Convenors: Aimee Morse and Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins
Affiliation: Countryside and Community Research Institute, University of Gloucestershire

Session type: Online workshop
Duration: 1 session

Abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic has renewed attention to flexibility and adaptability in rural research.
Perhaps more than ever, our methods have had to respond to (unexpected) events, significant
constraints, and prolonged uncertainty. Yet, the pandemic has equally presented an opportunity for
methodological experimentation and normalised digital methods. This workshop session steps from
the reflexive moment in methods to initiate critical conversations about the methodological
approaches rural geographers need to support resilient communities and sustainable
transformations into the future.

We explore the following questions:
 What kinds of data and evidence are needed for rural resilience, from community scale to
national policy?
 What should be the key components of a methodological approach to rural resilience?
 How do we ensure our methods are apt, rigorous, and fit for purpose?
 How do we bridge flexible research and robust results in case selection and participant
recruitment?
 What can we learn about our methods from those who choose (not) to be involved in our
research?
 How can failure in the field be shifted from individual learning to better inform
methodological advances in rural research?

We invite workshop attendees to reflect on their own recent experiences as we work together to
separate hope from hype, match evidence needs with the right tools, and learn from success and
failure alike. We welcome critical appraisals of specific approaches such as participatory mapping and
living labs. Through reflection and dialogue, the workshop aims to envisage resilient approaches to
methods in and beyond rural geography – and future methodological approaches to rural resilience.