Work Programme

The Wales Rural Observatory’s main programme of work is focused on the collection, analysis and presentation of rural data, and undertaking primary research. Key elements of the work programme are provided below:

Rural data collection, analysis and presentation

Preliminary data collection and analysis have involved a number of key stages.
1. Setting up a data catalogue of existing data sources;
2. Determining the spatial scale of investigation for the rural data analysis;
3. Beginning a process of liaison with key actors in rural policy across Wales;
4. Initial analysis of key statistics on the five main Rural Observatory themes – mainly based around the new 2001 Census data for Wales.

1. Determining the spatial scale of investigation is an on-going process. Within the GIS we have now set up a number of spatial categories that may be used during the study (e.g. 2001 wards, 1991 wards, postcode sectors, TTWAs) employing different rural definitions, including the WAG nine and 12 rural unitary authority area definitions and the new ONS rural definition for England and Wales.

2. There have been on-going discussions with key players in the rural policy field, including the statistical directorate of the Welsh Assembly Government, the Local Government Data Unit, the Countryside Council for Wales and the Institute of Rural Health. These discussions will be extended to other agencies as further datasets are assembled for the GIS and key statistics for the five themes are developed.

3. Key statistics and variables from the 2001 Census have already been analysed and mapped. A large number of ward-level maps have now been produced based on the five main programme themes. Examples of these maps are included in the publications section of this website.

4. A good start has been made by the team in analysing and mapping some key statistics and variables from the 2001 Census and other datasets. A large number of ward-level maps have now been produced based on the five main programme themes. Examples of these maps are included in the Rural Data section of this site.

Research

The Rural Observatory’s research programme comprises two main phases of work. The first phase is focused at the national level and consists of major surveys of rural living and working, rural services, rural businesses and rural policy. This phase of work commenced in January and was completed by the autumn of 2004. The second phase of work draws on key findings from these surveys to focus on more specific themes and on particular spaces of rural Wales. Phase two began in September 2004 and is due to last 18 months. Further details of the individual projects linked to each of these phases are set out in the following section.

Phase one

1. Survey of Rural Living and Working in Wales
Overview: The first and largest of the research projects is a major survey of a representative sample of 4,000 households in rural Wales. There are three objectives of the survey: first, to provide a broad assessment of the nature of living and working in rural Wales; second, to generate benchmark data on social, economic and environmental themes in rural Wales that are not currently available from other sources; and third, to supply information on these themes that can be analysed according to different household types, social groups and spatial categories. The survey consists of telephone interviews, lasting 30 minutes and provides information on each of the five programme themes (rural economy, environment, welfare, services and society). Data from the survey are presented and analysed at different spatial scales (for example, by settlement type and by degrees of remoteness / accessibility) and data is being inputted into the Observatory’s GIS. Key findings from the survey are being used to inform several of the second phase research projects.
Methods: Telephone survey of a representative sample of 4,000 households
Spatial Scale: Rural Wales
Themes: 1, Economy and Employment; 2, Environment, Sustainability and Land-use Planning; 3, Social Exclusion and Inclusion; 4, Housing and Services; 5, Society and Community.
Status: Completed.

2. Survey of Rural Services
Overview: Since the mid-1990s the former Rural Development Commission and, latterly, the Countryside Agency (CA) have carried out annual surveys of village services in rural areas in England. These provide important contextual information on the vitality of rural areas and feed into policies and strategies for rural England prepared by the CA and central government. In Wales no such database exists, apart from a survey carried out as part of a HEFCW funded research project into services in Wales which was very similar to the CA surveys and collected data at the Community Council level for rural Wales in 1996 (Higgs and White, 2000). This survey is being updated for rural Community Councils in Wales to provide important contextual information for other research carried out by the WRO and inform policy makers in Wales of the ‘state of rural services’ in rural Wales. The survey data is also being added to the GIS database at the Community level allowing it to be combined with other datasets at that spatial scale.
Methods: Postal survey of all rural community councils
Spatial Scale: Rural Wales
Themes: 3, Social Exclusion and Inclusion; 4, Housing and Services; 5, Society and Community.
Status: Completed.

