1. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Managing Environmental Change
in the rural urban fringe
Alister Scott Professor of Environment and Spatial Planning
David Collier : Head of Rural Affairs National Farmers Union
Claudia Carter, Richard Coles, Chris
Crean, Rachel Curzon, Bob Forster, Nick
Grayson, Andrew Hearle, David
Jarvis, Miriam Kennet, Peter Larkham, Karen
Leach, Mark Middleton, Nick Morton, Mark
Reed, Nicki Schiessel, Ben Stonyer, Ruth
Waters and Keith Budden

2. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Plan (to boldly go)
1. Uncover
Interdisciplinary
Investigations
2. Re-discover the rural
urban fringe :
3. Share Fringe Stories
– Opportunity spaces
– Agriculture in the
fringe
4. Learn lessons

3. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Interdisciplinary Investigations

4. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
• Rural Economy and Land Use Programme.
• Joining up the pieces
– “enables researchers to work together to
investigate the social, economic, environmental
and technological challenges faced by rural areas.
– ......... encourage social and economic vitality of
rural areas and promote the protection and
conservation of the rural environment
The Relu programme
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

5. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Rural-urban fringe as
interdisciplinary space
SPACE where town and
countryside meet
land use
interests
values
• Research team
perspectives of the rural
urban fringe.
• (1.40-3.24 )

6. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
The problem/opportunity
• Dominant form of
land use in 21 C
• Forgotten space
• Urban-centric or
rural centric space?
• Contested
stakeholder views
• Reactive or proactive
space.
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

7. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Our Response
• New way of doing
research
• Building new model
of interdisiciplinarity
• Bridging the town –
countryside divide
• Cross boundaries
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

8. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Crossing boundaries
 Birmingham City University -
Birmingham School of the
Built Environment
 University of Aberdeen -
Aberdeen Centre for
Environmental Sustainability
 Forest Research
 National Farmers Union
 David Jarvis Associates
 Natural England
 Localise West Midlands
 Green Economics Institute
 Birmingham Environment Partnership
 West Midlands Rural Affairs Forum
 Worcestershire County Council
 West Midlands Regional Assembly

9. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Doing Interdisciplinarity
• Securing involvement
costs
• Using experience and
expertise of team
members
• Thought pieces across
rural urban divide
• Spatial Planning (urban)
• Ecosystem Approach
(rural)
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

10. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Uniting natural and built
environment paradigms 1
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

11. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Uniting built and natural
environment paradigms 2
EUROCITIES (2004) The Pegasus files: a practical guide to integrated area-based urban planning
EUROCITIES, Brussels

12. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Pragmatic Interdisciplinarity
• Thoughtpieces
translated into one
paper with options
• Critical explorations of
SP and EA to identify
common principles.
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

13. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Spatial Planning /Ecosystem
Approach
 Culture change
 New ways of thinking
 Holistic frameworks
 Cross-sectoral
 Multi-scalar
 Negotiating
 Enabling
 Long term perspective
 Assets
 Connectivity
 Governance
 Inclusivity
 Equity/Justice
 Regulation
 Market-solutions

14. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Achieving Interdisciplinarity
• Select simple and
understandable
concepts for both
• New ‘glasses’ to assess
the rural urban fringe
• Built into research from
outset
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

15. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

16. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
• Time
– Long-term (50-100 years)
– Visions
– Learning lessons from the past
• Connections
– Flows and linkages vs Place
– Identify Relationships and dependencies
• Values
– Core values and belief systems
– Professionals (Planner, Environmentalist) and Publics
Unpacked
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

17. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
“It is a capital mistake to theorise
before one has data”
Arthur Conyan Doyle Scandal in Bohemia
Evidence
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

18. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
New evidence
• The data collected and
discussed in workshops and
field visits provides the
questions that make up
Rufopoly
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

19. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Workshops
• Used networks within
research team
• Workshop title
addressed their key
concerns/expertise
• Low tech interactive
approach
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

20. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Workshops
• Each workshop had
report produced
• All respondents
circulated with requests
for further feedback
and responses
• Final report.
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

21. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Visioning

22. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
• Hampton (Peterborough) 12 participants
• Worcestershire 16 participants (landscape
scale)
• Transect - making a journey across a RUF
– To experience/assess the different ‘personalities’
within the RUF
– To share knowledge, experience and expertise
looking at the RUF past, present and future
Field based Visioning exercise
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

23. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Hampton – Urban Extension
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

24. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Hampton transects
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

25. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
North Worcester: Landscape scale
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

26. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Worcester Transects
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain
Viewpoint 1
Viewpoint 2
Viewpoint 3

27. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

28. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Outputs
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

29. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
• Re-discovering the RUF
• Reconnecting the urban and rural divide
• Improving connections by crossing boundaries
2.19
• Adapting for the long-term
• Managing contested values
Each of these themes is developed in a video
activated by the hyperlink
To boldly go ………. Videoing in the
fringe
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

30. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Maximising engagement in the
fringe

31. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
• Valuable learning/development of our
team through research
• Rethink ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ polarisation
• Rethink rural urban fringe as key opportunity
space not just battleground for development
• Promote more experiments to realise full
potential of fringe
• Beware planners quest for order may remove
the very essence that makes the fringe unique
Reflections
Building interdisciplinarity across the
rural domain

32. relu
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
Conclusions
• Start of a research, policy
and practice journey
• Disciplinary silos can inhibit
progress in the fringe
• We need to experiment and
take risks
• We need better
engagement with publics
over kind of fringe they
want