Rural Development for a Sustainable Future: Learning, Change, and Capital Assets

1. Euracademy 5th Summer Academy The Role of Education and Lifelong Learning in Sustainable Rural Development plenary session Dr. Rhys Evans Integrate Consulting, Highland Perthshire Scotland UK

2. Introduction Change, Learning and Rural Development

3. Sustainability LocalGlobal

4. What is sustainability? • Stewardship • Of environment • Of resources • Of identity • Principles of Justice • Social Justice • Environmental Justice

5. Types of sustainability • Environmental • Economic • Social and Cultural

6. Sustainability and Time Present Past Future

7. Learning as a mechanism for coping with change • An Ecological metaphor • Learning functions as diversity in ability of community to respond to change. • Old knowledges, new knowledges, all are important in development.

8. 2: Changing rural development • Economic change • Social change • Environmental change • Technological change • Policy Change

9. Economic Change in Rural Europe • Primary sector economic activity • Secondary sector • Tertiary sector • Quaternary sector • European change in emphasis from primary (production) to tertiary (services and consumption).

10. The new consumption economy • Consumption-in-Place • Retains landscape features and is thus sustainable • Brings higher value than pure commodity harvesting • Otherwise-neglected local resources/assets are integral to producing high value added services and products

11. New consumption economy • In mass Global Market, local ‘isolation’ becomes an asset, not a liability. • Local ‘distinctiveness’ is key marketing tool – “there is no place like this….” • Place-marking • Places • Products • Services

12. Environmental change in rural Europe • Cross-border environmental issues • Acid rain • Water quality • Impact of agriculture and forestry • Overproduction • Impact of urbanisation • Growth, suburbanisation, counter-urbanisation.

13. Technological change in rural Europe • isolation • Improved transport networks, linking formerly isolated places to core markets • New transport technologies reduce price for goods and people • presence • IT, rural broadband • Lower call rates, mobile phone access

14. Policy change in rural Europe • EU development policy • ‘Second Pillar’ – the environment • new regulation of rural environment • Moves to change ordering of Agriculture and Rural Development • CAP support -- from production to ???? • Modulation • Implicit support for community-led development at heart of sustainability • LEADER

15. 3: Development and Community • Putting the Community into Rural Development in Europe • Changing governance • Increased neo-liberalisation • retreat from ‘food mountains’ to quality of rural landscape • Impact and importance of sustainability

16. Asset-based approaches to rural community development • Asset-based Rural Community Development (ABRCD) • Sustainable Livelihoods • (UNDP, UK Dffid) • Five Capitals Model • UK Sustainable Development Commission • Asset-Based Community Development • Cody Institute, Nova Scotia, Canada • Carnegie UK Rural Commission • ABRCD

17. Five Capitals model • ‘Capitals’ are assets. • Some are material • Some are Intangible • Some belong outside community • Some belong within community • All are necessary parts of sustainable development

18. Five Capitals • Natural • Human • Social • Manufactured • Financial

19. Natural Capital • Biodiversity, flora & fauna • Landscape character • Soils • Water • Air and climate • Minerals and other non-renewables

20. Human Capital • Employment and skills base • Education and training • Health and well-being • Leadership and trust

21. Social Capital • Leadership and trust • Community cohesion • A sense of place • Stakeholder networks and processes

22. Manufactured Capital • Archeology • Buildings and Built Heritage • Transport infrastructure, traffic and access networks • Processes and waste products • Energy production and Consumption • IT and telecommunications

23. Financial Capital • Private Capital • Business investment • Infrastructure investment • IT and digital industry investment • Land ownership • Public Capital • CAP • Rural programmes • Environment, sustainability • Local authority expenditure • Community land acquisition

24. Five Capitals/Assets • These Capitals are the assets communities bring to the development table. • Knowledge Assets are expressed by individuals but can be a collective resource • Not limited to culture items such as music or food. Can include ways of working, the importance of local networks to mobilize development, and other assets which contribute to enterprise

