Homebuyers 'plotting' a move to the UK countryside? A study of counter-urbanisation and entrepreneurial emergence in rural areas

This study draws parallel lines of research in entrepreneurship, counter-urbanisation and
social capital to understand contemporary processes influencing rural and regional
development in the context of a persistent global pandemic that potentially launched a 21st century 'rural renaissance' as UK city dwellers began buying houses in rural areas, looking to 'flip' their lives to the countryside and reassess what is important amid increased home working that is here to stay. This study will address the following overarching research question: Do social capital and spatial contexts affect rural in-migrant entrepreneurial emergence in the context of a persistent global pandemic and how does this impact the wider development of rural livelihoods? 60 rural in-migrant entrepreneurs will be interviewed from rural locations in Norfolk, Suffolk or Essex to establish the importance of social and spatial
contexts and their affordances; the advantages that an environment offers a perceptive
individual for entrepreneurial emergence (Gibson, 1966). The researcher will spend time in
the micro-study areas to augment the contextual understandings of local affordances and
facilitate focus groups sessions with new or aspiring entrepreneurs to understand in real time,
perceptions of rural locations and their affordances.

'Rurality' has no precise definition, but development scholars generally characterise rural
areas by their environment and structural deficits of underdevelopment (Wiggins and Proctor,
2001: 427-428). These issues may be more acute in low-income developing countries, but
rural areas of England can face similar issues of underdevelopment of infrastructure, hidden
deprivation and poor access to services (Norfolk County Council, 2013). Migrants, however,
have the potential to become 'agents of development', contributing to rural economic growth
and improving rural livelihoods; that is why orderly, safe and regular migration of people
underpins the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN, 2018). Understanding how
underlying 'affordances' create and sustain dynamic rural economies will provide knowledge
about how personal mobility, social networks and diverse perceptions of rural places can
interact with features of a local context to create new entrepreneurial opportunities to enhance
local development potential and provide individual livelihood opportunities.