Centre Activities

March 1997
John Bryden, Mark Shucksmith, Deborah Roberts and John Farrington attended the 48th European Association of Agricultural Economics (EAAE) Seminar in Dijon. The following papers were given: John Bryden - 'New Technology and Rural Development' (in collaboration with Alan Sproull of Glasgow Caledonian University) and 'Rural Development: Policy Orientations and the Cork Declaration' (in collaboration with Patrick Commins of TEAGASC, Ireland); Mark Shucksmith - 'Rural Development and Social Exclusion: Conceptualising the Research Issues'; Deborah Roberts - 'Rural-Urban Interdependencies: Analysis using an Interregional SAM-based Model' and John Farrington - 'New Pressures on Social and Economic Access in Rural Areas: Car Dependence in Rural Scotland'.

A number of Arkleton Centre Associates attended the Agricultural Economics Society (AES) annual conference at the University of Edinburgh. Mark Shucksmith organised a Symposium on Rural Policy. He and John Bryden gave papers at the conference and Deborah Roberts gave a paper with Scott McDonald (Department of Economics, University of Sheffield) entitled 'Implications of BSE for the UK Economy: a CGE Analysis'.

April 1997
'Rural Employment: An International Perspective', edited by John Bryden and Ray Bollman, was published by CAB International.

May 1997
John Bryden and Morag Paterson organised and co-ordinated a meeting in Bergen, Norway of researchers, small enterprises and development agencies, from the peripheral areas of Scotland and Scandinavia, on uses of Information and Communications Technologies in relation to Marketing. The meeting was part of the on-going IT-Scand Project, currently funded by the Scottish Office and the Nordic Council of Ministers. The aim is to develop collaborative projects between SMEs in Scotland and Scandinavia in the application of IT as a regional development tool.

Mark Shucksmith and John Bryden met Martin Auld and Steve Sankey of the RSPB to discuss the respective interests and activities of the RSPB and the Centre, and the possible areas of co-operation.

The new Chancellor of Aberdeen University, Lord Wilson of Tillyorn, visited the Centre to discuss the vision, aims, funding and activities of the Centre.

Mark led a discussion on Rural Regeneration at the annual conference of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive in Newcastle, Co Down.

Dr Gard Folkesdotter of the Swedish Institute for Housing Research, University of Uppsala, visited the Centre to give a seminar on Development and Migration of Small Settlements in Sweden.

June 1997
Mark Shucksmith visited the Centre for Rural Research, University of Trondheim, Norway, to give two seminars and to discuss future research collaboration.

John Bryden successfully tendered to work on Integrated Rural Policy with the Land Use Policy Group, involving the Countryside Commission, English Nature, Countryside Council for Wales and Scottish National Heritage.

John attended a meeting of the European Observatory in Brussels in his capacity as co-ordinator of the Future Prospects Group of the Observatory. John and Morag organised a workshop for the Scottish participants in the IT-Scand project to further develop a series of IT-based projects which had been agreed at the Bergen meeting earlier in the year.

As co-ordinator of the IT-Scandinavia project, John visited Iceland with Dr Chris Bendixen of SINTEF (Nordic co-ordinator) and met with the Regional Development Institute and Nordic Council of Ministers Group, Holar Rural College and various companies with a view to involving Icelanders in the project.

July 1997
John Bryden organised a workshop on rural policy for the UK Land Use Policy Group of the key land use agencies (Countryside Commission, English Nature, Countryside Commission for Wales, SNH) in Newcastle. Mark Shucksmith and Philip Lowe (Newcastle University) also contributed to this workshop.

John Bryden appeared on the lunchtime BBC programme, 'Grassroots' to discuss the European Commissions Agenda 2000 proposals for reform of CAP and Structural Funds.

John Bryden was invited to join the Scottish Office Rural Agenda Working Group as one of the two external assessors, the other being Deirdre Hutton, Chairman of Rural Forum Scotland.

August 1997
Visitors during August included Dr Fiona MacKenzie of Calton University, Ottawa, Canada.

