Publications by year
In Press
Williams AJ, Menneer T, Sidana M, Walker T, Maguire K, Mueller M, Paterson C, Leyshon M, Leyshon C, Seymour E, et al (In Press). Fostering Engagement with Health and Housing Innovation: Development of Participant Personas in a Social Housing Cohort (Preprint).
Abstract:
Fostering Engagement with Health and Housing Innovation: Development of Participant Personas in a Social Housing Cohort (Preprint)
. BACKGROUND
. Personas, based on customer or population data, are widely used to inform design decisions in the commercial sector. The variety of methods available means that personas can be produced from projects of different types and scale.
.
.
. OBJECTIVE
. This study aims to experiment with the use of personas that bring together data from a survey, household air measurements and electricity usage sensors, and an interview within a research and innovation project, with the aim of supporting eHealth and eWell-being product, process, and service development through broadening the engagement with and understanding of the data about the local community.
.
.
. METHODS
. The project participants were social housing residents (adults only) living in central Cornwall, a rural unitary authority in the United Kingdom. A total of 329 households were recruited between September 2017 and November 2018, with 235 (71.4%) providing complete baseline survey data on demographics, socioeconomic position, household composition, home environment, technology ownership, pet ownership, smoking, social cohesion, volunteering, caring, mental well-being, physical and mental health–related quality of life, and activity. K-prototype cluster analysis was used to identify 8 clusters among the baseline survey responses. The sensor and interview data were subsequently analyzed by cluster and the insights from all 3 data sources were brought together to produce the personas, known as the Smartline Archetypes.
.
.
. RESULTS
. The Smartline Archetypes proved to be an engaging way of presenting data, accessible to a broader group of stakeholders than those who accessed the raw anonymized data, thereby providing a vehicle for greater research engagement, innovation, and impact.
.
.
. CONCLUSIONS
. Through the adoption of a tool widely used in practice, research projects could generate greater policy and practical impact, while also becoming more transparent and open to the public.
.
Abstract.
Leyshon C, Leyshon M, Walker T (In Press). Guided Conversations: Findings and Social Impact.
Full text.
Leyshon C, Leyshon M, Kaesehage K (In Press). Living Well Penwith Pioneer: How does change happen? a qualitative process evaluation.
Full text.
2021
Williams AJ, Menneer T, Sidana M, Walker T, Maguire K, Mueller M, Paterson C, Leyshon M, Leyshon C, Seymour E, et al (2021). Fostering Engagement with Health and Housing Innovation: Development of Participant Personas in a Social Housing Cohort.
JMIR Public Health and Surveillance,
7(2), e25037-e25037.
Abstract:
Fostering Engagement with Health and Housing Innovation: Development of Participant Personas in a Social Housing Cohort
. Background
. Personas, based on customer or population data, are widely used to inform design decisions in the commercial sector. The variety of methods available means that personas can be produced from projects of different types and scale.
.
.
. Objective
. This study aims to experiment with the use of personas that bring together data from a survey, household air measurements and electricity usage sensors, and an interview within a research and innovation project, with the aim of supporting eHealth and eWell-being product, process, and service development through broadening the engagement with and understanding of the data about the local community.
.
.
. Methods
. The project participants were social housing residents (adults only) living in central Cornwall, a rural unitary authority in the United Kingdom. A total of 329 households were recruited between September 2017 and November 2018, with 235 (71.4%) providing complete baseline survey data on demographics, socioeconomic position, household composition, home environment, technology ownership, pet ownership, smoking, social cohesion, volunteering, caring, mental well-being, physical and mental health–related quality of life, and activity. K-prototype cluster analysis was used to identify 8 clusters among the baseline survey responses. The sensor and interview data were subsequently analyzed by cluster and the insights from all 3 data sources were brought together to produce the personas, known as the Smartline Archetypes.
.
.
. Results
. The Smartline Archetypes proved to be an engaging way of presenting data, accessible to a broader group of stakeholders than those who accessed the raw anonymized data, thereby providing a vehicle for greater research engagement, innovation, and impact.
.
.
