Reimagined policy futures: Shaping sustainable, inclusive and just rural and island communities in Scotland
Project Lead
Challenges
Despite numerous policy interventions, strategies and funding streams operating at different scales over recent decades, several persistent or ‘wicked’ challenges remain in many rural and island communities, and indeed are worsening in many places, including:
- The unaffordability and inadequate supply of appropriate housing to buy or rent.
- Depopulation, the out-migration of young people and population ageing.
- Rural poverty, inequality, disadvantage, and the exclusion of minority groups and those with protected characteristics.
These challenges affect rural, island and small-town communities, and the households and individuals within them in different ways, at different times, and to differing extents. Moreover, the interactions between these challenges, and newly emerging ones, create rural and island communities with a very diverse range of current characteristics and future trajectories. We know these challenges contribute to increased inequalities and disparities between rural and island communities and their urban counterparts.
At the same time, new trends are emerging, which will also affect rural and island places in different ways, and which require new and different policy responses, such as:
- An increasing recognition of the importance of the natural (blue and green) economy in recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Responding to the climate and biodiversity emergencies, for example through achieving net zero ambitions and decarbonisation.
- Changing technologies, mobilities and connectivity, for example in relation to agriculture (including novel crops and innovative agricultural methods) and changing mobility and connectivity for work and living because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Alongside the wicked challenges, more research is required to examine how these challenges and opportunities are manifesting in rural and island locations and explore policy responses.
Questions
- How can we understand the distinct characteristics and needs of accessible rural, remote and island communities in Scotland and how they change over time?
- How can we ensure that we have a reliable evidence base to understand the diversity of rural communities, how these communities change over time and how to meet their needs?
- How can we develop a better understanding of the changing population dynamics of Scotland’s rural and island communities?
Solutions
This project aims to generate new understandings of persistent and emerging challenges and opportunities in Scotland’s rural and island communities to distil evidence-based recommendations for new and re-designed policy interventions and tools to ensure sustainable, inclusive and just futures.
Taking stock: reviewing the evolving policy context for rural and island communities
We have established Rural Exchange to help collect primary data (information, ideas, commentary, and best practice examples) on a regular and large-scale basis from the full range of rural stakeholders (including individuals in rural and island communities, community groups, researchers, policymakers, national and regional stakeholders) on persistent and new challenges and opportunities. This is helping us to understand the wider impacts of shocks, policies, strategies or services.
Persistent rural challenges
We are reviewing rural policies, strategies and funding streams in Scotland and how they have evolved since the 1960s; the evolution of national and rural and island-specific policies relating to the three persistent, ‘wicked’ challenges (housing, demographic change and out-migration, and social exclusion, poverty and marginalised rural voices); and current policy drivers which are particularly relevant for rural areas. We are researching the three persistent challenges using large-scale citizen science; quantitative analysis of secondary data; qualitative data collection with stakeholders and rural and island communities; and targeted international learning.
Future challenges: a context for opportunity
We are exploring emerging challenges and opportunities and their potential implications for rural and island communities. This focuses on three key themes: 1) natural [blue and green] economy and green recovery, 2) climate change, decarbonisation, and net zero, and 3) changing technologies, mobilities and connectivity.
Looking forwards – what works?
We are developing evidence-based recommendations for new and re-designed place-based policy interventions and tools to ensure the sustainable, inclusive, and just future of rural and island communities. These are being informed by evidence-based case studies and international learnings. The Rural Exchange is key to sense-checking these recommendations with rural and island communities, ensuring that their voices are central.
Project Partners
Progress
Work in Year 1 has focused on writing Policy Spotlights (PS) and establishing a web portal. The first PS discussed the long history and evolution of rural 'policy' in Scotland, when compared with the relative short history of islands legislation and associated policy, but the absence of an overarching strategy/vision. There are a number of key themes, including the role of politics and personalities in policy evolution, the shift from an agricultural focus to wider rural issues, and the lack of publicly available evaluation evidence on policy impacts. the review has revealed the importance of collating and learning from this evidence.
In parallel with the policy review, four PSs have been drafted, providing a contextualisation of key rural issues and then focusing on three persistent challenges: housing, demographic change and exclusion/marginalised voices. These have drawn on academic and other evidence to provide early reflections on the issues for in-depth evidence gathering and policy recommendations work in Years 2 to 5. Final edits are being made to the PSs based on RESAS feedback. A policy-focused workshop is planned to build on the housing PS and discuss issues for future focus.
