Rural Connections: Knitting the fabric of community? Presentation to Third Annual Conference of ALTER-ESDR Lisbon, July 2-4th 2014 “Exploring Disability: Epistemologies, Policies and Politics”, Liz Ellis, PhD candidate The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK elizabeth.ellis@open.ac.uk

Research outline Using mobile methods – advantages and disadvantages Initial outcomes Connections: Kin, Friends, Kith, Proximal Rhizomes Connection mats

Research in a nutshell PhD project exploring belonging, rurality and the experiences of people with learning difficulties. Inclusive research process (Walmsley & Johnson 2003). Co-researchers involved in design, data collection and analysis. Used mobile or ‘go-along’ methods.

Key Research Questions Themes of Research Trips Who do people with LD see regularly? Where do people with LD see people What stops people with LD being part of their community (and the opposite, what helps)? How have things changed over time? Places I feel good going to Places I go to regularly Outside my front door Places in my past

Mobile Research methods Advantages Disadvantages Situates the research in the space Helps to equalise the research relationship Rich data Naturalistic and reciprocal Consent issues Self-censorship Mountains of data! Time-consuming

Some Outcomes Connections Autonomy and Interdependence “Staying Local” (Ledger 2012)

Relationship between different connections /Kin

Source for drawings: Riviere A. and C Source for drawings: Riviere A. and C., Les Bambous, végétation, culture, mutliplication. Paris 1878 “Rhizomes are oppositional to trees which symbolise hierarchies, linearity and extreme stratification. Ignore trees. Think, instead, of weeds, grass, swarms and packs… points on a rhizome always connect to something else; rhizomes are heterogeneous not dichotomous; they are made up of a multiplicity of lines that extend in all directions; they break off, but then they begin again.” (Goodley 2007 :13)

Liz’s connection mat

John’s connection mat

Mark’s connection mat

Questions What might it mean? Can we reproduce kith in other communities? Or is “staying local” the only antidote to fragmenting communities?

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