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April 5, 2022
Council culture counts
Why some communities thrive and others don’t has long been the subject of lofty academic debate and intense speculation by policy makers and funders alike. The question of how to warm up community ‘cold spots’ has also had significant investment thrown at it – ever since regeneration became a serious concern of Governments stretching back over forty years. And all with remarkably little lasting effect. Interesting research from Community Land Scotland, drawing together data from various sources, suggests that something about the local authority – the prevailing culture perhaps – might be the determining factor in shaping what happens at community level.
To read the full summary and in particular, an analysis of social enterprise and other community activity by local authority area, click here
Introduction
Community Land Scotland, with the support of the Scottish Government, has been working to get a better understanding of Scotland’s “community land cold spots”. The process started with desk-based research and the results have informed this paper. We researched the following areas:
- Urban – rural split
- Deprivation on an SIMD and local authority level, including child poverty levels
- Concentration of social enterprise or other community-led activity
- Social capital
- Transience / inward and outward migration