Research Roundup September/October 2009 (no.2009/5)
Northern Rural Network
On 22nd October, the NRN held a very successful seminar at Woodhorn Museum on the
subject of coalfield regeneration. The morning sessions were chaired by Professor Paul
Younger and consisted of presentations by very experienced speakers on subjects such
as economic regeneration, social change and community identity and the North East
as a low carbon economy. The afternoon was devoted to workshop sessions focusing
on specific regeneration projects including the Wheatley Hill Community Association.
The day closed with a question time style panel session chaired by Professor Andy Pike
from CURDS.
On 27th October, Jane Atterton and Bob Newbery attended a meeting of the Barney
Guild in Barnard Castle. Jane presented headline findings from the rural business survey
relating to the Barnard Castle area, whilst Bob presented some initial findings from his
PhD work on rural business associations which has used the Guild as a case study.
Attendees provided some useful feedback on both research projects.
Rural Economy and Land Use
Jeremy Phillipson, has given advice to the new Marine Management Organisation that
is to be set up under the Marine Bill. There is interest in learning from Relu’s integrated
approach to research and analysis of rural land use, and possible parallels for marine
spatial planning.
On 29th September Relu’s animal and plant disease research projects organised a
stakeholder workshop on ‘Regulating Infectious Disease in the 21st Century: The
Changing Landscape of Responsibility’. Discussions from the workshop will feed into the
research and also into a policy and practice note in the regular Relu’s series.
Policy and Practice
Relu’s policy and practice note no 10 “Overcoming Market and Technical Obstacles to
Alternative Pest Management in Arable Systems” has been published and
downloaded from
http://www.relu.ac.uk/news/policy%20and%20practice%20notes/Bailey/Bailey%20PPN1
0.pdf
The Relu Briefing Paper, “Landmarks for Policy” which draws together policy implications
from across the Relu research has been published and can be downloaded from
http://www.relu.ac.uk/news/briefings.htm
Philip Lowe led Defra's Science Advisory Committee reaction to Defra's Animal Health
response to the SAC's report on the management of Bluetongue at a SAC Open
Meeting on 14th October.
Philip Lowe was interviewed for a new video produced by BBSRC on food security.
Philip Lowe gave a presentation on ‘Engaging Thinking: Knowledge Exchange
Narratives and Metrics’ at "Maximising IMPACT through Public Engagement", an event
organised by Beacon North East at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland on 21 st October.
In September, Mark Shucksmith visited the Centre for Rural Research in Trondheim,
Norway, to conduct some joint research and give a public seminar, which was the
subject of a full page article in Nationen (The Nation) newspaper. In his seminar, Mark
presented the work of the Crofting Inquiry and its potential relevance to Norway, which
has similar controls over farmland transfers and occupancy. He argued that these cases
show how, with appropriate state support and regulatory frameworks, small farms can
not only persist but can make a central contribution to the sustainability of rural places,
economically, socially, culturally and environmentally, fulfilling an implicit social contract
with generations to come.
In October, Mark Shucksmith was invited to address the Building Societies Association's
Chief Executives on the topic of 'Rural solutions for rural communities'. This address was
intended to lead to a series of working meetings between building society officers and
staff of the Commission for Rural Communities to explore how finance might be
unlocked for more affordable rural housing.
In October Mark Shucksmith met with Matthew Taylor at Westminster. He also chaired a
meeting of the Rural Social Justice Coalition, and gave an address at the Northern Rural
Summit, organised by the National Housing Federation, on the topic 'Will England's rural
policies do the job?'
Chris Ritson, member of the Food Ethics Council, attended the first hearing of
the ‘Food and Fairness Inquiry Committee’. The Inquiry Committee,
commissioned by the Food Ethics Council, brings together leading figures from
across the food sector. It aims to understand and examine the responsibilities of
the British government, businesses and public in promoting a fair global food
system. More details at www.foodethicscouncil.org/foodandfairness
Project progress
In September Nicola Thompson attended the final project meeting for the 'Foresight
Analysis for Rural Areas' (FARO) project, which took place in Pollenzo, Italy. Policy
recommendations drawn from this project, which ends in December 2009, will be
presented to the European Commission in a final workshop organised in Brussels.
