Putting Lefebvre to Work on “The Rural”,

Social and cultural studies over the past 20 years have been witnessing a “spatial turn,” an intellectual engagement with place and space, as a response to a longstanding ontological and epistemological bias that has privileged time over space (Soja, 2008). This is part of a wider theoretical project that grapples with the “unremitting materiality of the world” (Thrift, 2006, p. 139). It appears to offer promise to those looking for acknowledgement that in education place and space matters, in particular in its spatiality of inequalities and injustices (Gulson & Symes, 2007). This chapter uses the work of theorist Henri Lefebvre as a starting point for a spatial engagement with education in rural places. Lefebvre offers a set of ideas to use in developing understanding of the issues observed, connecting these into wider conversations about education, particularly those concerned with equity and justice.