Venue :
Gloucester Rugby Club
Kingsholm Stadium
Kingsholm Road
Kingsholm
Gloucester
GL1 3AX
Pastoral or Past-Caring? New Directions In Rural Policy
Overview of the Conference
The past few years have seen rapid changes in the rural policy arena as austerity measures have combined with a push towards new forms of policy making and service provision as part of ‘The Big Society’: these changes are happening simultaneously at local, regional, national and international levels, posing new questions of, and about, rural policy.
We are confronted with competing images of rural communities. At one pole that they will take control at a local level of their planning needs and service provision, through a renewed civic society. At the other pole is the image of a state system abdicating its responsibility to care for the marginal and vulnerable. Both of these scenarios are being played out against a backdrop of international uncertainty and change as questions of food security and resource limitations compete with climate change as priorities. Between these poles lies a wide array of experiences and opinions, as the future of rural communities is being re-imagined.
This one-day conference also marks the 25th anniversary of the CCRI and will take the opportunity to look back and reflect on how rural policy has arrived at this juncture, as well as look forward to new possibilities. Based on the latest research by the CCRI team and guest speakers this conference is aimed at all of those involved with rural policy, including practitioners, policy maker and academic researchers.
