Social contribution of land-based industries to rural communities
It is often perceived that the role of farmers and other landowners in rural local governance is now largely diminished and that today’s rural population has much weaker ties to the land. In order to gather primary evidence to help inform this debate, the CCRI was commissioned by the CRC to explore the social interaction between land-based industries and rural communities.
The study, led by Paul Courtney during 2006/07, employed an ethnographic approach involving in-depth qualitative research in five case study communities in different parts of England. Findings revealed that the nature and scale of land-based community interactions vary considerably from place to place, reflecting a host of socio-economic factors; that social relationships may be reinvigorated by encouraging more local selling and buying of agricultural produce; and that any fault-line between land-based industries and their local communities is often less real or significant than are divisions within those communities – most notably between newcomers and established residents long exposed to the needs and activities of the land-based sector.
Link to PDF Summary of Project Report
