|
|
Tim Neal
PhD Student with ESRC Studentship Award
PhD Research:
British migration and change in a French rural commune
French rural life has been the subject of much study particularly from an anthropological perspective over the past forty years. While such work provides an invaluable foundation for understanding the persistence and discontinuities of contemporary rural life the current prevalence of British migration to rural France invites new work of which this research project is one example. A common approach has been to focus on sets of questions designed to characterise British migrants and/or their explanations for moving. Other approaches have worked with notions identity and authenticity.
I am setting out to discuss British migration as part of a longer trajectory of migration. The apparent differences between the different migrations beg questions about the potential for comparison which in themselves offer the possibility to resituate this contemporary phenomenon. In particular I aim to address the lack of attention given by researchers to the way that French populations behave in the face of the arrival of the British and to situate this within a French discourse around rural life.
My principal approach is anthropological with an extended period of residence and participant observation in a French rural commune lying at the heart of the project. While much of my research is recorded through fieldnotes I am also carrying out a number of informal interviews with both French and British residents. Building on the relationships formed during my fieldwork I am also recording domestic house tours with British homeowners where they discuss objects they have brought from Britain and conversely what local objects they consider of value.
PhD supervisors:
Margo Huxley
Glyn Williams
|
|
|
