Climate Citizens Survey
We have recently received the below request from a researcher at Lancaster University. If you are willing to take part in the research, a detailed description and the link to the online survey are included below.
Published: 25 October 2023
My research, which is part of a wider project at Lancaster University called Climate Citizens, is focused on understanding the views of people living in rural communities in England on climate change and the policies that may be enacted in rural areas.
The reason I am focusing my research in this area is that I feel that a great deal of the public and media narrative about Net Zero and Climate Change comes from a more urban angle and from people and organisations that are largely based in urban places, and that this does not take into account a range of issues that only affect rural areas. These include how important farming is (both culturally and economically) in rural areas, the relationship between landscape and local/national identity, and wider issues such as how the country will generate energy in the future.
I am carrying out research in parishes in three areas of England – Cheshire East, Fenland District in Cambridgeshire, and the Herefordshire/Worcestershire borders. These three areas have similarities in being largely very rural, without major cities as part of the district. They are far enough apart and ‘disconnected’ from each other that they represent a good spread of rural English residents, and I hope to be able to extrapolate my findings to English rural communities more generally as a result.
I would be extremely grateful if you are able to do any or all of the above to help me with this research, which I hope will result in findings that help with a more detailed understanding of climate change policies in rural areas. I am happy to answer any questions you might have, my contact details are below.
The survey can be accessed at this link.