Social and Environmental Inequalities in Rural Areas

Project Status: Completed
Type of Project: Research Project
Principal Investigator: Dr Meg Huby, University of York (Email)

Publications, Data and other Outputs

Website

Policy and Practice Notes

Objectives

This project will refine and extend a dataset on Social and Environmental Rural Conditions (SECRA) that was developed in an earlier RELU scoping study. The team will then use the SECRA data to examine patterns of social and environmental inequalities in the distribution of social, economic and environmental goods and services. We shall consider how methods for measuring inequality differ in the natural and social sciences and explore ways to resolve differences and find a common approach. We shall also examine the effects of using different scales of spatial unit on measures of inequality.
Having identified inequalities in socio-economic or environmental goods and services we can then consider their implications for fairness and equity. To do this we need to consider whether the inequalities can be regarded as unfair or unjust. The best people to consult on these matters are the people actually living in the areas where we have identified inequality. At this stage, therefore, we shall involve local residents in the research, using mapping techniques to explore their perceptions of local inequality and injustice.

Working closely with our advisory partners from the Commission for Rural Communities and the Environment Agency, we then need to consider what the research findings mean for policies to achieve sustainable rural development.