3. Survey of Rural Businesses
Overview: A priority for the WRO under its ‘Rural economy and employment’ work programme is to conduct an extensive survey of non-agricultural businesses in rural Wales. This will set a baseline and a benchmark for further, more in-depth work, which will look in more detail at the processes, obstacles and opportunities facing such businesses. The survey provides an extensive baseline (n 1000) of firms in rural Wales that offers reliable and comparative data on the state of businesses, their activities, development potential, obstacles and type of entrepreneurial practices.
Methods: Extensive postal survey of businesses. Quantitative analysis and dovetailing with existing data bases.
Spatial Scale: Rural Wales
Themes: 1, Economy and Employment.
Status: Completed.

4. Survey of Policy, Programmes and Resources for Rural Wales
Overview: This project examines current policy, programmes and resources supporting rural Wales. It has three key objectives: to situate policy and resources for rural Wales within their wider context; to identify levels, types and patterns of policy and resources for rural Wales and to examine the key support mechanisms for rural Wales. The information gathered informs an overview of the current and emerging challenges and opportunities for sustainability and change in rural Wales. The work has been undertaken in four stages. Stage 1 identified and documented key funding streams and policy initiatives. Stage 2 examined the role of statutory agencies in policy formulation and delivery. Stage 3 examined the initiatives and activities of non-statutory bodies. Stage 4 identified the role played by unitary authorities and national parks in encouraging, sustaining and delivering local initiatives.
Methods: Data werecollected from a number of sources including: the Welsh Assembly Government, European Union and Whitehall government departments, and statutory agencies and other organisations supporting rural Wales. The project included library and web-based documentary research and a postal questionnaire survey of Unitary Authorities, National Park Authorities, Assembly-Sponsored Public Bodies and a range of Non-statutory Organisations.
Spatial Scale: Rural Wales
Themes: 1, Economy and Employment; 2, Environment, Sustainability and Land-use Planning; 3, Social Exclusion and Inclusion; 4, Housing and Services; 5, Society and Community.
Status: Completed.

Phase Two Projects

Eleven projects will be undertaken within the second phase work. These projects will be conducted in three stages between July 2004 and March 2006. Brief information on each project is provided, although it should be recognised that the details of these projects may change as the phase two work develops.

Stage One

1. Rural Labour Markets
Overview: To provide a new evidence base on the complexities of rural labour markets in Wales. The project will draw on findings from the national surveys to investigate the role played by labour market in selected rural areas of Wales. Particular attention will be given to multiple job holding and the nature of and participation in informal labour markets.
Methods: Selection of key research sites involving interviewing,; policy analysis and evaluation of existing schemes.
Spatial Scale: Specially selected clusters of communities across Wales.
Themes: 1, Economy and Employment; 3, Social Exclusion and Inclusion.
Status: Completed.

2. Poverty and Social Exclusion in Rural Wales
Overview: Drawing on key findings from the national survey of households and data from the GIS, this project will provide an in-depth examination of the nature and experiences of material poverty and broader aspects of social exclusion in rural areas of Wales. It will also focus on the ways that agencies working in rural Wales have been developing anti-poverty and social inclusionary polices to deal with rural disadvantage. Within this project, particular importance will be place on how poverty and social exclusion are experienced by different disadvantaged groups (such as those in work, the unemployed, the elderly, young people, the disabled) in different areas of rural Wales.
Methods: Analysis of statistical data from the household survey and the GIS, survey of a broad range of welfare agencies, focus groups and interviews with poor and socially excluded groups.
Spatial scale: Rural Wales and selected localities / policy initiatives.
Themes: 2, Environment, Sustainability and Land-use Planning; 3, Social Exclusion and Inclusion; 4, Housing and Services; 5, Society and Community.
Status: Completed.

