As yet, however, we do not have a detailed understanding of both the operation and experience of social exclusion in rural areas, and how this differs from exclusion in an urban context. The Scottish Office commissioned this research thinkpiece as a preliminary stage in working towards an improved understanding of rural social exclusion. The research was a desk-study, drawing on existing literature and research findings, conducted between February and May 1999. Rural Social Exclusion Social exclusion is as much a problem for rural communities as it is for the urban people whose problems receive more attention. It affects a substantial minority, with one in three people in rural Britain experiencing low income at some time during 1991-96, for example.
Exclusion is related to social class, gender and age.
The forces which lie behind exclusion and inclusion affect different people in different communities, rural or urban, in a variety of ways according to the local context. It is apparent that people experiencing similar problems, such as low income are not spatially segregated in rural areas, unlike their urban counterparts. Differences between processes of exclusion in rural and urban contexts arise from industrial and political legacies, the sparsity of population and spatial peripherality of rural areas, and rural areas' social heterogeneity as well as our 'social construction' of rurality itself. These impact variably across rural Scotland, leading to considerable diversity between accessible commuting areas, tourist and retirement areas, industrial rural areas, and areas of population and employment decline. Pathways in and out of exclusion in rural areas have less in common with urban areas than expected.