John Bryden attended the meeting of the International Association of Agricultural Economists in Sacramento, California, and gave a joint paper with Dr Ray Bollman (Statistics Canada) on rural employment in a workshop organised by Alberto Valdez (World Bank). John also visited Mexico en route.

September 1997
Visitors to the Centre included Professor Norio Tsuge, Tohoko University, Japan and David Singe of the Australian Wheat Belt Development Commission.

Mark Shucksmith and John Bryden organised a workshop in Aberdeen for RSPB officials on Reforms to EU Agricultural and Structural Policy.

John Bryden attended a meeting of the European Rural Observatory in Brussels to prepare the November Colloquium - Rural Development: 800 LEADER Groups Present their Views. John addressed the conference on 'Future Prospects for Rural Areas' and also chaired a workshop on 'Co-ordinating the local, regional, national and European levels'.

During the month John attended meetings of the Scottish LEADER Network and the Scottish Office Rural Agenda Group (as assessor).

Almudena Buciega (Spain) started work experience with the centre as honorary research assistant, focusing on LEADER and qualitative evaluation techniques. This work built on her Masters dissertation, comparing LEADER's in Scotland and Spain.

Anthony O'Keeffe started work on his PhD, supported by an ESRC CASE award jointly with the Crofters Commission. Anthony is studying changing income opportunities for crofters and their families in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

October 1997
The Centre started its regular lunchtime seminar series with a presentation by John Bryden on the implications of the EU's Agenda 2000 for rural areas.

John gave a keynote address on 'IT in the Northern Rim. to the meeting of the Scottish-Nordic business forum in Nairn. Participants were from Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, as well as various funding agencies.

Mark Shucksmith convened an all-day seminar in London of the seven teams of researchers working within the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Action in Rural Areas programme. This 350,000 pounds research programme, on which Mark works part- time as Programme Adviser to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, is investigating the processes underlying key social problems within rural areas and identifying changes in policy and practice which might improve matters.

At the same seminar, Mark, Dr Euan Phimister (Economics) and Esperanza Vera (Land Economy) gave a paper presenting the results of their recent research into Social Exclusion in Rural Areas: A Preliminary Analysis of Rural Households in the BHPS (British Household Panel Survey).

Mark led a session on rural Policy at the Rural Forum Annual Conference in Oban and gave a paper on 'Rural Action: From Research to Policy'. At the same conference, Lord Sewel made a major announcement of the new Governments policy for rural Scotland.

November 1997
John was appointed as external assessor to the Land Reform Policy Group in the Scottish Office, and gave an interview on Radio Scotland about the functions of the Group. This compliments his appointment as external assessor on the new Inter- Departmental Committee for Rural Affairs in the Scottish Office.

John gave a Plenary Paper on Future Issues for Rural Europe at the November Colloquium - Rural Development : 800 Leader Groups Present their Views- held in Brussels. He also chaired a workshop of over 100 participants on 'Co-ordinating the local, regional, national and European levels'.

John gave an invited paper on the insertion of the EU Structural Funds in Austria, following the 1995 Accession to a Symposium on Regional Policy in a Federal System - The Austrian Approach to a Co-operative Regional Policy, Brussels - 27/11/97.

Mark attended the European Symposium 'Towards a New Community Initiative for Rural Development' in Brussels, and participated in a workshop on Local Democracy, Participation and Equal Opportunity.

Mark also visited Queens University, Belfast, to conduct the examination of a doctoral thesis, and visited the Centre for Rural Economy, University of Newcastle- upon-Tyne to give a seminar on 'The Dynamics of Low Income and Social Exclusion in Rural Britain' based on work with Euan Phimister and Esperanza Vera.

Ms Shirley P Dawe - a PhD student with the Centre - represented the Centre at the meeting of the team evaluating LEADER I Community Initiative in Brussels.

Arkleton lunchtime seminars at the Centre included :
Bill Pardy (Aberdeenshire Council - Community Development Officer) on Sustainable Development, Pat Snowdon (Department of Agriculture) on Rural Partnerships and Almudena Buciega on the implementation of community empowerment ideas in the LEADERs in Spain and Scotland which she has been studying.

Visitors to the Arkleton Centre included Dr Fiona Mackenzie (Carelton University, Canada) who is pursuing research on rural development in Harris.