In partnership with the project 'Novel insights into Scotland's Rural and Island Economies' (NISRIE), the team involved in this project (acronum 'ReRIC') have launched the ruralexchange.scot web protal with a survey focusing on the rural/island impacts of the cost of living crisis. Outputs and data analysis have been added to the site since; we are also preparing a proactive awareness-raising strategy for early Year 2. The portal includes websites for ReRIC and NISRIE.
ReRIC researchers have been successful in securing a Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Network grant on Covid-19 related migration to rural and island communities and funding for a SEFARI Strategic Advisory Group to work with Scottish Government (SG) on implementing a Rural Lens for projects funded through the National Strategy for Economic Transformation.
Impact
Researchers working in ReRIC have actively contributed to Scottish Rural Action- and SG-led work to establish Scotland's rural movement, including shaping the agenda for the stakeholder engagement event held in October 2022, and ongoing engagement through the Working Group. The ReRIC principal investigator (PI) has been invited to join an Advisory Group for SG-led work on child poverty to provide rural/island insights, and an Expert Advisory Board for RUral Sustainability Transitions through Integration of Knowledge (RUSTIK). The PI is also an active member of the SG's Rural Stakeholder Group and gave a presentation to the Gorup in 2022 to inform them of the work and ask for ongoing dialogue to ensure the Group's assistance to shape the activities of the project and thereby maximising impact.
The first meeting of a joint Research Advisory Group for this project and NISRIE, has already been held and it includes SG policy officials, and representatives from Scottish Rural Action, the Scottish Local Authorities' Economic Development (SLAED), the Scottish Islands Federation, Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) Scotland, South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE), the Highland and Islands of Scotland development agency (HIE) and the Scottish Tourism Alliance. Group members will help to shape our work and be encouraged to 'use' our research to inform their organisation's activities.
The work has progressed well in year 2 (2023-24) with a particular focus placed on our first persistent challenge, affordable housing.
Objective 1: Rural Exchange (RE)
The site has been extensively restructured to improve its functionality and enhance user interactivity and accessibility, particularly for our wider non-academic policy and practice users in Scotland and beyond. The RE is now organised thematically with news and blogs, surveys and data repository sections. The RE will be continuously updated and we will be running regular short surveys, including on our persistent challenges. Final edits are currently being made and we are awaiting RESAS comments and plan to relaunch before the end of March 2024.
Objective 2: An in-depth review of rural and island policy evolution in Scotland from the Second World War to the present.
This work was completed in year 1 with final edits undertaken at the start of year 2. The review was published online in September 2023. An accompanying Prezi-designed policy timeline has also been published online and both will be accessible via the RE. Building on this review, the team has undertaken linked work as part of a SEFARI Specialist Advisory Group (SAG) to provide information, advice and intelligence to Scottish Government policy teams on the Rural Lens application and the Rural Delivery Plan.
Objective 3: Persistent challenges
Work in year 2 has focused on affordable housing. Our work started by reviewing existing academic and other literature. We have undertaken interviews with housing sector stakeholder organisations across Scotland and participants from rural and island communities, to discuss the challenge of affordable housing, how it has evolved over time and in different locations, and the reasons for its persistence. Our work has also involved in-depth secondary data analysis on a variety of different themes, including short term lets and Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings and the implications of related legislative changes, long-term rentals, and homelessness.
The citizen science element of the project, which involves large-scale data collection through short surveys of rural and island community residents, has been slightly delayed due to the restructuring of the RE, but we plan to run short housing surveys on an ongoing basis into year 3 of the project.
The research is being written up as a housing working paper; this will be submitted to RESAS by end March 2024. This paper summarises all of the evidence we have collected and include suggestions for changes to policy and practice.
ReRIC researchers also contributed to the Rural and Islands Report: 2023 - An Insights report which was published in August 2023 as a joint output with SRUC-E1-1 (NISRIE). Work on Objectives 4-7 will be undertaken in years 3-5 of the project.
Work in this project, linked with the SEFARI SAG on the Rural Lens project, has informed our ongoing engagement with Scottish Government policy officials on the development of the Rural Lens guidance for use by policy teams across Scottish Government and the Rural Delivery Plan. In particular we provided evidence of how a rural lens/rural proofing approach has been used, monitored and evaluated in other countries internationally. The Rural and Island 2023 Insights Report was also presented to the Scottish Government's Rural Stakeholder Group and to a meeting of Rural England CIC's Stakeholder Group, which included a large number of policy, practice and research stakeholders from all four parts of the UK.
We plan to make our housing working paper widely available across rural and housing policy stakeholders, and to present it at upcoming academic conferences.
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