Winther, A.M., Moffatt, I. and Hanley, N.D., University of Stirling
Abstract:
Environmental and socio-economic factors are creating compelling needs for radical social change. This is especially so in rural communities in Scotland. There is increasing recognition of the fragility of the planet, the extent of human impact upon it and the problems associated with society’s dependence on fossil fuels. As part of the local responses to this, communities across the UK are demonstrating the feasibility of creating visions and action plans for change (for example, Transition Towns, One Planet Living, Going Carbon Neutral). This research investigates the possibility for rural Scottish communities not just to survive but to thrive as communities in 20 years time. A hypothetical sustainable community design was drawn from recent thinking on sustainable communities (such as, inter alia, Hopkins’ Transition Towns, Bioregional and WWF’s One Planet Living and Mollison and Holmgren’s Permaculture Design). The sustainable community design was used as a framework in a rural Scottish community for assessing the current level of sustainability and for attempting to create a community-designed vision of a thriving community in 2030.
This paper presents the preliminary results of quantitative, qualitative and integrative research approaches to studying the development of sustainable communities in rural Scotland. For this investigation, a small Scottish “accessible rural” community (as defined by the former Scottish Executive, 2003) was used as the first case study. A baseline study was carried out in 2008 using self-completion web-based and hard copy questionnaires. An ecological footprint, well-being and community assessment was carried out. Whilst some social aspects of the community appear healthy, the results of the baseline study suggest that the community is not ecologically and economically sustainable in the longer term. This has been recognised in part by the community and steps are already being taken to make the community more sustainable. An envisioning exercise was carried out using community members to develop their ideas for addressing the ecological and socio-economics challenges of the future. This paper presents the preliminary results and compares them to the sustainable community design. An assessment of the initial results of the envisioning exercise leading to a sustainable community in 2030 is given. An evaluation of the research method is presented together with plans for a repeat study in 2009 using a “remote rural” Scottish community.
