Rural assets: policy and practice insights from the devolved nations

This project aims to understand the impacts of the processes of community asset acquisition upon the empowerment, resilience, and well-being of rural communities across the four nations of the UK.  

Rural communities face long-standing challenges, such as out-migration of young people and geographic isolation, that affect local socioeconomic development and threaten community resilience and well-being. These issues are potentially exacerbated by contemporary events such as Brexit, COVID-19, and climate change, making rural communities more vulnerable to spatial injustices and inequalities.  

Across all jurisdictions of the UK, the acquisition of local assets, such as land and buildings, is promoted at a policy and public authority level as a valued means of strengthening local networks and the sense of community empowerment that contributes to resilience and well-being. However, there is divergence in policy application and local level practice in each nation. While research has established that community assets can enhance wellbeing in rural contexts, less is known about the conditions under which processes of asset acquisition lead to increased empowerment, wellbeing, and resilience. This novel study seeks to facilitate knowledge exchange across policy, practice and community levels, and across the four UK nations, to better enable processes of asset acquisition that achieve greater resilience, empowerment and wellbeing of rural communities.   

The research will comprise three stages: 

1. A scoping review of literature on rural asset acquisition and community empowerment, resilience and wellbeing to develop a conceptual framework, and an analysis of current policy and administrative structures for asset acquisition in each UK nation.  

2. Conducting interviews in case-study sites across the four nations to investigate the experiences of those directly or indirectly involved with asset acquisition processes. The research team will explore positive and negative impacts of asset acquisition, engage with those who experience barriers to inclusion, and work with participants to co-produce additional approaches to collecting data. Findings will be used to develop a conceptual framework and inform future evaluation, policy, and practice.  

3. Hosting cross nation knowledge exchange events throughout the project to inform the research direction; allowing case-study participants and related bodies to share lived experience and co-produce recommendations; and create a forum for community members, practitioners, policymakers, and academics to co-create and present solutions.  

Co-production underpins the project, and the key outputs will be developed with individuals and groups from each case study site. A final report exploring the research and recommendations will be made publicly available. The research team will also produce a series of reports aimed at policymakers, as well as outputs that are co-produced with rural communities and other key stakeholders.