''Edgelands'' is a term for the transitional,
liminal zone of space created between rural and urban areas as formed by
urbanisation
Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly the ...
. These spaces often contain nature alongside cities, towns, roads and other unsightly but necessary buildings, such as power substations or depots, at the edge of cities.
History
The concept of edgelands was introduced by
Marion Shoard
Marion Shoard (born 6 April 1949) is a British writer and campaigner. She is best known for her work concerning access to the countryside and land use conflicts. In 2002 she became the first person to give a name to the "edgelands" between town ...
in 2002, to cover the disorganised but often fertile hinterland between planned town and over-managed country. However, a century and a half earlier,
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
had already highlighted the existence of what he called "bastard countryside ... ugly but bizarre, made up of two different natures, which surrounds certain great cities"; while
Richard Jeffries similarly explored the London edgeland in ''Nature near London'' (1883).
See also
References
Further reading
*
Richard Mabey
Richard Thomas Mabey (born 20 February 1941) is a writer and broadcaster, chiefly on the relations between nature and culture.
Education
Mabey was educated at three independent schools, all in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. The first was at Roth ...
, ''The Unofficial Countryside'' (1973)
*
Marion Shoard
Marion Shoard (born 6 April 1949) is a British writer and campaigner. She is best known for her work concerning access to the countryside and land use conflicts. In 2002 she became the first person to give a name to the "edgelands" between town ...
, ''Edgelands'' (2002)
*
Paul Farley
Paul Farley, FRSL (born 1965) is a British poet, writer and broadcaster.
Life and work
Farley was born in Liverpool. He studied painting at the Chelsea School of Art, and has lived in London, Brighton and Cumbria. His first collection of poetr ...
and Michael Roberts, ''Edgelands'' (2012)
External links
Towards a Taxonomy of Edgelands Literature
Literary criticism
Cultural geography
Geography
Environmental humanities
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