. Conclusions
. Through the adoption of a tool widely used in practice, research projects could generate greater policy and practical impact, while also becoming more transparent and open to the public.
.
Abstract.
Full text.
Leyshon M, Leyshon C, Walker T, Fish R (2021). More than sweat equity: Young people as volunteers in conservation work.
Journal of Rural Studies,
81, 78-88.
Full text.
Colebrooke L, Leyshon C, Leyshon M, Walker T (2021). ‘We’re on the edge’: Cultures of care and Universal Credit.
Social & Cultural Geography, 1-18.
Full text.
2020
Esmene S, Taylor TJ, Leyshon M (2020). A Systems Thinking Approach to Exploring the Influence of the Media on How Publics Engage with and Develop Dialogues Relating to Electric Vehicles.
Frontiers in Communication,
5 Full text.
Esmene DS, Leyshon PC, Leyshon DM (2020). Beyond adherence to social prescriptions: How places, social acquaintances and stories help walking group members to thrive.
Health & Place,
64, 102394-102394.
Full text.
Esmene S, Taylor TJ, Leyshon M (2020). Corrigendum: a Systems Thinking Approach to Exploring the Influence of the Media on How Publics Engage with and Develop Dialogues Relating to Electric Vehicles. Frontiers in Communication, 5
Leyshon M, Rogers M (2020). Designing for Inclusivity: Platforms of Protest and Participation.
Urban Planning,
5(4), 33-44.
Abstract:
Designing for Inclusivity: Platforms of Protest and Participation
This article offers critical insights into new digital forms of citizen-led journalism. Many communities across western society are frequently excluded from participating in newsgathering and information dissemination that is directly relevant to them due to financial, educational and geographic constraints. News production is a risky business that requires professional levels of skill and considerable finances to sustain. Hence, ‘hyper-localised news’ are often absent from local and national debates. Local news reportage is habitually relegated to social media, which represents a privileged space where the diffusion of disinformation presents a threat to democratic processes. Deploying a place-based, person-centred approach towards investigating news production within communities in Cornwall, UK, this article reflects on a participatory action research project called the Citizen Journalism News Network (CJNN). The CJNN is an overt attempt to design disruptive systems for agenda setting through mass participation and engagement with social issues. The project was delivered within four communities via a twelve-week-long journalism course, and a bespoke online app. CJNN is a platform for citizen journalists to work collaboratively on investigating stories and raising awareness of social issues that directly affect the communities reporting on them.
Abstract.
Full text.
Walker T, Menneer T, Leyshon C, Leyshon M, Williams AJ, Mueller M, Taylor T (2020). Determinants of Volunteering Within a Social Housing Community.
VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations,
33(1), 188-200.
Abstract:
Determinants of Volunteering Within a Social Housing Community
AbstractIn general, research demonstrates that deprivation, education, health, and well-being are determinants of volunteering, and that volunteering can play an important role in building stronger communities and provides many benefits for individual health and well-being. This study concentrates on the effects of physical and mental health and well-being as predictors when the aspect of socio-economic impact has been minimised. It utilises a unique data set from a UK Housing Association community with generally high levels of deprivation. Data were analysed using bivariate probit regression. In contrast to previous findings, physical health and mental health were not significantly related to volunteering. The key finding was that mental well-being was significantly related to informal volunteering.
Abstract.
Full text.
Walker T, Esmene S, Colebrooke L, Leyshon C, Leyshon M (2020). Digital possibilities and social mission in the voluntary sector: the case of a community transport organisation in the UK.
Voluntary Sector Review,
11(1), 59-77.
Abstract:
Digital possibilities and social mission in the voluntary sector: the case of a community transport organisation in the UK
Digital technology is seen as a panacea to meeting the financial and operational challenges faced by voluntary and community sector organisations (VCSOs), through delivering efficiencies and cost-saving, alongside improving quality of service. However, according to recent assessments
in the UK, the rate of digital adoption is slow compared with other sectors. This article identifies how a VCSO in a period of austerity prioritises its social mission over functionality and efficiency gains from digital technology. Employing the heuristic of phronesis, we argue that VCSOs
seeking to implement digital innovations need to strike a balance between instrumental rationality (that is, what is possible to achieve with technology) and value rationality (that is, what is desirable to pursue by VCSOs). Our key argument is that theories of value rationality provide a
new explanation for the slow adoption of digital technology among VCSOs.
