The Precarity of Young People’s Housing Experiences in a Rural Context

Young people’s housing, economic and labour market circumstances have become increasingly insecure due to the combined effects of the 2007/2008 economic crisis, neoliberal welfare reforms, rising costs of higher education and the shortage of affordable housing. Discussions of young peoples’ experiences in these domains have largely neglected their spatial variability but evidence suggests that young people living in rural parts of the UK have distinctive experiences of housing, which are closely connected to labour markets and educational opportunities. By drawing on qualitative data from young people and housing professionals, this article explores some of these rural distinctions and frames them within theoretical debates about the ‘precariat’. It argues for a more theoretically informed and geographically nuanced understanding of contemporary housing issues as rural youth potentially face greater precarity than their urban peers.

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abstract: Ensuring that rural areas of the UK have sufficient affordable houses in reasonable condition has long challenged policy makers. Previous research shows that rural housing has demand characteristics and faces supply constraints that have proven difficult to balance. The paper reports on the reasons why an innovative subsidy has achieved some success in overcoming barriers to provision in rural Scotland. It is argued that the subsidy has boosted effective demand and tackled a major supply constraint, namely land availability. Empirical material is drawn from a systematic evaluation of the mechanism. The paper concludes with reflections on its implications for the wider literature and for rural housing provision in the evolving financial and political context.

title: Legitimising the Laird? Communicative Action and the role of private landowner and community engagement in rural sustainability
abstract: Privately-owned estates dominate Scotland's uplands, and their owners' decisions greatly influence rural communities. The research reported here, involving in-depth case studies of six upland, private estates, aimed to investigate the dynamic relationships between landowners and rural communities, considering the influence of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. The research questions were explored through interviews with key actors (in the local community and in estate management) and participant observation. Evaluation of current and potential landowner/estate-community partnership-working illustrates the opportunities for mutual benefits, and the need for greater community empowerment to ensure partnership success. These findings are interpreted from a Habermasian perspective, reiterating the apparently insurmountable challenge of power inequalities in the public sphere. Nonetheless, in order to pursue a democratic discourse, private landowners and ‘estate communities’ are recommended to adopt principles of Communicative Action (where mutual understanding is supported through the creation of an ‘ideal speech situation’), to contribute positively to ‘estate community’ sustainability, and subsequently, to private estate sustainability and public legitimacy. This research is highly policy relevant in Scotland during a period of review of land reform legislation. The conclusions have international significance in terms of understanding power relations in rural contexts and identifying opportunities for community empowerment. Finally, outcomes for the practice of communication in the context of Scottish private estates are considered, as well as wider theoretical applications in the era of ‘post-participation’, not least the importance of maintaining the ‘public sphere’, seeking to reduce inequalities and maximise trust.