Changing Community Perceptions of Sustainable Rural Development in Scotland

Abstract

The growing popularity of community land trusts as a mechanism for greater community participation in the control of local improvement is a particularly significant aspect of sustainable rural development in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Combining purposive selective interviews with members of a local Land Trust, observations at public meetings, and a review of recent literature on the development of the region, a case study of the Galson Estate Trust, Isle of Lewis, Scotland, is presented. Community ownership of land is seen as being instrumental in the shift in perceptions from short-term, marginal, externally-dependent activities towards solutions that are long-term (as indicated by schemes for renewable energy generation and environmental enhancement), core identity (seen as greater community confidence and enhanced local democracy) and locally driven developmental priorities (supported by revenue income streams). The process of local empowerment accompanying this shift in perceptions is regarded as having substantial benefits for social capital and skills acquisition at the community level. Early results from Trust activities indicate that ownership of the land, together with the capacity-building process of community participation in its management, has encouraged growth in a sense of local empowerment, together with providing employment, confidence, and other social improvements. Keywords: Community, land, rural, sustainability, localism, crofting, energy ----------------------------------------------------- Resume La popularite croissante de la fiducie fonciere communautaire, comme mecanisme visant a faire participer davantage la communaute au controle des ameliorations locales, est un aspect particulierement significatif du developpement durable des Hauts plateaux (Highlands) et des iles d'Ecosse. En combinant une selection d'entrevues ciblees avec les membres de la fiducie fonciere locale, les observations durant les reunions publiques ainsi que les etudes de la litterature recente sur le developpement de la region, une etude de cas est presentee sur le patrimoine fiduciaire Galson, dans l'ile de Lewis, en Ecosse. La propriete collective des terres est vue comme un remede aux variations et aux activites externes et marginales a court-terme, dont les habitants dependent. Ils recherchent des solutions a long-terme (tel qu'indique sur les projets pour la production d'energie renouvelable et l'amelioration de l'environnement), une identite fondamentale (vue comme une plus grande confiance communautaire et une amelioration de la democratie locale) et des priorites de developpement orientees localement (qui s'appuient sur les sources de revenus). Le processus d'autonomisation local accompagnant ce changement de perceptions est percu comme ayant des benefices substantiels pour le capital social et l'acquisition de competences au niveau de la communaute. Des premiers resultats d'activites de fiducie indiquent que la propriete terrestre, associee au processus de renforcement des capacites de participation communautaire a la gestion, a encourage la croissance d'un sentiment accru d'autonomie locale, tout en developpant la creation d'emplois, la confiance et d'autres ameliorations sociales.