Abstract.
Full text.
Williams A, Menneer T, Sidani M, Walker T, Maguire K, Mueller M, Paterson C, Leyshon M, Leyshon C, Seymour E, et al (2020). Using machine learning clustering techniques to support the understanding of populations and inform action. Public Health England Research and Science Conference - Application of scientific methods to improve and protect health.
Abstract:
Using machine learning clustering techniques to support the understanding of populations and inform action
Abstract.
2019
Leyshon M, Leyshon C (2019). Rethinking the platform. Social Innovation: Local Solutions to Global Challenges. 2nd - 4th Sep 2019.
Esmene S, Leyshon M (2019). The Role of Rural Heterogeneity in Knowledge Mobilisation and Sociotechnical Transitions: Reflections from a Study on Electric Vehicles as an Alternative Technology for Cornwall, UK.
European Countryside,
11(4), 661-671.
Abstract:
The Role of Rural Heterogeneity in Knowledge Mobilisation and Sociotechnical Transitions: Reflections from a Study on Electric Vehicles as an Alternative Technology for Cornwall, UK
Abstract
. Mobilising knowledges across a geography creates opportunities for transitions to smart systems. Publics in a geography are consequently able to form their perspectives around a system and align potential benefits with their needs. Intelligent transport systems are an example of smart living and EVs are cited as an alternative technology that are key to their application. This conceptual paper uses EVs as an example to demonstrate how knowledge mobilisation relating to such technologies can better cater to a geography’s needs. Unfortunately, current EV studies focus on a rural-urban binary. Thus, this conceptual contribution reflects on a study in Cornwall, UK, to reveal the heterogeneous influences on rural EV-related perspectives. This heterogeneity manifests both in particular locations and across cases. Overall a suite of transferrable participatory methods to improve rural knowledge mobilisation is outlined.
Abstract.
Full text.
Leyshon C, Leyshon M, Jeffries J (2019). The complex spaces of co-production, volunteering, ageing and care.
Area,
51(3), 433-442.
Abstract:
The complex spaces of co-production, volunteering, ageing and care
The care of older people is being radically reformulated by placing the individual at the centre of care process through the introduction of individual care plans. This marks a significant transition for the care of older people away from acute responsive clinical care towards a greater emphasis on co-produced preventative health and social care and relations of care “with” older people. Geographies of volunteerism are yet to consider the effect of co-production as a dominant rhetoric in UK health and social care. In this paper we show that the Health and Social Care Act (2012) and the Care Act (2014) has the potential to fundamentally alter discourses of care by introducing new spatialities to older people's care. New spatialities of care will not only rely on the reciprocity and interdependence of care between individuals and organisations but also the mobilisation of a voluntary care-force to be attentive to individuals. Spatialising co-production reveals the institutional and professional boundaries that prevent the type of open partnership that sits at the heart of the rhetoric. Our ethnographic and qualitative methodology was developed to understand how our case study of Living Well (Cornwall, UK), as a philosophy of care, is realised in practice and to consider the main collaborators’ views of different methods of co-production involving volunteers. We discuss two principal spaces of co-production, highlighting the opportunities provided for, and barriers to, co-production expressed by volunteers and other partners by attending to the relations of care that are recognised through: (1) formal meetings and coffee mornings, which provide spaces for volunteers to contribute, and (2) multi-disciplinary team (MDT) meetings, in which volunteers are largely absent.
Abstract.
Full text.
2018
Kaesehage K, Leyshon M (2018). Breaking traditions: How entrepreneurs create communities to address climate change. In Espina M, Phan P, Markman G (Eds.)
Social Innovation and Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Northampton, Massachusetts: Edward Elgar Publishing, 102-134.
Abstract:
Breaking traditions: How entrepreneurs create communities to address climate change
Abstract.
2017
Kaesehage K, Leyshon M, Ferns G, Leyshon C (2017). Seriously Personal: the Reasons that Motivate Entrepreneurs to Address Climate Change.