Ranald Richardson, Hilary Talbot and Nicola Thompson have produced two policy
recommendations papers from the work package that they have lead on ICTs in rural
Europe and rural governance and policy.
Richard Lee, Mark Shucksmith and Hilary Talbot submitted a Working Paper on the
processes of change affecting rural areas across Europe, as part of the ESPON EDORA
project.
Publication and Conferences
Richard Lee has published a paper entitled 'Agri-Food Governance and Expertise: the
Production of International Food Standards’ in Sociologia Ruralis, 49 (4).
Mark Shucksmith's paper ‘Disintegrated Rural Development: neo-endogenous rural
development, planning and place-shaping in diffused power contexts’ has been
published online in Sociologia Ruralis.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120121288/issue
Philip Lowe, Alan Woods, Anne Liddon and Jeremy Phillipson has contributed with a
chapter entitled ‘Strategic Land Use for Ecosystem Services’ in Winter, M. and Lobley,
M. (2009) “What is Land For: the Food, Fuel and Climate Change Debate”, Earthscan.
Kathryn Wilkinson presented a paper entitled "Experts and other animals: organizing
policy-making in the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs" at the
European Consortium for Political Research annual conference, Postdam University,
Germany 10-12 September.
Carmen Hubbard co-authored a paper with Luiza Toma, Alistair McVittie, and
Alistair Stott (from SAC) entitled ‘A structural equation model of the factors
influencing British consumers’ behaviour towards animal welfare’. The paper
was presented at the 113th seminar ‘A resilient European industry and food chain in
a challenging world’, organised by the European Association of Agricultural
Economists, Chania, Crete, Greece, 3 – 6 September.
Staff and Other News
Kathryn Wilkinson has joined the Relu Director's Office as a Research Assistant .
Richard Lee has submitted his PhD thesis ‘Setting Science-Based International Food
Standards: Defining Dietary Fibre in the Codex Alimentarius Commission' on 7 th
September 2009.
Emma Giles has submitted her PhD thesis 'Young Adults and Healthy Lifestyles: Food,
Alcohol and Physical Activity - A Total Lifestyle Approach' on 2nd October 2009.
Eleftherios Alamanos has defended his PhD thesis ‘The potential of wine from Greece
in the UK market : A consumer segmentation approach’.
We welcome Natalie Ross, Helen Kendall and Namgeun Song to the CRE and the
School as our new PhD students.
Natalie is working on a +3 Collaborative PhD studentship funded by ESRC and The
Scottish Government ‘Exploring the Social Objectives and Impacts of UK Fisheries
Policy’. She has an MSc in Environmental Sustainability. She joins us from the Scottish
Government where she was a policy officer working on reform of the Common Fisheries
Policy. She is supervised by Jeremy Phillipson and Jane Atterton.
Helen graduated from Newcastle University in 2008 with MSc in International Marketing.
Her PhD is funded by the Food Standards Agency and will focus on the “Food
provisioning and domestic food hygiene practices of the over 60s in the North East of
England". She is supervised by Sharron Kuznesof, Mary Brennan and Chris Seal.
Namgeun is a Senior Deputy Director in the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries in South Korea. He will focus on ‘Exploring East-Asian Rural Development
Model based on LEADER Approach: Experience, Assessment and Prospect in
Republic of Korea’. He is supervised by Philip Lowe and Carmen Hubbard.
Visitors
Dr. Katalin Kovacs from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre for Regional
Studies visited the CRE during September and October.
Attila Jambor, an agricultural economist, from Corvinus University, Hungary has joined
the CRE as a guest member of staff from September 2009 until June 2010.