Sharon Flanigan

In the context of the Scottish Government theme ‘A Rural Economic Resilient to Global and Local Change’, Sharon is conducting a longitudinal study using a mixed-methods approach to explore the role of social capital in facilitating adaptive capacity of individuals, businesses and communities in rural areas.  A key argument that is being explored is that activation of latent social capital through formalised policy efforts is effective in increasing other forms of capital (financial and human capital in particular) as well as instigating enduring capacity for individuals and industries to respond to future shocks or structural changes affecting rural areas. 

Her research focus also includes collaborative working with stakeholders in the North East of Scotland to explore how flexible combinations of farming models can facilitate transition towards sustainable agriculture at the regional level, in the context of European Union FP7 project ‘FarmPath’.  A key focus of this project currently is to explore three key farming ‘initiatives’ (on-farm renewable energy production, formalised farmer collaboration and non-commercial farming), which will be analysed comparatively with examples across Europe.  In particular, she has a key role in analysing transdisciplinary aspects of the process, as well as working with partners in Portugal and Germany to lead the investigation of farmer collaboration in Scotland, specifically focussing on machinery rings.    

Sharon also continues to be actively involved and interested in research relating to agritourism in Scotland, building on her PhD research; which suggested a number of policy and practice-relevant implications for agritourism in Scotland, as well as contributing a novel conceptual framework to the agritourism literature (Phillip et al., 2010).  An important aspect of this is involvement in a group comprised of agritourism stakeholders from the public and private sectors, which aims to develop a national initiative to support agritourism as a distinct and growing sector of the rural tourism economy.  Exploring the distribution and changes in the number of farm businesses involved is another key aspect that she is interested to explore in association with colleagues in the LADSS team, to contribute towards improved understanding of the agritourism landscape in Scotland.