Journal of Business Ethics,
157(4), 1091-1109.
Full text.
2016
Esmene S, Taylor T, Leyshon M (2016). Knowledge, experience and the circus: academic perspectives on the processes of communicating the environmental and health impacts of electric vehicles.
Local Environment,
22(6), 651-666.
Full text.
Leyshon M (2016). Rural Youth Identity Formation: Stories of Movement and Memories of Place. In Evans B, Horton J, Skelton T (Eds.)
Play, Recreation, Health and Wellbeing, Singapore: Springer.
Abstract:
Rural Youth Identity Formation: Stories of Movement and Memories of Place
Abstract.
Full text.
Leyshon M (2016). Rural Youth Identity Formation: Stories of Movement and Memories of Place. In (Ed) Play and Recreation, Health and Wellbeing, 237-254.
2015
Leyshon M, Tverin T (2015). Bridging the generation gap: holidays, memory and identity in the countryside. In Vanderbeck R, Worth N (Eds.)
Intergenerational Space, Abingdon: Routledge, 96-108.
Abstract:
Bridging the generation gap: holidays, memory and identity in the countryside
Abstract.
Leyshon M (2015). Storying our lives of Now: the Pluritemporal Memories of Rural Youth Identity and Place. In Wyn J (Ed)
Handbook of Children and Youth Studies, Sydney: Springer, 625-636.
Abstract:
Storying our lives of Now: the Pluritemporal Memories of Rural Youth Identity and Place
Abstract.
2014
Kaesehage K, Leyshon M, Caseldine C (2014). Communicating climate change - Learning from business: Challenging values, changing economic thinking, innovating the low carbon economy.
Fennia,
192(2), 81-99.
Abstract:
Communicating climate change - Learning from business: Challenging values, changing economic thinking, innovating the low carbon economy
The risks and opportunities presented by climate change for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) have been largely overlooked by previous research. The subsequent lack of knowledge in this field makes it difficult for SMEs to engage with climate change in a meaningful, profitable, and sustainable way. Further, current research cannot explain why SMEs rarely engage with climate change. We examine critically 30 SMEs, which engage with climate change knowledges and 5 Innovation-Support-Organizations (ISOs) that communicate climate change knowledges. Over a three-year period we explore why and how these businesses approach the knowledge gap between climate change science and business practice, drawing on a variety of ethnographic research methods: (1) in-depth semi-structured and open interviews; (2) participant observations; and (3) practitioners' workshops. The results demonstrate that business' mitigation and adaptation strategies are lay-knowledge-dependent, derived from personal values, space, and place identity. To enhance the number of SMEs engaging with climate change, maximize the potential value of climate change for the economy and establish a low carbon economy, climate change communication needs to target personal values of business leaders. The message should highlight local impacts of climate change, the benefits of engagement to (the local) society and economy, and possible financial benefits for the business. Climate change communication therefore needs to go beyond thinking about potential financial benefits and scientific evidence and challenge values, cultures, and beliefs to stimulate economic, political, and social frameworks that promote values-based decision-making.
Abstract.
Sanderson A, Leyshon M, Ostapenko-Denton A, Ostapenko-Denton K (2014). Social Enterprise and Social Capital: a Proposed Methodology for Developing Innovation and Entrepreneurship in a Deprived Cornish Peri-Urban Locality.
Author URL.
Leyshon M (2014). Storying Our Lives of Now: the Pluritemporal Memories of Rural Youth Identity and Place. In (Ed) Handbook of Children and Youth Studies, 1-10.
2013
Leyshon M, DiGiovanna S, Holcomb B (2013). Mobile Technologies and Youthful
Exploration: Stimulus or Inhibitor?.
,
3(50), 587-605.
Abstract:
Mobile Technologies and Youthful
Exploration: Stimulus or Inhibitor?
