PAST & PRESENT
Research Library
Welcome to our research library, where we have cultivated a collection of research papers important to the study and development of themes around rural people, places, and social enterprise.
Search by theme, or using keyword search to find what you’re looking for.
Rural SE Hub Stakeholder Report 2023
The Rural Social Enterprise Hub has today published its 2023 Stakeholder Report, detailing the background of the project, work to date, ongoing development, and future priorities. The report is available to view here: Rural SE Hub Stakeholder Report Apr 2023...
The Measurement of Social Impacts in Rural Social Enterprises: a Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Implications
(This review is an excerpt from Regional Studies, Regional Science) Rural social enterprises (RSEs) represent an emerging actor in rural and local socio-economic development. The study of RSEs recognises the importance of place-based actions for development. Social...
Social Enterprises as a Revitalisation Strategy for Rural Communities
(This chapter is an excerpt from Rural Areas in Transition) There is growing academic and practitioner interest in social enterprises (SEs), due to their – mostly assumed – positive social impacts on communities. However, there is less research...
Reflections from the SEWF ’22 Rural Gathering Report
A report which details ‘Reflections from the SEWF ’22 Rural Gathering’ was published on the 22nd of December 2022. Produced by ACRE, the report provides an overview of the Rural Gathering programmatic approach. It also includes a synthesis of...
Understanding Scotland: A New Survey for Scotland
The David Hume Institute, in conjunction with the Diffley Partnership, published the latest Understanding Scotland: economy insights on the 22nd of November 2022. The data, collected just prior to the chancellor’s Autumn Statement, shows almost universal...
Storytelling for Systems Change: Insights from the Field Report
Community-led place-based initiatives are modelling new ways of working – shifting away from top down, program-focused approaches towards an approach grounded in systems thinking and community-led innovations. However, while these stories of change are sitting...
SENScot & Community Enterprise: Community-led Tourism Report
Communities are increasingly getting involved in tourism and shaping the offer their area provides to visitors. The drivers and motives behind this vary considerably and include the desire to secure greater levels of visitor spend; managing visitors to limit their...
Community-led Tourism in Scotland – Lessons Learned May 2022
Tourism plays a key role in supporting Scotland’s regional and local economies with many rural and island communities reliant on visitor spend. The economic value of the tourism industry has historically been the predominant focus for both industry and government but...
Community Ownership Cold Spots Briefing March 2022
Community Land Scotland, with the support of the Scottish Government, has been working to get a better understanding of Scotland’s “community land cold spots”. The process started with desk-based research and the results have informed this paper. The following...
The David Hume Institute: Community Insights March 2022
Throughout 2019-20, the David Hume Institute’s Action Project brought people across Scotland together to discuss what was needed to progress towards a more prosperous, sustainable, inclusive and fair country. They spoke to people from all walks of life,...
Collective Leadership: Research and Learning
On the 1st of March 2022, the Rural SE Hub hosted a session at the Illuminating Leadership Festival, a virtual, week-long event hosted by Collective Leadership for Scotland, with a focus on the topic of collective, systems- and place-based leadership. The name of the...
Research calls for rural and island communities to be seen in a new light following Covid.
Research led by CoDeL and funded as part of the Northern Periphery and Artic Programme has found that while the health and economic disruptions caused by Covid-19 are undeniable, on balance many rural and island areas have performed relatively well during the pandemic...
Community Based Social Enterprises fostering Inclusive Development in peripheral European Rural Areas.
Community Based Social Enterprises fostering Inclusive Development in peripheral European Rural Areas. Lucas Olmedo, Mara van Twuijver, Mary O’Shaughnessy. This paper investigates how community-based social enterprises (CBSEs) foster inclusive development in...
Social Enterprise in Rural Communities. Ireland
Social Enterprise in Rural Communities. Ireland. O’Shaughnessy, M. and O’ Hara, P. (2013) National Rural Network. Community Development Enterprises (CDEs) operate through providing broader social and economic benefits to their host communities by...
RurAction. Handbook for Practitioners
The RurAction Network: Handbook for Practitioners. The stated aim of this publication is to: ‘to help practitioners – both on the basis of our own empirical research and a literature review – to reflect with greater awareness on rural conditions with...
Identifying the Characteristics of Rural Social Enterprise in Scotland
Inspiralba has hosted a PhD Intern for the past six months in conjunction with the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science. Cat Aitken has looked at the characteristics of rural and island social enterprise and the extent to which this offers a different model....
LEADER and Spatial Justice
LEADER and Spatial Justice. Mark Shucksmith, Elizabeth Brooks and Ali Madanipour Sociologia Ruralis: Journal of the European Society for Rural Sociology 2021. This paper explores ideas of ‘spatial justice’ and how they can be applied via placed – based...
