Spatial inequality, spatial justice and ‘right to the countryside’

This chapter examines spatial inequality, spatial justice and a right to the countryside. It asks why inequalities exist and persist across space, both within rural areas and between rural and urban areas. The chapter critiques the framing of rural areas as ‘places left behind’ and calls for more empirical research in rural contexts. The concepts of spatial justice and the ‘right to the city’ are then reviewed in turn, arguing that a relational approach to spatial justice might usefully be applied to rural contexts, organized around four key themes. Finally, Lefebvre’s concept of the ‘right to the city’ might also prove helpful in this regard, with its emphasis on rights to appropriation, habitation and participation, while Lefebvre’s theory of complete urbanization requires further scrutiny.