In this paper, an examination is made of how young people locate themselves in the
world through using GPS-enabled mobile phones. Three research themes are
explored. First, how GPS mobile phones encourage young people to explore new territory
by providing both spatial information and a ‘lifeline’ to security. Secondly,
how parental surveillance encourages or discourages exploration. Finally, how the
accessibility of spatial data reduces the need to try new routes or memorise landscape
features. In so doing, two myths of mobile phone use are challenged: that the
revolution in mobile technology has caused the ‘death of distance’ and created a borderless
world through space–time compression and that mobile technologies atomise
quotidian life into a series of impersonal mediated encounters. The research, conducted
in New Jersey, USA, and Cornwall, UK, shows that mobile phones appear to
give young people more confidence in exploring new places, but also distract them
from observing their surroundings.
Abstract.
Leyshon M, DiGiovanna S, Holcomb B (2013). Mobile Technologies and Youthful Exploration: Stimulus or Inhibitor?.
Urban Studies,
50(3), 587-605.
Abstract:
Mobile Technologies and Youthful Exploration: Stimulus or Inhibitor?
In this paper, an examination is made of how young people locate themselves in the world through using GPS-enabled mobile phones. Three research themes are explored. First, how GPS mobile phones encourage young people to explore new territory by providing both spatial information and a 'lifeline' to security. Secondly, how parental surveillance encourages or discourages exploration. Finally, how the accessibility of spatial data reduces the need to try new routes or memorise landscape features. In so doing, two myths of mobile phone use are challenged: that the revolution in mobile technology has caused the 'death of distance' and created a borderless world through space-time compression and that mobile technologies atomise quotidian life into a series of impersonal mediated encounters. The research, conducted in New Jersey, USA, and Cornwall, UK, shows that mobile phones appear to give young people more confidence in exploring new places, but also distract them from observing their surroundings. © 2013 Urban Studies Journal Limited.
Abstract.
Moir E, Leyshon M (2013). The design of decision-making: Participatory budgeting and the production of localism.
Local Environment,
18(9), 1002-1023.
Abstract:
The design of decision-making: Participatory budgeting and the production of localism
This paper examines participatory budgeting (PB) as an instrument of localism - the devolution of political governance with the aim to produce sustainable democratic communities. This will be achieved through a detailed exploration of the decision-making mechanisms for creating local governance through PB schemes designed and organised by the Cornwall Council (UK). First introduced in the UK by the previous Labour administration in 2008, PB has become a tool of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government and is central to the neoliberal ethos of Big Society and localism. In a time of rapid political change, we respond to Eaton's [2008. From feeding the locals to selling the locale: adapting local sustainable food projects in Niagara to neocommunitarianism and neoliberalism. Geoforum, 39, 994-1006, 996] suggestion that greater attention be paid to "the specificities of particular neoliberal projects" by focusing on the micro-politics of PB. We draw upon empirical evidence from PB pilot schemes run in rural Cornwall in 2008, examining the effect of "nudging" decision-making. Grounding this inquiry in the existing literature on neoliberal statecraft, this paper investigates the role of government technologies which seek to frame local governance using mechanisms of libertarian paternalism [Painter, J. 2008. European citizenship and the regions. European Urban and Regional Studies, 15, 5-19; Painter, J. 2010. Rethinking territory. Antipode: a Radical Journal of Geography, 42, 1090-1118; MacLeavy, J. 2008. Neoliberlising subjects: the legacy of new labour's construction of social exclusion in local governance. Geoforum, 39, 1657-1666]. We argue in this paper that neoliberal ideology has integrated the epistemology of behavioural economics. We draw conclusions commensurate with the outcomes of PB projects conducted in Latin America, namely that citizens can be steered towards making certain decisions. We assert that in order to direct decision-making successfully, governmental "top-down" frameworks and goals need to be married with local geographies and "bottom-up" local desires and aspirations, thereby enabling a "countervailing power" [Sintomer, Y. Herzberg, C. and Rocke, A. 2008. Participatory budgeting in Europe: potentials and challenges. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 32, 164-178] to develop. This power is exercised by a participating and scrutinising citizen that contribute towards, and balance, governmental practices of PB. With a wider governmental emphasis on designing or "architecting" choice in opportunities for local governing, there is now an even greater necessity to recognise the context of geography in local government community-orientated initiatives. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.
Abstract.
