COCKIES V. BLOCKIES:CULTURAL CONSTRUCTS IN THE ANALYSIS OF RURAL CONFLICT

Abstract

Based on an ethnographic study of rural change, this paper examines the theoretical and empirical contexts for friction between traditional farmers and lifestyle block holders in a small Lower Northland farming district. It describes how farmers’ subdivision and sale of land for smallholdings has attracted a steadily-increasing number of urban migrants, principally from nearby Auckland. Conflicting culturally-based understandings of rurality by farmers and blockholders manifests in behaviours that produce tensions between the two groups. Each values the rural environment for different reasons and in different ways. The result is that farmers view blockholders as a challenge to their still dominant culture.