Please Come, Sit, and Share My View

Abstract

Communities in general, and rural communities in particular, punctuate their lives with events that bring people together and celebrate aspects of culture. Rural communities in the UK are no exception and there is a heavily populated calendar of rural events, celebrating touchstones such as farming, hunting, and horses. Thus, there are numerous agricultural shows, game fairs, and horse events such as gymkhanas and horse shows. Research with regard to events such as these has been limited. There is a feeling among many people in the rural community that the UK is increasingly dominated by urban, as opposed to rural, concerns and that this cultural influence is changing the nature of many rural events. This article aims to explore and articulate some of these concerns. In order to do this an autoethnographic approach has been adopted as a method, utilizing logocentrism as an ontological lens. I grew up immersed in the culture and traditions of rural UK. I was taken hunting and was attending horse and agricultural shows before I could walk. As a young man I worked on farms and helped organize and run rural events. As such I view(ed) the world from a perspective that reflects my cultural upbringing. I find it difficult living in an urban dominated society where I consider rural events are increasingly urbanized to a point where the life, past and present, of the countryside becomes a sideshow. This commodification of rural life in the UK is something that has local and global relevance, though there are ways that event organizers can address some of these concerns.