The RURALEX project asks: How is people’s knowledge about the environment in rural parts of Europe changing, and how do such changes affect the social, cultural and ecological challenges currently faced by local communities? European rural areas have struggled in recent years with shifts in population and land use patterns, such as the out-migration of people to urban areas and the abandonment of traditional forms of agriculture. These moves have contributed to an urgent crisis: namely, that ecological expertise and awareness is rapidly changing, and in some cases being lost. This includes knowledge held both by everyday people (such as farmers, hunters, or fishermen) and by so-called “experts” (such as policy-makers or scientists). Examples include peasants’ controlled burning practices as a method of wildfire prevention, or the practice of building artisanal, single-log boats for river navigation along floodplains. While this crisis is often intangible and difficult to pinpoint, it is also deeply impactful to European lives and landscapes. The 17 researchers working on the RURALEX project will study this phenomenon in diverse cases across Europe: the Catalan Pyrenees, the Italian Alps, former East Germany, the Estonian coast, Northern Finland, the Danube basin in Romania and Bulgaria, and the southeastern UK. We will carry out long-term research on the ground using qualitative research methods, such as interviewing and observing people, and studying archives and stories. We will also innovate new research methods of our own, including a creative mapping tool (which we call “multi-species deep mapping”) to gather and showcase the different memories, images, and sounds that tell the story of people’s relationships to the environment. By studying people’s intangible and tangible, and implicit and explicit knowledges about their environments, we will show how long-held and recently acquired expertise can support the many challenges of rural communities. RURALEX will also show how humanities disciplines such as anthropology and history are important for understanding and addressing urgent social and ecological issues that will greatly impact the future of Europe.
KEYWORDS:
knowledge, expertise, rural, agriculture, multispecies, nature-based livelihoods, societal disenfranchisement.
CONSORTIUM
- Project Leader: Roger Norum, University of Oulu, Finland
- Alessandro Rippa, University of Oslo, Norway
- Stefan Dorondel, The Institute for Southeast European Studies, Romania
- Camila del Mármol, University of Barcelona, Spain
- Kadri Tüür, Tallinn University, Estonia
- Alice Eldridge, University of Sussex, United Kingdom
ASSOCIATE PARTNERS
- Antoni Trasobares Rodríguez, Director, Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia, Spain
- Giuseppina Daniele, President, Vallarsa Ethnographic Museum, Italy
- Helge Bruelheide, Director, Halle-Wittenberg Botanical Garden, Germany
- Jordi Abella Pons, Director, Ecomuseu de les Valls d’Àneu, Spain
- Liina Veskimägi-Iliste, Chairwoman of the Board, Estonian Folk Art and Craft Union, Estonia
- Luis Ovidiu Popa, Director of Research, Grigore Antipa Natural History Museum, Romania
- Pentti Marttila-Tornio, Group Leader, Kiiminki River Catchment Area Association, Finland
- Sarah King, Rewilding Manager, Rewilding Britain, United Kingdom
- Susanne Grießbach, Director, Haus am See Information Center for Environment and Nature Conservation, Germany
- Sébastien Moncorps, Director, IUCN French Committee, France
- Virginia Maria da Silva Neto, Director, Francisco de Lacerda Museum, Portugal
ACHIEVEMENTS
- Project website
- Achievements:
Since the beginning of the project in May 2025, all project partners have been in close dialogue through monthly meetings and online training sessions, beside the HERA-CHANCE kick-off meeting in Nottingham. Notable consortia milestones include planning and delivery of core year one training events: an online session on “deep mapping” with guest researchers Paolo Gruppuso (Rachel Carson Center) and Anna Anna Barcz (Polish Academy of Sciences), and three special sessions coordinated by members of the RURALEX team on Microphenomenology, Methodological comparison in Anthropology, and Moral ecologies. All year one targets have been met, with participatory research in progress with engaged APs in each country, and creative research methods planning underway.
Additionally, individual teams have engaged in a range of activities to deepen their relationships with APs, networks and communities of practice, this includes:
– A public event in Italy with the local AP (the Vallarsa Ethnographic Museum).
– Attendance at IUCN France, workshop on Les Journées du Libre Evolution at UNESCO, Paris. This proved a valuable networking opportunity to meet environmental actors and policy makers and provide rich wider European context for our work (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrmPfNXvVZo).
– Coordination meetings with the local AP in the Catalan Pyrenees (CTFC) to develop future collaboration plans.
Besides those key events, project members have all been involved in data collection and have shared project-related research at conferences and workshops, through podcasts, and in local news.
The first project workshop is set to take place in Bucharest, Romania, on April 16-18. All project partners are expected to attend.
- News to be highlighted:
A key milestone achieved was the creation of the RURALEX website: https://www.ruralex.eu/.The website presents the project’s main research questions, introduces the team members, and showcases the case studies conducted across the seven countries represented in the consortium.
A RURALEX panel has been accepted at the forthcoming Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, which will take place in July in Poland: https://easaonline.org/conferences/easa2026/
The UK team are presenting a paper at the More Than Human (MOTH) Festival of Ideas in London (May 14-16), co-authored with associated partners, Lewes Railway Wildlife Trust. See: https://mothrights.org/moth-festival/.
The UK team have been included in a bid submission to Natural England by partners Knepp Wilding and Sussex Wildlife Trust to support the socio-cultural evaluation of free-living beaver release in the area through the methodology they are developing as part of the RURALEX project.
Start date
1 May 2025
Project duration
36 months
Project budget
€ 1 499 663
Funding organisations
