Recent news

September 2009, Research visit to Norway

Katrina Brown will be going to NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, for a research visit on 11th September. She will be based there until June 2010, although she will be returning to MLURI for regular visits. As part of her research visit, she will be organising seminars to link Norwegian and Scottish policy makers and researchers working on Landscape, Land reform and Access.

Past news

April 2009, SERG staff win SAGE prize!

Katrina Brown, Rachel Dilley and Keith Marshall have scooped a national journal award for their research into the effect of movement on people’s appreciation of landscapes. Their published paper entitled “Using a head-mounted video camera to understand social worlds and experiences” is the winner ofthe Sociological Research Online SAGE Prize 2009. The award was presented to Rachel at the British Sociological Association annual conference in Cardiff on 16 April.
The prize is awarded to the most innovative and exceptional paper published during the past year in one of the BSA’s four journals; Sociological Research Online, Sociology, Work, Employment and Society, and Cultural Sociology. Led by Katrina, the winning paper investigates how different ways of experiencing and moving through landscapes affect the ways in which they are valued. Researchers used head-mounted video cameras to analyse the perception of subjects during their journeys through different environments. The paper can be found here: http://www.socresonline.org.uk/13/6/1.html

October 2008, publication and seminar attendance

The Royal Society of Edinburgh Report on the Future of the Hills and Islands, on which Bill Slee served as a committee member, was published in early September- it has since generated substantial public interest. See the report here: Report on the Future of the Hills and Islands

Bill Slee attended a seminar in Brussels on 17th September on Urban-Rural Linkages to Enhance Territorial Competitiveness. It is clear the DG 6 and DGRegio are trying to take a more integrated view of how cities and hinterlands can be better linked to deliver sustainable outcomes. This is the first of three seminars that brought together EU officials, member state administrators and academics.

June 2008, conference attendance and visitors

Maria Nijnik who represents the United Kingdom to the Management Committee of the European Union COST Action FP0703 "Expected Climate Change and Options for European Silviculture" (ECHOES) has been also appointed a member of the Steering Committee with the assigned responsibilities to lead on Climate Change Mitigation by forests in Europe.

Maria Nijnik has been elected to the International Association for Society and Natural Resources Council positioned at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University, and she will take a leadership role in this professional organization over a four-year term.

Professor Petro Lakyda, Director of the Institute of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, National Agricultural University of Ukraine, Kiev, and Professor Ihor Soloviy, Institute of Ecological Economics, National Forestry University of Ukraine visited SERG, June 5-13, under a scoping project supported by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Joint seminars of Prof Lakyda and Dr Soloviy were held on June, 9 and were entitled “Linking forest policy agenda with carbon sequestration opportunities in Ukraine” and “Environmental, and land use policy challenges in course of the Ukraine’s transition to a market economy and democracy”, with a workshop on the "Examining of the impacts of institutional reforms on economic and environmental performances in agriculture/land use with respect to land abandonment" took place on June 10.

Diana Feliciano and Bill Slee participatedin the meeting of the COST ACTION E51 - Integrating Innovation and Development Policies for the Forest Sector, days 12th and 13th of June, Birnam, Perth.
Bill and Diana also organised the workshop "Non Timber Forest Products: Opportunities and Barriers to Innovation", day 11th June, Birnam, Perth.

On 12 June 2008, Yan Xu attended the UNFCCC/SB side event organized by Government of Japan held in Bonn, Germany. The title was "Road to G8 Tokyo Summit: incorporating mitigation potential analysis into post-2012 negotiations". Yan presented Chinese perspective, highlighting difficulties in obtaining sectoral data and lack of technical innovation in many sectors.he event was selected by ENB (the earth negotiation bulletin) and reported on the web. http://www.iisd.ca/climate/sb28/enbots/12.html

June 2008, Congratulations Dr Smith!

Congratulations to Ashley Smith, a researcher in SERG, who passed her viva on 6 June. Ashley's thesis, Embodying Scotland: Identity, Cultural Policy, Dance was supervised by Professor Neil Blain, Head of Stirling University's Film, Media and Journalism Department and Dr. Kathryn Burnett, Senior Lecturer in the University of the West of Scotland's School of Media, Language and Music and was examined by Professor John Storey Director of Sunderland University's Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies.

Ashley's PhD research was funded by a University of the West of Scotland School of Media, Language and Music studentship. Her research focussed on the question of Scottish national identity as it is represented and reconsidered in cultural policy, cultural practice and cultural products. These were explored, using qualitative methods, through an investigation of Scotland's theatrical dance community. The research employed discourse analysis to interrogate Scottish cultural policy documents and media accounts of this policy as well as performing arts companies and performances. This supported primary data drawn from in-depth interviews with members of Scotland's dance and performing arts community.