25. 4: Changing Education • Education and Community Development • Education and Sustainability • Education and economic development • Learning and Livelihood

26. Learning – formal, non-formal? • Formal • Primary, Secondary, Higher Education • Accredited learning • Trade Skills • Vocational Skills • Language Skills • IT Skills • Business, Enterpreneurship

27. Learning – formal, non-formal? • Non-formal • Non-accredited learning • Land-based • Food, buildings and architecture, husbandry • Local language and culture products • Local narratives, local place identities • Important role for people

28. Life-long Learning Learning Challenge Change

29. Life-long Learning • Builds robustness in the face of change • Is of use to all ages • Crosses formal and non-formal education • Ensures continuity of knowledge

30. Place-based Education “can be characterized as structured learning in issues of local history, culture, language, environment, and economy. This approach to teaching and learning represents a general orientation which focuses on local resources” Eric Romero. USA

31. Place-based Education “place-based education serves both individuals and communities, helping individuals to experience the value they hold for others and allowing communities to benefit from the commitment and contributions of their members” Gregory Smith, USA

32. Place-based Education • Two aspects • Research • Gathering local knowledges • Using students or community members to do research • Dissemination • Teaching through formal and non-formal channels • Often inter-generational

33. Place-based Education • Ensures that individual knowledge, at risk of dying away, becomes collective knowledge, a collective resource. • Turns this knowledge into an Asset for the Community. • Provides both the raw material (knowledges), and a process (learning) through which individuals gain the knowledge to engage in self-development, personally and economically

34. Place-based Education • Contributes to sustainable development by: • reinforcing local cultures and identities, • making available key assets for collective and individual development • Increasing local pride, especially amongst the young • Increases social interaction across generations, increases social capital and collective capacity

35. Place-based Education • Can take place in a school • Can take place in a community centre • Encompasses the outdoors and external environment • Can operate at as small or as large a scale as necessary

36. 5: Learning as a resource for sustainable development Lifelong learning and sustainable rural development

37. Lifelong learning and sustainable rural development • Local changes • Global changes • New opportunities for rural distinction

38. Lifelong learning and sustainable rural development • Social change • Economic change • Political change

39. Lifelong learning and sustainable rural development • New challenges • Decline of traditional role of rural Europe as sole provider of raw commodities • Loss of young people • Increase of environmental and other regulation • Encroachment of urban and global cultures on local society

40. Lifelong learning and sustainable rural development • Opportunities • Growth of consumption sector • Growth of distance working and IT • New values for ‘natural’ environments • New opportunities for aspects of rural culture which were previously under-valued.

41. Lifelong learning and sustainable rural development • Learning • Place-based education captures heritage and local knowledges and turns them into a community asset • Learning to manage new technologies allows rural residents to directly reach distant markets

42. Lifelong learning and sustainable rural development • Lifelong learning • Takes place across formal and non-formal sectors • Takes place at all ages, and at all levels of formal education • Part-time and distance learning can fit into rural lifestyles and demands.

43. Lifelong learning and sustainable rural development • Is the key to turning knowledge into an Asset • Is the essential connector between the global and the local • Supports heritage knowledges and new innovations equally

44. Lifelong learning and sustainable rural development Is a key component of sustainable development at the levels of environment, economy and society.

45. Group task • Gather in small groups, not from the same area. • Take copy of Five Capitals table. • Using flipchart, make new detailed table • Take each category in the Five Capitals table and Operationalize it – devise concrete examples of each Capital • Return to discuss and produce a master table

46. Example 1 Human Capital – employment and skills base • Human Capital • Employment and Skills Base • Land-based skills • Building trades • Farming trades • Forestry trades • Domestic trades • Service sector skills • Hospitality • Local cuisine • Tours and interpretation • Consumer services

47. Example 2 – natural capital -- water • Water • Quality • Historic supply channels • Current challenges • Uses • Drinking • Industry • Power generation