Rural-Urban Interdependencies: Thinking through the Implications of Space, Leisure, Politics and Health

Abstract

The collective experience of social distancing will undoubtedly have implications for our social, cultural, and political practices. In this critical commentary, I consider the implications of these experiences by focusing on rural-urban relationships in Canada. Drawing from accounts published in online newspapers, I reflect on how social distancing highlights the interdependencies of urban and rural Canada and the role of space and leisure in shaping our broader social and political discourse. Reflecting on issues related to class, space, mobility, and freedom of choice, I suggest that rural-urban interdependencies is a productive framework for considering these relationships and how we might re-think them moving forward. In conclusion, I offer hopeful speculations on how social distancing may indeed bring us closer together.

Keywords:

• Class
• health and well-being
• space
• social distancing
• urban-rural interdependencies
• COVID-19

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Dylan Odd for his insightful feedback of an early draft of this commentary as well as the anonymous reviewers for their comments and feedback.

Notes

1 There are many definitions used to define rural across disciplines. It is beyond the scope of this paper to delineate these thoroughly here. I use rural broadly to refer to areas located outside of urban centres. It should also be noted that I do not use rural in reference to Indigenous communities in Canada. The history Indigenous peoples in Canada extends far beyond our contemporary urban and rural definitions, and Indigenous communities have social, cultural, an political issues which are distinct (yet sometimes intertwined) with other parts of what we now call rural Canada.