2012
Harrison R, Leyshon M, Leyshon C (2012). Making Community Groups Work: a guide to success. Truro, Volunteer Cornwall.
2011
Leyshon M, Bull J (2011). The Bricolage of the Here: Young People's Narratives of Identity in the Countryside.
Social and Cultural Geography,
12(2), 159-180.
Abstract:
The Bricolage of the Here: Young People's Narratives of Identity in the Countryside
Memories are crucial to our construction of place. They simultaneously offer an anchor for identity and different temporalities to encounters with landscapes. Memory allows different spaces, pasts, and futures to become embedded in particular locales. Yet the spontaneous assemblages of meaning that memory enables are not apolitical. Thus the mechanisms and processes by which meaning is articulated in these encounters are fundamental to our understandings of place. This paper therefore, brings together the work of Henri Bergson on memory and Paul Ricoeur on narrative, to examine the stories individuals produce which define the self. By drawing on research into the lives of young people in the countryside, the paper does three things: it discusses the role of memory in creating identity; it examines the political process of narrative by which memories become woven into understandings of place and create a bricolage of the here, and finally; it offers the ‘storied-self’ as a resolution of the competing constructions and experiences of personal continuity and the inconsistencies and constant change in the project of the individual.
Abstract.
Leyshon M, Fish R (2011). ‘Chain Gang Conservation’: Young people and environmental volunteering. In Rogerson, R, Sadler, Green S, A, Wong, C (Eds.) Leading Sustainable Communities: Learning in Communities, Hertfordshire University Press.
2010
Beckingham D, Eldridge A, Fuller E, Herrick C, Holloway S, Jayne M, Kneale J, Leyshon M, Moon G, Morris J, et al (eds)(2010). Consumption controversies: Alcohol policies in the UK. London, Royal Geographical Society with IBG.
Leyshon M (2010). The struggle to belong: Young people on the move in the countryside.
POPULATION SPACE AND PLACEAbstract:
The struggle to belong: Young people on the move in the countryside
In this paper I explore the relationship between marginality and rural youth by revealing the multiplicity of ways in which young people’s identities are performed in contemporary rural society. I illustrate how for some rural youth engendering a sense of ‘belonging’ in the countryside is a daily struggle – a struggle embedded in the way power is executed in villages. Recent research illustrates how dominant discourses of rurality reflect and mutually reinforce conventional gender identities and stereotypes in particular places. While emphasising the significance of this work to the study of rurality and identity, this paper argues for the need to extend academic analysis to examine the marginalising influence of dominant constructions of rurality on some young people. Through exploring young people’s narratives of self I further develop identity theories around notions of the body through movement in village spaces. Drawing on the experiences of the young people in this study, this paper further demonstrates the existence of highly defined ideas concerning acceptable rural identities and how some young men and women struggle to maintain their sense of belonging.
Abstract.
Leyshon M (2010). Writing the Moment: Landscape and the memory-image. In Brace C, Johns-Putra A (Eds.) Process: Landscape and Text, Rodopi.
2008
Leyshon M (2008). 'We're stuck in the corner': Young women, embodiment and drinking in the countryside.
Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy,
15(3), 267-289.
Abstract:
'We're stuck in the corner': Young women, embodiment and drinking in the countryside
In this paper I extend our understanding of the ways in which young women in rural areas produce, negotiate and experience identity through an exploration of their drinking practices. Through a close ethnography of three groups of young women in the rural south west of England this paper shows how pubs, clubs, bedrooms and other informal spaces such as 'in the park' provide arenas of performance in which identities are constructed, negotiated and reproduced. In particular this paper explores the significance given by rural young women to their discursive drinking practices and the extent to which these practices lead to inclusionary and/or exclusionary experiences. Eschewing conventional notions of the body, by recognizing the body as malleable, porous and an unfinished product, subject to socially produced alteration, this paper teases apart the different lived experiences of rural young women by arguing that much of their behaviour in pub(lic) and private space(s) can be seen in terms of acts of spectacle, compliance and challenges to disciplinary frameworks. To illustrate this point I discuss how rural young women employ various embodied strategies to move between spaces to experiment with alcohol and alternative femininities and 'do' gender, thereby contesting acceptable rural gender roles and expectations. Through shedding light on drinking practices, I reveal how this experimentation affects their sense of their body, femininity and belonging in the countryside. © 2008 Informa UK Ltd.