3. The Organisational Sustainability of Rural Regeneration Initiatives
Overview: This project will examine the factors influencing the long-term sustainability of rural regeneration initiatives and partnerships, including the strategies adopted by initiatives in adapted to changes in funding and programme regimes. The project will focus on up to ten initiatives established during the early to mid 1990s, including projects within the LEADER II and DBRW Market Town Initiative programmes. Interviews with current and previous officers, personnel and partner representatives will be used to chart the evolution of the initiative over the past decade and to discuss issues affecting the organisational form, operation effectiveness of the initiative. It is intended that three of the ten initiatives studied will no longer be operative and that for these initiatives interviews with former officers, personnel and partner representatives will be undertaken to establish the reasons for the closure of the initiative.
Methods: Up to 50 interviews, supported by desk- and web-based documentary research.
Spatial Scale: Various – focused on initiatives not localities.
Themes: 1, Economy and Employment; 3, Social Exclusion and Inclusion; 4, Housing and Services; 5, Society and Community.
Status: Completed.

4. Capacity-Building and Local Leadership in Rural Wales: The mobilisation and development of community and social capital
Overview: This project will seek to identify the processes through which ‘community or social capital’ is created, maintained, developed and employed in rural Wales. Drawing on evidence from the national surveys and a representative set of case studies, in-depth local enquiries will explore the relationship between ‘community or social capital’ and formal community council activities, informal associational (voluntary) engagement and recently promoted community regeneration initiatives. Each arena fosters the capacities of residents to engage in local endogenous development initiatives and creates the opportunity to engage established and younger residents in rural regeneration.
Methods: Representative case studies selected on the basis of the national household survey (associational activities section), policy initiative review and WAG T&CC national surveys will be identified. Elite interviews with stakeholders in four areas will subsequently explore the strategies adopted to encourage local community involvement, the success of individual ventures and the challenges faced in mobilising local residents. Public meetings/ Focus groups in each of the localities selected will establish the local experience of these initiatives and seek to determine and evaluate the benefits and competencies that have been developed.
Spatial scale: Local case studies with cross reference to the national context.
Themes: 3, Social Exclusion and Inclusion; 5, Society and Community.
Status: Completed.

Stage 2

5: Rural Homelessness in Wales
Overview: This project will examine the changing nature and scale of homelessness in rural Wales, explore current agency responses to rural homelessness, identify key obstacles to delivering services to homeless people in rural areas, and identify good practice in tackling rural homelessness.
Methods: analyses of homelessness statistics; national stakeholder interviews; local case studies.
Spatial scale: Rural Wales and selected unitary authorities / policy initiatives.
Themes: 3, Social Exclusion and Inclusion; 4, Housing and Services; 5, Society and Community.
Status: Completed.

6. Affordable Housing in Rural Wales: Assessing need and delivering sustainable solutions
Overview: This project will provide the first comprehensive evidence on the nature and scale of housing need, and policy initiatives aimed at dealing with such need in rural Wales. It will focus on problems of housing affordability and explore the linkages between affordability, housing structures, planning systems and housing competition in rural Wales. The project will draw on findings from the national surveys and an on-going study of rural housing (funded by the Welsh Assembly Government). Attention will also be given to the extent of and policy responses to homelessness in rural Wales.
Methods: The project will be based around the collection of statistical information on the scale and nature of rural housing need and homelessness, a postal survey of relevant agencies, and follow-on interviews with selected responding agencies.
Spatial scale: Rural Wales and selected unitary authorities / policy initiatives.
Themes: 2, Environment, Sustainability and Land-use Planning; 3, Social Exclusion and Inclusion; 4, Housing and Services; 5, Society and Community.
Status: Completed.

