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Research project STAYin(g)Rural awarded funding

02 October 2018
STAYin(g)Rural

Tialda Haartsen has received a grant from ORA for the STAYin(g)Rural research project. The Open Research Ara (ORA) call of NWO funds joint research projects in social sciences that take place in at least two different countries. This project is a collaboration with Aileen Stockdale of Queen’s University, Belfast in Northern Ireland and Annett Steinfuhrer of the Von Thunen Institute, Braunschweig in Germany. Three researcher will be appointed for this three year project.

To this date, population geography research has focused on migration. Especially in rural areas, those who do not move are seen as a residual category and their motivations for staying receive limited academic or policy attention. STAYin(g)Rural investigates why and how people stay in rural areas at different stages of their lives. It acknowledges that people elect to (selectively) belong to and participate in rural areas and that different types of mobilities influence their staying processes.

People from three different peripheral and depopulating rural case study regions will be asked to take part in surveys, interviews and group discussions: east Groningen (the Netherlands), south Tyrone (Northern Ireland) and south Lower Saxony (Germany). STAYin(g)Rural focuses on three life course stages which are known triggers for re-negotiating residential choices: young adulthood, family formation and post-retirement.

Understanding how and why people stay in rural areas at different life transitions, and the contributions they make to rural communities and rural quality of life, helps inform rural policy decisions about service provision and living conditions.

Last modified:26 February 2020 08.40 a.m.
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