December 1997
John Bryden took part in a seminar on Agenda 2000 at St James' Palace, chaired by HRH The Prince of Wales and attended by Mr Frans Fischler, EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development and the Rt Hon Jack Cunningham, Minister of Agriculture.

John participated, as assessor, in meetings of the Scottish Office Land Reform Policy Group which were chaired by the Minister of State, Lord Sewel, and in the Inter-Departmental Committee for Rural Affairs. John also chaired a session on European Mountain Regions at the International Conference on Mountain Regions held at Oxford University. He attended a meeting of the European LEADER Observatory in Brussels to meet representatives of the National Networks and plan seminars and other activities for the coming year.

January 1998
John visited Queens University Belfast where he was external assessor for the Gibson Chair of Rural Development. He also attended a Strategy Meeting of Leirssin, the Gaelic Research Centre at Sabhal Mor Ostaig in Skye following his appointment to its Advisory Board. The Board is chaired by Sir Kenneth Alexander. John gave the opening address 'Challenges for European Rural Policies' at the Conference on Development Perspectives for Rural Areas in Germany, organised by the Federal Institute for Regional Planning during 'Green Week' in Berlin.

John attended a Highland Council meeting on a Strategic Vision for the Highlands in 2017.

Mark Shucksmith spent some time in Norway working with colleagues at the Centre for Rural Research, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, on a research proposal for the EU's FAIR Programme. This application for 930k ECU's has now been submitted, with the Arkleton Centre as proposed co-ordinator.

During January the Centre submitted research funding bids totalling 2 million pounds, mainly to the EU and Scottish Office.

Mark Shucksmith contributed to a day's small-group discussion of how to tackle Social Exclusion, with Scottish Office Ministers and officials and other leading authorities. The aim of the discussion was to help to inform the new Social Exclusion Unit within the Scottish Office, paralleling that within the Cabinet Office.

Mark attended a workshop organised by the National Lotteries Charities Board for Scotland, to advise on the evaluation of proposals and projects.

Mark also spoke at a Planning Exchange Conference in Glasgow on the subject of housing and economic regeneration.

As part of his work as Programme Adviser to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Action in rural Areas Programme, Mark chaired a number of project advisory group meetings in various parts of England.

February 1998
Mark was appointed to membership of the Scottish Advisory Group of the European Union's Article 10 Programme for transnational co-operation in the Northern Periphery of Europe, which involves collaborative projects between Norway, Sweden, Finland and Scotland. Mark attended a conference in Bodo, Norway at which he made a presentation entitled 'The development and transfer of new knowledge and good practice in relation to the sustainable development of the northern periphery'.

John spoke to the South West Association of Nature Conservationists at Dalry, Kirkudbrightshire, on rural policy issues. He also organised the Study Tour for Eastern Europeans and facilitated the annual Arkleton Trust Seminar (see under Arkleton Trust).

John Bryden and Mark Shucksmith have been awarded a contract by the Scottish Office to design an evaluation of the Laggan Community Forestry Initiative.

Everyone worked very hard to complete the bid to SHEFC (the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council) for the new research centre, and this was duly submitted during the month, with a large number of supporting letters from colleagues around the world.

March 1998
John Bryden met Gus MacDonald, chairman of the Cairngorm Partnership to discuss land and related issues. He and Kate Robinson also met with Professor Hannaford of the Department of Public health to discuss areas of joint research interest in relation to rural health and welfare.

John attended the seminar on evaluation organised by the European Leader Observatory, and acted as rapporteur for two workshops.

John and Mark facilitated a lunchtime seminar to draft a response to the Governments discussion paper: Towards a Development Strategy for Rural Scotland.

John was invited by Professor Brian Duffield to join the ad hoc policy group of the University of the Highlands and Islands, and attended its first meeting in Inverness on 13 March to discuss the UHI response to the Governments rural strategy discussion paper

John attended a meeting of the Rural Agenda group at the Scottish Office.

Mark took part in a BBC programme - Countryfile - in Glasgow, discussing the crisis in farming, its effect on rural areas and rural poverty.

George and Janet Fotheringham arrived from Canada at the end of the month.