Abstract.
Leyshon M (2008). The betweeness of being a rural youth: Inclusive and exclusive lifestyles.
Social and Cultural Geography,
9(1), 1-26.
Abstract:
The betweeness of being a rural youth: Inclusive and exclusive lifestyles
In this paper I demonstrate the ways in which young people imagine, define and create discourses of the countryside, in particular how they envision both the place of the countryside and their place in the countryside. I focus on how rural youth situate themselves within discourses of the rural and in so doing, I challenge previous constructions of the relationship between young people, the rural idyll and cultural marginality. Specifically, I assess the role and importance of place-myths and practices in the formation of identity. In particular, this paper offers a more developed account than previously conceived of how rural youth identity is formulated in and between complex social and material relations predicated on difference. My analysis takes account of the ways in which young people actively produce culture and experience and understand belonging and not-belonging, their different views of rurality, their production of an 'intensive-self' and the extent to which the countryside is, on one hand, enabling and nurturing (inclusive), and on the other, restrictive and prohibitive. This paper makes an important contribution to the geography of youth by presenting a framework for understanding young people in the countryside that is predicated on exposing conflicting and sometimes contradictory feelings of inclusion and exclusion.
Abstract.
Leyshon M (2008). The village pub and young people’s drinking practices in the countryside.
ANNALS OF LEISURE RESEARCH,
3&4(11), 289-310.
Abstract:
The village pub and young people’s drinking practices in the countryside.
This paper explores the ways in which young people in rural areas experience their identity through their drinking practices. This research is founded on a close ethnography of three pubs and explores the significance given by young men and women to their discursive leisure and drinking practices and the extent to which these practices lead to inclusionary and/or exclusionary experiences. Through understanding identity formation as a contingent process, subject to socially produced alteration, this paper teases apart the different lived experiences of rural young people by arguing that much of their behaviour in pub(lic) and private space(s) can be seen in terms of acts of spectacle, compliance and challenge to disciplinary frameworks. This is illustrated though ethnographic case study examples and discussion on how young people employ various embodied strategies to move between spaces to experiment with alcohol. Through shedding light on drinking practices, this research reveals how this experimentation affects their sense of belonging in the countryside.
Abstract.
2007
Leyshon M (2007). Deviant Sexualities and Dark Ruralities in ‘The War Zone’. In Fish R (Ed) Cinematic Countrysides, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 195-210.
Leyshon M, Brace C (2007). Men and the desert: Contested masculinities in Ice Cold in Alex.
GENDER, PLACE AND CULTURE,
14(2), 163-182.
Abstract:
Men and the desert: Contested masculinities in Ice Cold in Alex
This paper explores the relationship between space, identity and film through the war film genre and in particular one film Ice Cold in Alex (1958). Although war films have suffered particular neglect by geographers, their appeal is enduring, helping to shape British national identity and popular constructions of masculinity. Through an analysis and critique of the film, this paper makes two interconnected points. First, it highlights the value of film to geographers as a creative medium in which spaces and identities are imagined, (re)created, contested and negotiated. Second, it brings recent work on masculinites to bear on a detailed examination of Ice Cold in Alex to illustrate how war films have produced and sustained a specific unconventional form of heroic masculine British national identity through the passage of an ‘off-road’ movie. Here we demonstrate that masculinities are forged not only in the maelstrom of power interrelationships between men and other men and between men and women, but also importantly in relation to the landscape, in this example the desert as other. This glimpse allows us to challenge hegemonic norms as well as the construction of the desert as an active agent in the co-construction of the main characters’ identities.
Abstract.
2005
Leyshon, M. (2005). No Place for a Girl: rural youth, pubs and the performance of masculinity. In Little J, Morris C (Eds.) Critical Studies in Rural Gender Issues, Ashgate, 104-122.
Leyshon M, DiGiovanna, S. (2005). Planning for the Needs of Young People: Affordable Homes in Rural Communities.