A Different Approach to Community-Led Asset Development
In this short video, Douglas Westwater, Chief Executive of Community Enterprise Scotland introduces this research carried out in collaboration with The William Grant Foundation: https://youtu.be/jb9pAl-sOd4 Read the full report here: A different approach...
Think Big, Act Small: Elinor Ostrom’s radical vision for community power
The report provides an accessible introduction to Nobel prize for Economics winner Elinor Ostrom’s work and the radical vision it offers for our current challenges. Described as the ‘intellectual hero of the community power movement’ it explores her decades long...
Social enterprise, social innovation and self-directed care: lessons from Scotland
This study based on guided conversations with 19 stakeholders explored the experiences of social enterprises that deliver social care in Scotland within the Self Directed Support (SDS) framework. It found mixed evidence of transformation in the Scottish social care...
Social enterprises’ impact on older people’s health and well-being
Exploring Scottish experiences: Part of the Common Health research programme, this paper explores ‘what’ impact social enterprise activities had on the health and well-being of participants over 50 and ‘how’ this impact was created. The research covers the work of...
Young People and Access Routes into Social Enterprise Report
In rural areas, there is often the expectation that young people should relocate to urban cities to access employment and education – this is known as the ‘brain drain’, and is one of the key drivers of rural depopulation. Social enterprises in...
Filling a void? The role of social enterprise in addressing social isolation and loneliness in rural communities.
This study of seven social enterprises in the Highlands and Islands looks at the ways in which they address social isolation and loneliness. It supports suggestions that in remote and rural areas social enterprises can be generators of health and wellbeing but also...
Unlocking the potential of rural Social Enterprise
This paper reports on an exploratory study with social enterprise stakeholders in Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders focused on the potential of social enterprise to contribute to rural development. It considers three key domains that impact on this potential...
Rural social enterprise – evidence to date, and a research agenda.
This introductory article to a special issue of the Journal of Rural Studies on rural social enterprise considers current knowledge in relation to social enterprise and social entrepreneurship in rural settings. It also finds ‘considerable research gaps’ and suggests...
Social entrepreneurship in a rural context: an over-ideological state?
This study from 2008 considers the factors that influence how social entrepreneurs operate in rural areas, the difficulties they face and how they might be addressed. Based on interviews with 30 social enterprise stakeholders in the Highlands and Island it argues that...
Can social enterprise contribute to creating sustainable rural communities?
This study based on interviews with social enterprise stakeholders in the Highlands and Islands considers the extent to which social enterprise can address social and economic challenges in remote and rural areas. Promotors of social enterprise include the market...
Starting social enterprises in remote and rural Scotland: best or worst of circumstances?
This study extends the analysis of specific promotors/ barriers to the success of social enterprise in the Scottish Highlands to consider issues relating to health and social care. It finds thinking not well developed and issues in relation to procurement. While those...
Built-in Resilience: Community Landowners’ Responses to the Covid-19 Crisis
In June 2020, Community Land Scotland and the Community Woodlands Association co-published a new report entitled “Built-in Resilience: Community Landowners’ Responses to the Covid-19 Crisis.” The report demonstrates the remarkable efforts made by...
Wellbeing Economy
Want to know more about a #wellbeingeconomy? A new paper from the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll) explains what a wellbeing economy is, discussing the benefits, the fundamentals and building blocks, how it iffers from the current system, and how it would...
Resilience Economics Report from Common Weal
The recent report from Common Weal Scotland, ‘Resilience Economics’, sets out an economic framework for rebuilding Scotland’s economy post-virus. This new document explains the principles behind Resilience Economics – the act of building an...
Exploring the Geographies of Social Enterprise in the Highlands and Islands
Research conducted by Ailsa Higgins, a student at the University of Glasgow, explores the geographies of social enterprise in the Highlands and Islands region of Scotland. Social enterprise activity is known to be particularly dense in the Highlands and Islands, where...
Future research agenda
Below are some of the ideas for future research from discussions around the hub to date: The ViSENet partnership have identified succession planning, the role of social enterprise in creating employment opportunities for young people and retaining population. There is...
Themes from the current research literature
A look at some of the key themes in the current research literature on rural social enterprise. ‘Many of the themes will be very familiar to practitioners but have been drawn out to start a discussion on research areas that are of interest to rural social enterprises.’
Rural Lives
Rural Lives is a research project which is examining the wellbeing of people and families in rural areas, focusing in particular on peoples’ ability to meet their financial commitments and needs comfortably – having enough income to meet more than life’s...
Collective leadership
Background paper for Community Learning Exchange to Oban and Mull which provides an introduction to ideas of collective leadership.
Rural Social Enterprise Hub – Initial Survey Results
Rural Social Enterprise Hub – Initial Survey Results: There is a clear focus on learning; particularly peer to peer learning.
