay Example

Rural Idyll and Social Exclusion Introduction Rural idyll is the attraction value that the rural give to thepeople living in the cities and convinces them that the villages provide poor quality of life and would never wish to associated with the rural areas. These people believe that the rural life is stressful and insinuates poverty in the mind at a glance at the geographical imagery of these places. The images in the countryside that reveal to the people the kind of lifestyle the rural people live and the attraction of the urban dwellers to the rural places (Watkins and Ann 873). The images in the rural places provide the revelation of the kind of lifestyles by the people, cultures, the products and the entire environment of the rural places. The Link between Rural Idyll and Geographical Imagery The geographical imagery in the rural areas depict much about the rural people to include their productivity, economic activities, the climatic condition, weather and culture. The nature of the rural areas and the belief of being the related to poverty which consequently lead to the migration of the people t the cities intensifies social exclusion in the region. These define the bad image of the rural areas and the factor of de-motivation to involve the villagers, the poor people in the planning process of the country. The negative perception and the belief of incapability of the villages lead to social exclusion (Yarwood 12). The Concept of Rural Idyll and Social Exclusion Social exclusion involves the contemporary neglect of the rural people from the benefits and exposing the people to disadvantages in the rural areas. This is as a result of the social class differences between the rural people and the city dwellers. The rural people are systematically blocked from rights, freedoms, opportunities and resources and these should present in order to enhance social integration between the people and the entire society. The geographical images in the rural; areas give them the classification of poor lifestyles by the urban dwellers. The exclusion of the rural people from the budgetary processes of the country will deny the society the opportunity to access the basic human wants in life (Philip and Mark 468). Rural Idyll and Low Income The negative point of view and belief leads to discrimination of the rural people. The urban elites, who are the planners and the directors of the major economic projects in the countries, look down upon the rural people with view of incapability and incompetence. The escalating rate of poverty is due to the relative low levels of affluence in the rural places, which ids contributed by the rural disadvantage posed by the development pilots in the regions. In the contemporary societies, the low levels of income in the rural areas are intensified with the need to own a car and meet the standards of the other people. This means that the rates of income are affected by the high living standards in the societies. The image of the rural areas put the villagers at the verge of poverty as their fate to access the full means of development are justified based on such measures (Carpenter, Belinda & Stuart 109). Poor or lack of services The neglect of the rural areas leads to discrimination that influences the supply of services to the people. Services to the people are determined majorly by the level of income that is usually low in these areas and therefore the services delivered are poor and of lower quality if not limited. The decline of services affects the poor and the elderly in the communities but in the rural areas it affects everybody. Poor services are directly linked with the poor access to channels and links to access these core servicers to the people. The lack of roads in the rural areas is linked with the focus to develop the urban areas neglecting the villages. The urban areas are given first priorities in everything to deal with the provision of development services and infrastructure (Yarwood 34). Rural Idyll Influences the Rate of Employment The belief that the rural people deserve living in the settings of the rural that is evident in most of them. The access to descent services leads to the poverty in the villages. The levels of employment in the rural places are very low as the opportunities fare diverted to the urban people. The preferences of the urban people due to low abilities of the rural people to perform, lead to low levels of income and lack of employment. The rural workforce lack sufficient employment as the opportunities are delivered in favor of the urban people who are seen as the elites in the societies (Yarwood 34-35).They have in many instances been linked with low payment and lack of security in their workplace. The rural people are not given the opportunity to progress with their career opportunities as the promotion is limited and leadership is not entitled to them. Rural Idyll and Health Services The rural areas are often exposed to a lot of challenges as the security of proper services is not guaranteed to them. Lacks of proper medical services are as a result of provision of limited and poor services to the people. The building of hospitals, health centers and the installation of health care equipment are done in the urban areas as the development directors live in the urban and cities. The urban elites are not attracted to the rural areas and therefore do not see the need to invest in the rural places. The rural people are viewed to be healthy and therefore attract little interests to improve the services to the people in the countryside. There are evidences of poor nutrition and diet due the lack of fresh fruits and nutritious food stuffs. This is due to the transport of the produce from the rural places to the urban centers where demand is high (Watkins and Ann 865). Rural Idyll and Poor Transport The separateness of the rural areas from the face of economic and social integration in the development plans, gives no interest to invest in the rural areas. This means that the building of the building of infrastructure means and improvement of services to the rural people remains low. There is less access to the public transport systems to the people. The transportation of rural goods to the towns has covered the scope of transport and public transport systems remain low as the population is taken to be low in these areas (Yarwood 21).The view that the rural elite have migrated from the urban areas and that the few in these places do not need transport links as the urban people do, make it more complicated to provide such services to the rural areas. Major transportation links are developed in the towns for the demand is comparatively high. Rural Idyll Affects Social Integration The dispensation and provision of poor services and the development uptake in the rural areas have led to migration of the rural workforce to the urban areas with the intention to seek employment and live access the basic rights, opportunities and resources in the urban areas. This has led to the seclusion of the elderly in the rural areas from the development sphere. The vision that there would people of age 60 in the rural areas with little source of income, no major development schemes, no post offices and with poor lifestyle in the entire Europe in the years to come (Hedberg & Renato 238). This is proved with the proof that little is being done to improve the development phase of the rural areas, no one is interested in rural development as everyone is eyeing at migrating to the urban areas. The rural dwellers have in many instances secluded themselves from major operations in the communities such as going to markets to access the goods in the markets. This is due to lack of time to access the markets, lack of childcare programs in the rural areas gives a lot of commitment to the household activities. The people are not trained on the childcare practices and therefore the people got the sole responsibilities in taking care of the children. The education of the rural people on progression in career opportunities requires the migration of the people out of the rural places to the urban areas but yet the time to excuse oneself from the mandatory chores of the homes is not a presented. The country men are seen to be slaves on their own land in the sense that they have tied themselves without freedom of movements (Philip and Mark 479). Conclusion Rural Idyll has caused a lot of social impairment to the villagers. They have been undermined to be people with low skills and poor living standards and the need to develop the rural areas are not preferred. Developments of the urban centers have left the rural people poor and the increase in poverty is further escalating the differences in the development preferences. Rural development has been characterized with low investment opportunities, low employment, low affluence and poor provision or lack of services to the villagers (Watkins and Ann 865). The seclusion of the rural areas from the processes of development, the denial of opportunities and freedoms has posed the rural people into problems of poor services and access to core opportunities to improve their lifestyle. This is escalated by the negative attitude towards the rural places. Rural Idyll impairs social integration in all its courses (Champion 153). Works Cited: Champion, A G. New Forms of Urbanization: Beyond the Urban-Rural Dichotomy. Aldershot [u.a.: Ashgate, 2005. Print. Carpenter, Mick, Belinda Freda, and Stuart Speeden. Beyond the Workfare State: Labour Markets, Quality and Human Rights. Bristol: Policy, 2007. Print. Hedberg, Charlotta, and Renato M. Carmo. Translocal Ruralism: Mobility and Connectivity in European Rural Spaces. Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media B.V, 2012. Internet resource. Philip, Lorna, and Mark Shucksmith. "Conceptualizing Social Exclusion in Rural Britain." European Planning Studies 11.4 (2003): 461-487 Watkins, Francine, and Ann Jacoby. "Is The Rural Idyll Bad For Your Health? Stigma And Exclusion In The English Countryside." Health & Place 13.4 (2007): 851-864. http://research-archive.liv.ac.uk/286/2/RuralIdyll_120207_FW_Final_for_SYJ.pdf Yarwood, Richard. “Beyond the Rural Idyll: Images, Countryside Change In Geography, 90, 1(2005):2-42 Read More