Depopulation, climate adaptation, a slow-fading high street, net zero, changes to farming and fishing. Rural places are absorbing more change, faster, than almost anywhere else. And they are usually the last people consulted about what happens next.
We think that's backwards.
WHAT DO WE DO IN RURAL PLACES
Creative rural strategy for places in transition
Supporting big change to feel empowering
Rural places are on the frontlines of big change, from climate adaptation and biodiversity loss to shifting economies, depopulation, and the transition to net zero.
Helping rural communities shape their futures
Rural places aren't a problem to be managed from a distance, they're where some of the most inventive answers are already being tried, tested and lived. Our job is to back that.
We work with rural places across Scotland and
beyond, supporting locally-led action through
process
What we actually help with
Finding out what people already know
Sensory, story-led research that surfaces what residents actually think and feel — not just what they'll write on a feedback form.
Building plans people will fight for
Housing, food, transport, energy, local economy, strategies shaped with the people who'll live inside them, not handed down to them.
Testing small before going big
Imaginative, real-world prototypes for care, culture, transport and shared ownership, built on what a place actually needs, not a template built somewhere else entirely.
Changing the story rural places
Writing, publishing and advocacy that pushes back on the idea that rural means "left behind."
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