Events

Upcoming Events

10 December 2019: Fiona Ashmore and Liz Price: “Connecting Remote Rural Communities”

12.00pm, location TBC. Reporting findings from their Interreg project “CORA” https://coraproject.eu/.

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29 January 2020: Regional Impacts of Climate Change: Comparing Urban and Rural Examples

Andrew Kythreotis, Martin Phillips (University of Leicester) Candice Howarth (LSE), and Peter Somerville

A Regional Studies Association East Midlands Branch event to be hosted by Rural Visions.

Time and location TBC.

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Previous Events

Nestor Vercher: “Rural Social Innovation; examples from Spain & Scotland"

This seminar provided Nestor the chance to introduce himself and his doctoral research which focuses on social innovation. In particular, his research examines social capital creation through community-based rural projects in Ibiza and Formentera, the rural regions around Seville and Aberdeenshire. Nestor a visitor of the School of Geography and Rural Visions is keen to find out some more examples of rural social innovation here in the England.

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Visit of Professor Dirk Strijker

Professor Strijker made a short visit to the School of Geography and continues as an active researcher in rural development, farming, and rural societies. Professor Sam Hillyard, Dr Gary Bosworth and Professor Strijker are working on a book proposal “Research methods for rural studies”.

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Dr Gary Bosworth: “Social and Spatial Rural Mobilities

In this seminar, Gary presented a conference paper that he is taking to the Regional Studies Winter Conference which attempts to combine recent work on rural transport with his previous research into counterurbanisation. This will explore the hypothesis that personal mobility and population-level mobility into and out of rural regions are linked to recent evidence suggesting that social mobility remains weak in many rural parts of England.

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Rural Communities - Cohesion or Isolation?                                            

The latest meeting of Rural Visions focused on rural socio-economic challenges and sought to identify the key research questions that could help to address these. A central theme to the conversation was rural isolation and loneliness – not unique to rural areas – but a growing concern with rising rates of rural homelessness and ageing rural populations.

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How Does Our Rural Research Contribute to the University’s "Civic Mission”?  

This will be a chance to discuss our research in terms of its wider societal importance. If anyone has a rural impact case study under development or is working with rural research users, this is a chance to present your work to the group and build your networks. This is intended as a precursor to a Rural stakeholder event later in the year.

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Do We Adapt Our Research Methods for Rural Contexts?  

With smaller and sparser populations, and with different interpretations of the meaning of rurality, does rural research need to be framed or conducted differently? Please offer any examples that you think demonstrate the need for (or not) any distinctive approaches. We are working on a book proposal and will be putting out a call for chapters connected to this session.