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Dr Sarah Skerratt
Sarah Skerratt (opens in new window)
Dr Sarah Skerratt is Senior Researcher and Team Leader of the Rural Society Research Team.
Sarah has 23 years experience analysing the interface between policy vision and experience-on-the-ground in rural areas and communities. She has focused particularly on rural community development policies and strategies, as well as initiatives led by communities. She researches the sustainability of initiatives, and issues of resilience capacity-building and leadership, and has carried out her research in the UK and internationally.
Themes of focus include: rural services; rural broadband; and asset ownership, including land and built assets such as village halls. Sarah enjoys working in partnership with a range of individuals and organisations, and believes that mutual exchange and learning are key to doing research that makes a difference. She is Editor of SAC's Rural Scotland in Focus reports, and is convenor of the Round Table Debate Series which brings together stakeholders from across the private, public and third sectors.
Sarah is Principal Investigator of the new Scottish Government-funded Work Package "Governance and Decision-making for Community Empowerment in Rural Communities". This is being jointly delivered by the Rural Society Research Team in SAC and members of the Socio-Economics Research Group at the James Hutton Institute. Find out more about the work in the 2-page summary available via the link on the right hand side.
Selected Publications
- Skerratt, S. (2011), Community land ownership and community resilience, Edinburgh: Rural Policy Centre, Scottish Agricultural College.
- Skerratt, S. and Hall, C. (2011), “Community ownership of physical assets: challenges, complexities and implications”. Local Economy Vol 26(3) pp.170–181
- Skerratt, S. (in press, Nov 2011), “A critical analysis of rural community leadership: towards systematised understanding and dialogue across leadership domains”, invited submission to The Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government.
- Skerratt, S. (Forthcoming, 2011) "Shifting our perspective on rural community development: from projects to resilience", in Sjoblom, Andersson, Marsden and Skerratt (September 2011) Short-termism and sustainability: changing time frames in spatial policy interventions.
- Skerratt, S. (Forthcoming 2011), “Developing Social Organisations for Service Delivery in Remote and Rural Areas: The Importance of Local, Regional and National Context”. In Farmer, J., Hill, C. and Muñoz, S-A (Eds) (2011), Socially Enterprising Communities – service co-production in rural areas. Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Skerratt, S. (2010), “Hot Spots and Not Spots: addressing infrastructure and service provision through combined approaches in rural Scotland”, invited paper to special edition of Journal Sustainability: Human populations in remote areas, Vol 2(6), 1719-1741 Full Text
- Skerratt, S. (2010), “Regional and regionalised approaches to changing ruralities: Orkney Islands and Scottish Borders”, IN Wiggering, H., Ende, H-P., Knierim, A. and Pintar, M. (2010), Innovations in European Rural Landscapes, Berlin: Springer, pp.137-149.
- Skerratt, S., Hall, C., Lamprinopoulou, C., McCracken, D., Midgley, A., Price, M., Renwick, A., Revoredo, C., Thomson, S., Williams, F. and Wreford, A. (2010), Rural Scotland in Focus 2010, Edinburgh: Rural Policy Centre, Scottish Agricultural College. Full Text
- Skerratt, S. (2010), “How are Scotland’s rural communities taking ownership of their own future?”, IN Skerratt, S., Hall, C., Lamprinopoulou, C., McCracken, D., Midgley, A., Price, M., Renwick, A., Revoredo, C., Thomson, S., Williams, F. and Wreford, A. (2010), Rural Scotland in Focus 2010, Edinburgh: Rural Policy Centre, Scottish Agricultural College, pp.42-51. Full Text
- Farrington, F., Edwards, P. and S. Skerratt (2009), “Technology in a Cold Climate: Interconnected Society”, Paper written for the Royal Society of Arts Conference and Proceedings on Digital Society. Full Text
- Skerratt, S. (2008), “Doing small scale qualitative research on educational innovation”, Chapter 10 in Murray, R. (Ed), The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Maidenhead: Open University Press.
- Skerratt, S. (2008), "Combining qualitative and quantitative approaches: mixed-methods in small-scale research", Chapter 8 in Murray, R. (Ed), The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Maidenhead: Open University Press.
- Skerratt, S (2008), Community Facilities In Rural Scotland: A Study Of Their Use, Provision And Condition. Scottish Government. Full Text
- Skerratt, S. (2008), “The persistence of place: the importance of shared participation environments when deploying ICTs in rural areas”, IN Information & Communication Technologies in rural society: Being rural in a digital age, Edited Research Monograph, Routledge.
- Rusten, G. & Skerratt, S. (2008), Information & Communication Technologies in rural society: Being rural in a digital age, Edited Research Monograph. Routledge.
- Skerratt, S (2007), Rural Community Gateway Evaluation: Final report. Scottish Executive. Full Text
- Skerratt, S. (2006), “SME behaviour and ICTs: building culture into evaluation and intervention”, IN Matilainen, A (ed) (2006), ICTs: providing information, advice and services to rural SMEs? Helsinki: Ruralia Institute, University of Helsinki; pp. 57-73. ISBN 952-10-2575-1.
- Skerratt, S. (2005), “Our digital futures: policies for broadband connectivity in remote and rural communities of Ireland and Scotland”, in Scottish Affairs Journal, Issue No. 53, Autumn 2005. Full Text