Staying in the Rural: contemporary life course related senses of belonging, mobility and rural community participation
STAYin(g)Rural will contribute to the conceptual understandings of staying in a rural context and acknowledges the contributions of stayers to contemporary rural community life. The project seeks to develop a typology of contemporary rural stayers and staying processes and map the influences, decision-making processes, and contributions to rural communities to different stayer types. Spatial variations within the ‘rural’ will also be reported. Central to the project is recognition that mobility and immobility are no longer separate processes, but instead are intricately entangled.
The project will be of benefit to public and policy beneficiaries including rural residents, rural community representatives, and local and regional rural policy-makers. The project includes three national steering groups (comprised of case study area policy and community representatives) and will culminate with an international policy event (to include national steering group participants) and local case study specific seminars (involving residents and public policy and community representatives). Such events will consider the impacts of the study’s findings, provide stakeholder networking opportunities to share good practice, and increase awareness of similarities and differences between the study areas and different ‘rural’ types.
This project is funded by:
UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
German Research Foundation (DFG).
Stockdale, A and Ferguson, S (2020) Planning to stay in the countryside: the insider advantages of young adults from farm families. Journal of Rural Studies 78: 364-371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2020.06.029
Stockdale, A and Haartsen, T (2018) Editorial: Putting rural stayers in the spotlight. Population, Space & Place. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2124
Haarsten, T and Stockdale, A (2018) S/elective belonging: how rural newcomer families with children become stayers. Population, Space & Place. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2137
Stockdale, A; Theunissen, N and Haartsen, T (2018) Staying in a state of flux: A life course perspective on the diverse staying processes of rural young adults Population, Space and Place. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2139).
The research team also regularly present at international academic conferences.
Aileen Stockdale (Queen’s University Belfast)
https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/aileen-stockdale
Aileen’s expertise is in the changing demography of rural areas. Her specific interests focus on rural mobility (in-, out-, retirement, and return migration) and immobility (staying), the associated decision-making processes, and socio-economic consequences for rural communities. Her research includes strong life course and gender perspectives.
Tialda Haartsen (University of Groningen, the Netherlands) https://www.rug.nl/staff/t.haartsen/
Tialda’s research expertise is in the fields of cultural geography, concepts of place meanings, attachment and belonging in relation to mobility and immobility. She has a particular interest in rural in-, out- and return migration, especially at young adult and union and family formation life stages. Tialda has undertaken research into rural staying, rural representations and place meanings, the effects of depopulation on rural services, facilities and residents’’ quality of life, community participation and citizen initiatives.
Annett Steinführer (von Thunen Research Institute, Germany) https://www.thuenen.de/en/lr/staff/scientific-staff/dr-annett-steinfuehrer/
Annett’s expertise is in the socio-spatial impacts of population decline, ageing in rural settlements and community coping strategies. She has completed studies on the household decision-making involved in moving and staying. She has a particular interest in the socio-demographic transitions affecting rural communities and how these can lead to inter-rural and regional disparities.
SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities.
Project website:
STAYin(g)Rural
- @STAYing_Rural