Rural politics, elections and protest from UKRI project 'Rural Discontent, Spatial Justice & Disruptive Politics' (Rural-Spatial-Justice) at Aberystwyth Uni.
Aberystwyth, UK
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Could rural Wisconsin turn to the Republicans? A new long-form read on our Substack discusses the political history of the region, the role of rural consciousness and 'the politics of resentment' and the issues that might make a difference.
ruralspatialjustice.substack…
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Help us build the most accurate map of Brexit. Ten years on Rural-Spatial-Justice is crowdsourcing 'boxcounts' from observers at the referendum count to go beneath the results & find out the local geography of Leave & Remain. Click below to find out more.
open.substack.com/pub/rurals…
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New article in The Conversation previewing the role that environmental issues might play in Wales’s Senedd election
eur02.safelinks.protection.o…
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Fully agree Reform's rise is different to other new parties / protest votes. See also our analysis of the urban/rural geography of Reform's local elections vote. TLDR: Reform's vote is very consistent across all rural-urban categories, which is not normal: ruralspatialjustice.substack…
In local by-elections where turnout is above the average, the winner so far this year has been...
Reform: 54%
Lib Dems: 21%
Labour: 8%
Conservative: 8%
Green: 4%
Compared to...
The rise of Ukip in the early 2010s
The SDP/Liberal Alliance in the early 1980s
... this is not normal.
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Join our team: We're recruiting 2 x 3-year post doc researchers for the Rural-Spatial-Justice project at Aberystwyth, to undertake fieldwork on rural discontent & support for disruptive politics in the UK, Europe & USA. Closing date: 19 Oct. Details: jobs.aber.ac.uk/en/vacancy/p…
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Rural Politics & Spatial Justice retweeted
New article w/ Kostya Ovsiannikov: “In decline, but not left behind? Electoral behavior in Japan‘s depopulating regions“
Brief summary below
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…
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Rural Politics & Spatial Justice retweeted
I talked to Time about the role of agricultural politics in the upcoming Upper House elections.
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If you found @jacobin's article on Democrats losing Kentucky coal country interesting, have a read of our free Substack essay 'Notes from Appalachia' on our research on links between rural discontent, spatial justice and support for Trump in east Kentucky: ruralspatialjustice.substack…
The story of the decline of Democratic elected leaders in Kentucky coal country is a story of how the Democrats lost America’s rural working class.
Read: jacobin.com/2025/06/kentucky…
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Rural Politics & Spatial Justice retweeted
The story of the decline of Democratic elected leaders in Kentucky coal country is a story of how the Democrats lost America’s rural working class.
Read: jacobin.com/2025/06/kentucky…
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New on our free Substack: Notes from Appalachia. What's behind Trump's landslide in eastern Kentucky? Musings on our scoping visit & reading and thoughts on how we'll approach case study fieldwork (with a little myth-busting). open.substack.com/pub/rurals…
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Excepting Hungarian majority areas, Romania’s presidential election runoff showed a rural-urban divide, including small towns vs rural hinterlands, with far-right George Simion polling especially strongly in the rural south east.
After months of political crisis, Romania finally picked a new president last Sunday when liberal, pro-EU Bucharest mayor Nicușor Dan defeated right-wing populist George Simion by 7%.
It was a redo of last year's annulled presidential election. After a...
(1/7)
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Rural Politics & Spatial Justice retweeted
My debut piece for the Observer is up on their website.
It's on the global crisis of the centre-right and why its lost its way.
(Free to read)
observer.co.uk/news/politics…
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Rural Politics & Spatial Justice retweeted
Romania: Dan (*–RE), the centrist mayor of Bucharest, prevailed in nearly all Transylvanian counties and major urban areas such as Bucharest, Cluj, Iași and Timișoara, reflecting backing from more urbanized counties.
Meanwhile, Simion (AUR–ECR) secured a majority in most counties across Moldovia, Muntenia, and Oltenia, marking strong rural and southern support.
The map shows the winning candidate by county in the second round of the 2025 presidential election.
➤ europeelects.eu/romania
#AlegeriPrezidențiale2025 #Romania
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Rural Politics & Spatial Justice retweeted
I remember reading about "peak populism in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023...
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New post just out
A fascinating guest post from @ProfJaneGreen and Marta Miori looking at Reform's performance last week.
Are we seeing an end to two-party politics or its reinvention?
(£/free trial)
samf.substack.com/p/the-refo…
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Rural Politics & Spatial Justice retweeted
Romania: According to final results, Simion (AUR–ECR) secured a sweeping victory, winning in nearly every county. Antonescu (PSD/PNL/UDMR – S&D|EPP) performed well in areas with a high proportion of ethnic Hungarians. While Dan (*–RE) won in just two key urban centres: Cluj and Bucharest.
Map shows the winning candidate in each county.
➤ europeelects.eu/romania
#AlegeriPrezidențiale2025 #Romania
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Rural Politics & Spatial Justice retweeted
Who gained where in this year's local elections? newstatesman.com/politics/uk…
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There are intriguing variations in the rural-urban balance of the Reform UK vote in different counties. A quick initial of 3 counties (using ONS rural-urban classes (roughly - there's not an exact fit & we've modified category titles for brevity))
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Meanwhile, in Devon, Reform's strongest votes were both in urban areas and in "smaller rural" villages, coming second behind the Lib Dems in intermediate areas.
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