The impact of definitions of rural in research about enterprise

Description

Delivered by Katie McClymont, Associate Professor in Urban Planning, this paper considers the impact of definitions of ‘rural’ in light of research about rural enterprise in England.

It considers the different ways that rural development has been conceptualised and researched, explores impacts on the abilities of small businesses to flourish within their local communities, and in turn to become a visible part of a diverse rural social ecology.

Planning and rural geographies literature note the shift from a “productivist” to a “post-productivist” era after the second World War, and note the ongoing challenges that Brexit, Covid and continuing international instabilities bring to ideas of ‘the good countryside’ (Halfacree, 2023).

These narratives can conceal the diversity of experiences in and between rural contexts (Scott, 2008), and potentially mean that policymakers overlook the needs of rural business because of assumptions about suitable or possible activities in rural areas.

One of the weekly Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments (SPE) seminars.

All students and staff are welcome, either virtually or in person.