Class, countryside and the ‘Longitudinal Study’: a response to Hoggart

Hoggartʹs review of the literature on ‘middle class rurality’ raises a number of serious questions about the use of class and the study of localities. Whilst being favourite topics of theoretical discussion, researchers are rarely prompted to question their motives and intentions, or the visibility of the political stance that the use of ‘class’ serves. This paper examines how ‘class’ is used to represent a number of different social processes, and suggests that as a model of structure, it must cede to contemporary notions of class as social outcome (i.e. as verb, not noun) as the model is restricted and normative, limited by its generality and stasis. The paper thereby reveals how Hoggartʹs use of LS cannot address discussions of forms of organisation and ideology, nor of perceptions of ‘countryside’ or of environmental, social or political consciousness.