CHILDREN, YOUTH AND ENVIRONMENT,
15(2), 254-277.
Abstract:
Planning for the Needs of Young People: Affordable Homes in Rural Communities.
Current demographic trends in the United Kingdom point to an alarming out migration of young people from rural areas, despite a more general increase in population to these areas. This is a matter of real concern, and is related in large part to the growing lack of affordable housing in rural areas. Various UK policies seek to address this issue in integrated and participatory ways that include the concerns of the young. Indeed the inclusion of young people in the community planning process is an often-lauded policy goal. However, there are a number of ways in which these policies overlook and/or fail to address the full complexity of the concerns of these young people. Qualitative research with young people and other concerned stakeholders in a number of case study communities in southwest England reveals some of these broader challenges: even if more affordable housing was available, job prospects for the rural young remain poor; young people, furthermore, tend to be increasingly marginalized in other ways as well in ever more gentrified rural villages, and most of them have little interest in remaining where they are; and finally, policy makers and planners have little faith in the value of involving young people in local decision making - and young people themselves appear to see little reason for becoming involved. Truly addressing these challenges calls for more holistic and nuanced attention to the situation of rural young people.
Abstract.
2004
Leyshon M, DiGiovanna, S.M. (2004). International Perspectives on Community Youth Planning: a Research Agenda for Comparing Somerset County, New Jersey and Somerset County, England.
MIDDLE STATES GEOGRAPHER,
36, 84-93.
Abstract:
International Perspectives on Community Youth Planning: a Research Agenda for Comparing Somerset County, New Jersey and Somerset County, England
This paper outlines issues and methodologies for conducting comparative research on
approaches to youth planning in rural and suburban communities in the United States and England. Emerging
research in the area of youth development, primarily in the UK, points to the role of young people as active agents
in the construction of their identities and in turn, in the ways in which local spaces are constructed and
appropriated. While traditional planning approaches tend to plan for young people, few cases exist where youth is
encouraged to take an active role in planning. The authors are embarking on a comparative study of the ways in
which rural and suburban youth see themselves as part of (or apart from) their communities and the extent to which
these idealizations and behaviors are being incorporated into the local planning process. of particular interest are
the ways in which rural and suburban youth are negotiating the increasing annihilation of public space as
communities attempt to control youth behavior by denying them places for informal recreation and socialization.
How are young people responding to the ever more circumscribed uses of ‘the street’ imposed by the communities in
which they live?
Abstract.
Leyshon M (2004). Sound tracks: Popular music, identity and place. ANN ASSOC AM GEOGR, 94(1), 230-232.
2003
Little JK, Leyshon M (2003). Embodied Rural Geographies: developing research agendas.
Progress in Human Geography,
27(3), 257-272.
Abstract:
Embodied Rural Geographies: developing research agendas
This paper responds to the scarcity of work on rural embodiment. We argue that a consideration
of ‘the body’ can contribute significantly to an understanding of rural social relations
and communities. In particular, this paper provides an additional critical dimension to the
understanding of the relationship between changing femininities, masculinities, rurality and the
performance of sexuality in rural areas. It shows how dominant constructions of rural
masculinity and femininity incorporate highly traditional assumptions about the body and
reflect conventional attitudes to sexuality and gender identity. This paper gathers together some
partial and underdeveloped ideas and data in the production of a more coordinated and
sustained consideration of embodiment and rurality, and details some emerging research
directions.
Abstract.
2002
Leyshon, M. (2002). On being 'in the field': practice, progress and problems in research with young people in rural areas.
JOURNAL OF RURAL STUDIES,
18(2), 179-191.
Abstract:
On being 'in the field': practice, progress and problems in research with young people in rural areas.
Alongside growing research interest in the lifestyles of young people has come recognition of the need for ethical codes of conduct to protect children and young people from exploitation. While many academic papers provide valuable guidelines for researchers, little consideration has been given to how methodological issues are actually played out in practice. In particular, the practicalities of fulfilling methodological obligations whilst at the same time managing often challenging research situations is elided. In this paper I foreground how methodological considerations impact upon research with both individuals and groups of young people in the countryside.
Abstract.