7. Market Towns and their Hinterlands: Social and Economic Interactions
Overview: This project will explore the social and economic interactions between market towns and their neighbouring communities, through case studies of five towns in different parts of rural Wales. Investigation of economic interactions will involve mapping of the ‘economic footprint’ of the towns through studies of employment, business procurement and sales. Investigation of social interactions will involve mapping of the ‘social footprint’ of towns through studies of service use, club and society memberships and participation in local social, cultural and civic events. The project be intended to address issues of whether economic investment in small towns ‘trickles-out’ to surrounding communities and whether social investment in towns is sufficient to serve wider rural areas.
Methods: The project will draw on data from the GIS database, the household survey and the business survey. Additionally, each case study will involve a booster survey of local employers; a survey of local clubs, societies and associations; interviews with business representatives, society officers and event organisers (estimated 10 per case study); and analysis of local newspaper reports.
Spatial scale: Market towns of between 2,500 and 10,000 population.
Themes: 1, Economy and Employment; 4, Housing and Services; 5, Society and Community.
Status: Completed.

8. The Changing Significance of the Public Sector in Rural Wales
Overview: This project will examine the changing significance of the public sector in rural Wales, from an economic and a social perspective. Rural areas have a higher than average dependence on both public sector employment, and public sector funding. This project will establish the past trajectory of public spending and employment, and assess likely future trends. It will also map the spread of public sector employment and spending across rural Wales to chart those areas of greatest concentration. Socially, the public sector provides a range of services – from the cradle to the grave – but these are increasingly being reconfigured in an era of public-private partnerships. The project will look at the changing influence of the public sector across a range of service areas, and again chart both past trajectories and future trends. Much of the data can be gathered from documentary sources, but telephone interviews will be carried out with key public sector agencies. The project will also draw on data from the GIS database of service provision.
Methods: Up to 30 telephone interviews, supported by desk- and web-based documentary research. Limited number of visits and interviews in case study areas.
Spatial Scale: baseline data will be comprehensive across rural Wales, with particular localities selected for case studies.
Themes: 1, Economy and Employment; 4, Housing and Services; 5, Society and Community.
Status: Completed.

Stage 3

9. The Performance and Development of the Eco- Economy
Overview: To examine, using a variety of techniques, how the potential synergies between environmental resources and economic activities can be enhanced; for example, between tourism, quality agriculture / landscapes and environmental access and facilities.
Methods: Case studies derived from the national surveys, in addition to the examination of good practice and its potential diffusion to wider areas. Key person interviewing of private sector actors and networks.
Spatial Scale: samples drawn from the range of different rural contexts found in Wales.
Themes: 1, Economy and Employment; 2, Environment.
Status: Completed.

10. Coping with Access to Services
Overview: Connections need to be made between spatial planning, survey-based and qualitative approaches to service delivery in rural Wales. This will provide opportunities to map changing patterns of service provision (at different spatial scales, including the point level) and allow an assessment of the impacts of different services (or lack of services) on particular groups within rural localities. A key aim here will be to gain a better understanding of the coping tactics that are adopted by individuals and groups in rural communities to deal with the loss of different services.
Methods: The research will draw on point-level datasets held within the GIS, which includes data for the current situation as well as historical data of key services locations held by the project team in a GIS database (dating back to 1995). It will also utilise qualitative methods to explore the coping strategies employed by different groups in particular case-study areas.
Themes: 3, Social Exclusion and Inclusion; 4, Housing and Services; 5, Society and Community.
Status: Completed.

11. The Social and Cultural Impacts of Population Change in Rural Wales
Overview: The project will examine changes in the population of rural Wales, looking primarily at the social and cultural impacts of population change on rural community life. It will provide an in-depth exploration of processes of in- and out-migration in selected study areas, and investigate the ways in which migration connects with social, cultural and lingusitic issues. The project will aim to show how population composition determines levels and types of social capital held in rural Wales.
Methods: The project will draw upon data generated by the household survey and the GIS database. It will also use in-depth case studies of communities subject to differing types of population pressures (e.g. stasis or depopulation versus in-migration). In these communities, participant observation and semi-structured interviews will be utilised to examine the impact of population change on community activities, political activities and cultural activities.
Spatial scale: Macro-level changes in population of rural Wales combined with in-depth studies of Welsh rural communities.
Themes: 2, Environment, Sustainability and Land-use Planning; 3, Social Exclusion and Inclusion; 4, Housing and Services; 5, Society and Community.
Status: Completed.