The local geographies of poverty: a rural case-study

Recent years have witnessed a renewed interest in the spaces of poverty in Britain. An increasing number of geographers have placed poverty back `on the map' by pointing to its complex spatial manifestations. In addition, the increased importance attached to the concept of social exclusion within UK social welfare discourse has led to social policy researchers thinking more critically about the broader social and spatial contexts of poverty and, consequently, new connections between poverty and space have been identified. However, within these new spatialised accounts of poverty in Britain, scant attention has been given to the local geographies of poverty. In fact, relatively little is known about the complex connections between poverty and place, and, more specifically, the ways that poverty is associated with different material forms, representations and experiences in particular local contexts. This paper develops these kinds of connection between poverty and place through an exploration of the local geographies of rural poverty in South-west England. Based on an analysis of local poverty data, in-depth interviews with a broad range of key agencies and a case-study of poverty in a particular village, the research highlights the complex socio-spatial nature of poverty, the different spatial scales and visibilities of poverty, and important connections between poverty and the shifting social composition of local space.