Abstract
Although ‘counterurbanisation’ is very widely acknowledged and studied, certain elements of this migration-led phenomenon lack detailed scrutiny. These gaps need filling in order to appreciate the full flowering of the phenomenon in specific social-cultural, geographical and historical contexts; to enable comparison between these diverse expressions; and to examine their relationships with contemporaneous rural socio-cultural restructuring. One neglected element is counterurbanisation fairly directly informed by the late 1960s/1970s counterculture, a migration strand quickly stereotyped as the ‘hippie’ ‘getting her/his head together in the countryside’. This paper uses the example of British singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan, notably through the gestation and content of her Just Another Diamond Day album of 1970, to illustrate and examine countercultural counterurbanisation. With an additional nod to affective aspects of rurality, it also suggests something of what the lengthy rural journey Bunyan made from London to the Scottish islands, a key inspiration for the 1970 album, provided for her at a difficult, challenging, yet ultimately rewarding period in her life. Indeed, her experiences of (trying to engage with) the countryside on this journey are described as heterotopic, an association which leads the paper to suggest a more general heterotopic status for rurality within counterurbanisation.
Quoique la ‘contre-urbanisation’ soit très largement reconnue et étudiée, quelques éléments de ce phénomène menés par la migration révèlent un manque d'examens détaillés. Ces trous ont besoin d'être comblés afin d'apprécier l'épanouissement complet du phénomène dans des contextes spécifiques socioculturelles, géographiques et historiques; de favoriser la comparaison entre ces expressions diverses; et d'examiner leurs relations avec un remodelage contemporain, rural, et socioculturel. Un élément négligé est la contre-urbanisation assez directement informée par la contreculture de la fin des années 60 et 70, une migration courante rapidement stéréotypée comme l'hippie ‘se ressourcer à la campagne’. Cet article utilise l'exemple de l'auteure-compositrice-interprète anglaise Vashti Bunyan, notamment par la gestation et le contenu de son album Just Another Diamond Day de 1970, pour illustrer et examiner la contre-urbanisation contre culturelle. Avec un signe de reconnaissance additionnel des aspects affectifs de la ruralité, il suggère aussi comment le voyage rural et longue Bunyan a fait de Londres jusqu'aux Iles écossais, une inspiration clé pour l'album de 1970, qui est venue à elle à une époque de sa vie difficile, provocante, mais en fin de compte gratifiante. En fait, ses expériences de (essayer de s'engager avec) la campagne pendant ce voyage sont décrits comme hétérotopiques, une association qui mène cet article à suggérer un statu hétérotopique plus général pour la ruralité dans la contre-urbanisation.
Aunque la ‘contraurbanización’ está reconocido y estudiado ampliamente, unos elementos de este fenómeno guiado por migración se faltan examen detallado. Hay que estrechar estas lagunas para entender la florecimiento del fenómeno en contextos socio-culturales, geográficos, y históricos específicos; para permitir comparación entre estas expresiones diversas; y para examinar sus relaciones con restructuración contemporánea rural y socio-cultural. Un elemento negado es la contraurbanización informada por la contracultura de los 1960s/1970s, una hebra de migración estereotipada como ‘hippie’ ‘organizar sus ideas en el campo’. Este papel se utiliza el ejemplo de la cantante/compositora Británica, Vashti Bunyan, notablemente a través el contento de su álbum Just Another Diamond Day de 1970, para ilustrar y examinar la contraurbanización contracultural. Reconociendo aspectos de la ruralidad, también se sugiere del viaje rural que se tomó Bunyan de Londres a las islas Escocesas, una inspiración clave para su álbum de 1970, durante un periodo difícil, exigente, pero al final gratificante, de su vida. De hecho, sus experiencias de (tratando de involucrar con) el campo están descritos como heterotópicos, una asociación que se lleva el papel a sugerir un estatus heterotópico más general para la ruralidad entre contraurbanización.
Acknowledgements
Besides the inspiration gained from Vashti Bunyan's life and work, I thank three thorough referees and Phil Hubbard for getting me straight on this paper. I thank Vashti herself for inspiring, positive and insightful email exchanges and for permission to reproduce the album covers, and Robert Lewis for an equally positive insight into his-story, something I am now following up further. I also thank Dave Howell of Fatcat Records for permission to reproduce the Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind cover and for facilitating contact with Vashti. All usual disclaimers still apply, of course.
Notes
1 From ‘Glow Worms’ by Vashti Bunyan (1970).
2 There is a much larger literature on North America but a recent review still concluded that full details of the ‘back-to-the-land’ encounter of this period remain under-researched (Edgington Citation2008).
3 An auspicious date to depart; it was, of course, when so much of ‘the 1960s’ reached its peak, especially on the Paris streets.
4 See also reviews found through a search at http://www.amazon.co.uk.
5 This imagery inevitably calls to mind Heidegger's (Citation1971: 160) celebration of rural dwelling expressed by the ‘farmhouse in the Black Forest … built some two hundred years ago by the dwelling of peasants [where] the self-sufficiency of the power to let heaven and earth, divinities and mortals enter in simple oneness into things, ordered the house’.
6 Bunyan uses the metaphor of the ship as a uniting device in ‘Same but Different’ from Lookaftering.
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