Planning for housing in rural England: Discursive power and spatial exclusion

This article examines the discursive construction and application of concepts of sustainable communities in relation to planning for housing in rural England, highlighting the role of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) and the (now abolished) regional planning bodies. The paper draws on Lukes' 'third dimension' of power (language use) and Bourdieu's concept of 'symbolic violence'. It suggests that an 'unholy alliance' of rural elites and urban interests have wielded discursive power to define 'sustainability' on their own terms, which exacerbates the unaffordability of rural housing, leading to social injustice and spatial exclusion.