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OrkCEmP - Orkney Community Empowerment Project

OrkCEmP explores perceptions and experiences of living in Scotland’s rural communities such as Orkney, and the challenges and opportunities this provides

Project aim

Orkney Community Empowerment Project (OrkCEmP) is part of the RESAS Theme 8 (Work Package 8.2) work on 'Governance and Decision-making for community empowerment in rural communities', running from 2011-2016. It aims to explore perceptions and experiences of living in Scotland’s rural communities such as Orkney, and the challenges and opportunities this provides.

Project objectives

  • To contribute to understanding of how local communities can be empowered or can empower themselves by following processes used to engage residents in a Climate Challenge Fund project in Orkney.
  • To understand the role played by institutions in rural empowerment processes.
  • To investigate the extent to which changing patterns of rural governance encourage inclusion.

Methodology

Qualitative, ethnographic study in Orkney; semi-structured interviews; postal questionnaire; observations.

Key findings (ongoing)

- Rural governance includes local and non-local actors and institutions (Climate Challenge Fund)
- Community engagement varies over the life course
- Perceptions of community utilise non-instrumental notions of history, sense of place, family, identity and emotional ties
- Governing through community utilises instrumental goals and targets, which may limit engagement and inclusion because these understandings are different from everyday meanings of history, place and family.

Staff involved and contacts

Liz Dinnie, Petra Lackova

Project Information
Project Type: 
Archived Project

Research

Areas of Interest


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The James Hutton Research Institute is the result of the merger in April 2011 of MLURI and SCRI. This merger formed a new powerhouse for research into food, land use, and climate change.