Mags Currie
Dr Mags Currie | Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences Group | The James Hutton Institute
I am the lead of the project, I am a human geographer who has been interested in how processes of resilient change happen in rural communities for the last 20 years. I am really excited about this project because we are looking to facilitate change with rural and island communities, and I'm really passionate about doing work that makes a difference, by listening to what people have to say and understanding how policies help to enable these differences or not. My expertise is predominantly qualitative these days, so I am the lead researcher as well in our Orkney and Aberdeenshire Living Labs.
Jonathan Hopkins
Dr Jonathan Hopkins | Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences Group | The James Hutton Institute
I’m a human geographer who is interested in understanding rural and regional diversity, including people- and place-based inequalities, through quantitative and spatial methods which are often informed by stakeholder dialogue. My work in our projects is focused on these topics, and I’m also the PI of the rural economy project JHI-E1-1.
Ruth Wilson
Ruth Wilson | Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences | The James Hutton Institute
I am a sociologist with an interest in rural and island communities and what helps them to thrive - socially, economically and culturally. I am leading the case study in Argyll and the Islands and helping with data collection and community engagement in North West Scotland, Orkney and North East Scotland.
Simone Piras
Simone Piras | Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences | The James Hutton Institute
I’m an agricultural and rural economist with a background in development studies. I’m interested in how people make decisions in the presence of social dilemmas, and their distributional outcome. In JHI-E1-1, I study the preferences of rural dwellers in areas such as migration and transport using economic experiments, and the interaction between assets and wellbeing using econometric methods.
Adekunle Ibiyemi
Adekunle Ibiyemi | Information and Computational Sciences | The James Hutton Institute
Annabel Pinker
Dr Annabel Pinker | Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences | The James Hutton Institute
Annie Mckee
Annie McKee | Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences | The James Hutton Institute
I am a qualitative social researcher whose research interests focus on land governance and transition, land reform, rural community development, and achieving sustainable development in rural areas. I am the project leader for the Scotland’s Land Reform Futures project. In this project I am supporting Rachel and Tami in the South Uist living lab, which aims to understand how housing innovations such as 'Smart Clachan' can help to resolve issues of housing need and depopulation, as well as considering the role of digital technology in this process.
Christina Noble
Dr Christina Noble | Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences | The James Hutton Institute
I am a human geographer with a broad research interest on changes in rural communities across Scotland including urban to rural migration and the impacts of increasing digitalisation more specifically. I’m leading the case study in NW Highlands on population changes over time as well as the case study in Perthshire investigating how rural micro-businesses have survived and adapted to different crises with a focus on the role played by digitalisation.
Gary Polhill
Dr Gary Polhill | Information and Computational Sciences | The James Hutton Institute
I have been working on agent-based models of complex coupled human and natural systems for over 25 years. I have been applying them to studies in agriculture, biodiversity sustainable living, energy use, transport and district regeneration. I will be advising on agent-based model development in this project.
Hebe Nicholson
Hebe Nicholson | Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences | The James Hutton Institute
I am a social scientist in people environment studies. My research interests lie in the social impact of climate change, rural communities, and environmental governance. In this project I am leading the case study in Southwest Scotland and assisting with the case study in the Isle of Lewis. This will include longitudinal and walking interviews, and workshops.
Liz Dinnie
Dr Liz Dinnie | Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences | The James Hutton Institute
My research interests are in the sociology of food and agriculture with particular interests in food systems, household food security, food growing and the way in which new technologies (controlled environment agriculture) disrupt existing food systems. In this project I will be looking at case studies in Scotland's north-east (policy and governance; food partnerships; rural food security) and in Orkney (community vertical farming).
Margaret Mckeen
Margaret McKeen | Information and Computational Sciences | The James Hutton Institute
I am a GIS/ spatial analyst with 30 years' experience of spatial manipulation, analysis and mapping, mainly using ESRI Software and over a range of research areas, including many socio-economic research projects. I provide technical and scientific support relating to GIS and spatial analysis for these work packages.
Nick Roxburgh
Nick Roxburgh | The James Hutton Institute
I'm a social systems simulation modeller with a background in geography and ecological economics. Much of my research is focussed on exploring the impact of stressors and change in social and socio-ecological contexts. In this project, I will be developing the agent-based model of rural communities.
Peter Cock
Dr Peter Cock | Information and Computational Sciences | The James Hutton Institute
I’m a bioinformatician in ICS with a mathematical background, bringing Python programming to this project for implementing the Economic Experiments (with Simone Piras etc) in the oTree system.
Rachel Creaney
Rachel Creaney | Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences Group | The James Hutton Institute
I am a rural social scientist with a background in Anthropology and Human Geography. I am interested in how people navigate everyday life and livelihoods in rural areas with particular focus on innovations that can enhance rural living such as in housing, health and social care and business. In this project I am leading the housing case study which will (at least initially) focus on the 'Smart Clachan' project, exploring the role of digital technologies in housing development on South Uist.
Tami Wooldridge
Tami Wooldridge | Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences | The James Hutton Institute
I’m a qualitative research assistant with a background in Sustainable Development and Social Anthropology. My areas of interest include community engagement with climate change, human-environment relationships and the circular economy. In this project I will facilitate interviews and focus groups to support the South Uist living lab which focuses on housing and digitalisation enabled through the Smart Clachan development.
Acacia Marshall
Acacia Marshall | Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences | The James Hutton Institute
I am a research assistant in the Social Economic Geographical Sciences department. In this project I am assisting case studies across different areas. This includes carrying out longitudinal interviews and working with members of different communities to co-create a research project that will have benefit. So far I have been assisting with case studies in South West Scotland and on Hoy.