with environmental change: opportunities for young people’s well-being.

This project is framed within current debates on the need for innovation to achieve sustainability. A growing number of scholars are arguing for the need to discuss the nature, values and political directions of current technologies of hubris (Jasanoff, 2003). At the current rate of global depletion of raw materials, agricultural land and energy resources (Bardi 2011), equitable economic growth becomes improbable. Understanding community development in relation to resource management is thus key to the development of healthy, resilient communities (Folke et al.2005).

An informed process of innovation should take into account a broader set of values and voices. Sen (2009) proposes a notion of well-being as “leading a life you have reason to value”, and capability as the freedom to achieve well-being. This offers an alternative to the analysis of well-being as a subjective emotional state, but instead focuses on the opportunities for enhanced quality of life. Individual well-being is seen to be located within community relationships and opportunities for self-realisation. In this view, education, health, environmental health and participatory democracy interact in shaping well-being.
This proposal draws together themes of health inequalities and sustainability to examine the complex cultural, ecological and educational factors which shape the outcomes of health and well-being in rural communities, in Scotland and/or abroad. The project will focus, in particular, on rural settings in which significant technological developments have required the use of natural resources, which, in turn, have impacted on the environment (e.g. intensive salmon farming; wind farm etc.); In particular the study will look at the impact of changes in the local environment on the opportunities for young people to lead a life they value and will explore the research question: how is young people’s well-being - in terms of educational, social and economic opportunities and aspirations – defined in the changing environmental context? Through the use of narrative inquiry methods, the individual interviews are expected to cast light on young people’s values, aspirations, sense of affiliation and belonging as well as ideas about the future that emerge from the communities they live in.

The successful candidate would hold a first or upper second class degree in a social science or health related subject. (S)he would be capable of working independently and as part of a team. In order to successfully undertake field work in rural settings the candidate would be confident to live and travel independently, and would demonstrate initiative and well developed social skills. Fluency of language both in conversational and academic English is absolutely essential. Proposals for comparative studies in international contexts are also being considered.