I think one of the reasons I’m so interested in small towns in fictions is a remnant of why I was interested in studying geography and urban design.
The relationship of rural, suburban and urban.
How they shape the people that live there especially.
It probably comes off as a bit condescending but I love learning about what life is like for my friends living in more remote areas.
It’s also interesting considering how often the small towns I’ve visited are more than not tourist destinations now. They once existed for an industry and either the industry is still there and tourism now supplements as maybe the industry isn’t as strong as it once was or it exists as an area for people to retire/escape the big city and hosts artists and artisans.
Obviously I’ve visited those places as a tourist and I wouldn’t have been there if I wasn’t one but I have also pass through small towns that once had an industry, had that shut down or be way less profitable but the town kinda remains as there’s infrastructure there and there’s probably some pull factors to living there like low costs of homes. But also most people are probably leaving leading to things like brain drain or like youth flight where the big cities just have more pull factors and take people that could’ve spent time working in that town leaving and thus leaving the town with an aging population.
The rural urban divide is so interesting because it’s so easy for both sides to resent the other.
Due to our capitalist hellscape, rural areas often exist to extract resources to funnel towards urban areas. This can lead to resentment towards city folk as it feels like they take way more than they give back. Which someone is taking more than they give back and it’s definitely corporations and billionaires.
However on the urban side, I believe cities go beyond the mere idea of capital. Obviously cities have existed before capitalism. And there’s a lot of pull factors that a higher population density brings. Often times a lot of people leave rural areas for opportunity as their skills might be more useful in a different place. But also cities are often places of diversity and acceptance. Or at the very least moreso than a rural town or at the bare minimum, there are just more people to not stand out as much. So that creates a resentment towards rural areas as they become seen as places of conservatism. Because yes, bigger populations leads to more diversity which leads to more interactions with other people which makes the other not the other and instead a neighbour.
I do think bridging the rural and urban divide is important as it requires the dismantling of systems that harm all of us. Rural towns shouldn’t just exist for resource extraction and maybe tourism. And cities should just be hubs of commerce. They both should serve the people that live there and have some sense of self sustainability or a more reciprocal relationship.
Because it’s not great when I see city folk act high and mighty or rural people call people with progressive ideas city slickers. At the end of the day we’re not being treated properly by the built environments we should have a say in.