April 2008

Congratulations to Gillian McCrum for winning first prize in the Association of American Geographers' Recreation, Tourism and Sport speciality group's student paper competition. The submitted papers were presented at the AAG conference in Boston this month, and were peer reviewed for the competition. Gillian won $400 and her paper has been forwarded for publication in "Tourism Geographies". Her prize was awarded at the RTS annual meeting in Boston during the conference. Gillian is supervised by Colin Hunter, University of Aberdeen and Kirsty Blackstock (SERG) and her Ph.D is funded by the Macaulay Development Trust.

Maria Nijnik is attending the ICF National Conference "Carbon Lean UK. A Role for our Trees, Woods and Forests?", Edinburgh, 23-24 April 2008 where three key themes will be examined: energy and carbon accounting; carbon trading; the forestry sector’s contribution to a carbon-lean society.

March 2008, Staff News

Tony Craig, Bedru Balana and Ashley Smith all joined the Socio-Economics team in January. To learn more about them and their research interests, click on their names to go to their web pages.

Heather Smith, Sebastien Selge and Sharon Phillip have joined the Group to undertake Ph.D studies. To find out more, click on their names.

After more than seven years working at the Institute, Ayele Gelan will leave on 7 March to take up a new post at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya. We wish him well in his new position.

March 2008, Conference attendance

Kirsty Blackstock will present to policy makers and scientists at the IWAM workshop on Agriculture, water and climate change in Bath March 2007;

Maria Nijnik is attending Sustainable Development UK 2008 (SDUK 2008) Conference "Action Today, Protecting Tomorrow", which will take place on March 6, 2008, in Westminster, London. Focussing on the overarching challenges of sustainable development policy, SDUK 2008 will examine: London’s climate change initiative; energy efficiency in buildings; The UK government’s sustainable development strategy; carbon markets; the energy technologies institute; science in government; the global response to climate change; the transport sector and new vehicle technologies; developing a local authority low carbon strategy; zero-carbon homes; designing communities for the future; aviation and the environment; biomass implementation policy’s; green taxes; the EU emission trading scheme and cross party sustainable development strategy;

Sharon Phillip and Gillian McCrum (both Ph.D students) attended the Scottish Sustainable Development Forum (SSDF) Spring Plenary on Thursday 6th March 2008, in Perth, on "The Rural Economy & Tourism - Contributors to a Sustainable Scotland?";

Anke Fischer is co-organising and chairing the 10th workshop of the ALTER-Net work package "Public attitudes towards biodiversity and its management" which takes place from March 12-14 in Helsinki. The group will jointly analyse the data they collected through a survey in 8 European countries, including Scotland, on public perceptions of biodiversity change. ALTER-Net is an EU Network of Excellence that addresses biodiversity issues from multidisciplinary perspectives.

Gillian McCrum will also attend the Association of American Geographers Conference in Boston from the 15th - 19th April 2008 and will be presenting a paper entitled "Developing Sustainable Tourism Indicators: What Should We Be Considering?

6 February 2008, Flooding

Wendy Kenyon represented the Institute at the Scottish Parliament Rural Affairs and Environment Committee's Flooding and Flood Management Inquiry on 6th February. The evidence was given as part of a round table discussion with 12 other organisations including RSPB Scotland, Forestry Commission, SNH, WWF Scotland. The overall aim of the ongoing Inquiry is to examine Scotland's current and future vulnerability to flooding and consider how flooding should best be managed in future.

17-19th December 2007

Bill Slee has just returned from a three day meeting in Prague, on " Integrating Innovation and Development Policies for the Forest Sector", as part of the COST ACTION E51 project on this subject. COST is an intergovernmental network which is formed by some of the most outstanding scientists of the European scientific community. Find more information about COST E51.

22nd November 2007, Royal Society of Edinburgh

Bill Slee is a member of a Royal Society of Edinburgh committee chaired by Professor Gavin McCrone, exploring the Future of Scotland's Hill and Island Areas. The committee's work is premised on concerns about farming change in these areas and the impacts of such changes on the wider rural economy. The committee has received evidence from many organisations and is undertaking a series of visits. It will report in the summer of 2008. Find out more about this committee's work.

22nd November 2007, Radio interviews

Bill Slee recently participated in radio interviews on Radio Scotland Newsweek, Perthshire Radio and BBC Radio 4 discussing his new entrants into farming project. You can listen to the Radio 4 broadcast here: Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, land use research - Broadcast media

5th October 2007, Congratulations Dr Dilley!

Rachel Dilley, a research assistant in SERG, has successfully defended her PhD thesis.  Her research explored women’s experiences of climbing and outdoor environments.

27th July 2007, Radio Canada Interview

A half-hour interview with Maria Nijnik, a researcher in SERG, was broadcast by Radio Canada on 27th July [www.rcinet.ca]. The discussion included various issues that concern the Macaulay in rural, ecological economics and land-use related research, as well as Maria’s personal involvement in research. There was a special focus on Macaulay’s international collaboration and efforts for sustainable rural development.

10th December 2006, Observer Article

A recent article about global warming in the Observer featured quotes from two Macaulay staff, including Kirsty Blackstock from SERG, who discusses the implications of climate change for water security in Scotland.
Read the full Observer article.