Wood as a Source of Energy for Rural and Island Communities

Energy justice has gained significant attention in the energy-related social sciences and humanities. In the Global South, there have been several works in the energy justice scholarship, but few on exploring energy justice through the implementation of mini-grids in rural communities. In light of this, the study assessed how the implementation of mini-grids in rural island communities in Ghana fared from an energy justice perspective. Empirical data were collected from three island communities in the South-Eastern part of Ghana along the Volta Lake, namely Kudorkope, Atigagome and Wayokope, within three months. The analysis drew from 52 interviews (28 from the field and 24 interviews from renewable energy experts) and secondary data. The findings revealed that the implementation of solar mini-grids in the rural island communities in Ghana had energy justice concerns. These include a lack of access to quality information on the project, unfairness in the consultation and decision-making process, erratic electricity supply, which disrupted their daily activities, particularly economic activities and issues of marginalisation. The study recommends that top-level stakeholders in the renewable energy sector ensure a fair distribution of the costs and benefits of energy transition efforts. This would mitigate the disproportionate impacts of climate change on rural communities and reduce the gap in energy access between rural and urban communities.

User acceptance of diesel/PV hybrid system in an island community

Energy for Rural and Island Communities—An Introduction

Inadequate access to anesthesia and surgical services is often considered to be a problem of low- and middle-income countries. However, affluent nations, including Canada, Australia, and the United States, also face shortages of anesthesia and surgical care in rural and remote communities. Inadequate services often disproportionately affect indigenous populations. A lack of anesthesia care providers has been identified as a major contributing factor to the shortfall of surgical and obstetrical care in rural and remote areas of these countries. This report summarizes the challenges facing the provision of anesthesia services in rural and remote regions. The current landscape of anesthesia providers and their training is described. We also explore innovative strategies and emerging technologies that could better support physician-led anesthesia care teams working in rural and remote areas. Ultimately, we believe that it is the responsibility of specialist anesthesiologists and academic health sciences centers to facilitate access to high-quality care through partnership with other stakeholders. Professional medical organizations also play an important role in ensuring the quality of care and continuing professional development. Enhanced collaboration between academic anesthesiologists and other stakeholders is required to meet the challenge issued by the World Health Organization to ensure access to essential anesthesia and surgical services for all.

A Comparison of Assertive Community Treatment and Intensive Case Management for Patients in Rural Areas

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss and use living stories to provide examples and some basic principles of cooperation as the alternative way of organising island community. Design/methodology/approach – This study draws upon autoethnography and storytelling to show co-operative practices. Storytelling is supported by deconstruction of living stories. Findings – Island communities create and maintain resistance through a culture of cooperation. Living stories (I-V) illustrate different instances of cooperative practices, for example, friends in need, gathering, search and moba, and where sympathy, gift, and humanity and care are essential elements. Research limitations/implications – It would be interesting to explore whether island communities elsewhere exhibit similar patterns. Practical implications – Deconstructed stories helped in reconstructing the bigger picture of how the people on the island offer collective resistance by developing different ways of cooperation. Social implications – Living stories (I-V) based on reciprocity of taking turns and giving back to the community, is a strategy for survival and of collective resistance within the rural island communities. Originality/value – Appreciation of the true value of collective resistance based on gift and reciprocity rather than financialisation and economisation aids to better understanding of the needs of traditional societies of island archipelagos, on the part of policy makers and other stakeholders who are involved in the process of planning for island development.

We investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on domestic violence service providers in rural and island communities in North East Scotland and Orkney. Domestic abuse and violence in rural areas is typically underestimated and might be more hidden due to stigma, a surveillance culture, and the practical difficulties of accessing services. The geographical challenges of rural and remote areas in relation to domestic violence are, to some extent, further amplified in small island locations, given population sizes, terrain and separation by sea. In such communities, visits to a service organisation’s offices, or a visit by one of their staff, might publicly mark a service user out as a domestic abuse survivor. This article focuses on the move to digital and telephone provision of support in areas where broadband internet access is inconsistent and service users may live many miles from sources of support. At the same time, the move to online modes of communication was welcomed by staff in relation to offering opportunities for training and networking. There was also use of social and local media to raise awareness of the prevalence of domestic violence in these locations and to counter the myth of idyllic and abuse-free rural and island communities.

Marine energy offers a reliable energy solution for island and coastal communities, which often lack traditional local generation, to support their transition to energy independence and reduce reliance on externally imported fuels. Successful deployment of new technologies in these isolated locations requires community acceptance and approval from the outset, as these communities typically lack the financial and technical resources to operate and maintain new systems. This report presents a community-centric microgrid planning framework for remote coastal and island communities. Community engagement is integrated as the first step in the planning process, incorporating community profiles and visions into energy development scenarios. A case study was conducted in St. George, Pribilof Islands, Alaska, which relies entirely on diesel yet has significant wind and wave energy potential. Community engagement revealed a unique history and current economic status, with an interest in adopting advanced energy technologies despite past failures. Various microgrid configurations were optimized, considering different technologies to meet current and future energy needs while balancing cost and energy resilience. Wave energy converters (WECs) were a key component, integrated with other energy sources using the Xendee optimization tool. The Marine Energy Microgrid Toolkit, developed as part of this work, uses commercial power system analysis tools to optimize and analyze microgrid scenarios. The developed framework and toolkit can be applied to island and coastal communities to enhance resilience and support microgrid deployments. Future enhancements will include incorporating new marine resources, developing dynamic models, and automating the integration of Xendee and PowerFactory simulations.

Background Approximately half of the global population resides in remote regions, yet healthcare resources remain disproportionately concentrated in urban areas. Social and geographical isolation exacerbate health disparities, resulting in limited access to services for rural, remote and island communities. This paper explores how arts-based health interventions respond to these inequalities. Methods We conducted a literature review of research studies published over the past two decades. Results Arts-based health interventions have emerged as a promising approach to addressing disparities and enhancing overall health and wellbeing. The arts support healthcare literacy, individual agency, self-expression and a strengthened sense of community presence and identity. Creative practices rooted in local and Indigenous traditions foster sustainable and meaningful relationships between people and place, enabling a sense of connected belonging and intergenerational historicity. Active community participation, trustful relationships between stakeholders and communities, and an appreciation of cultural differences are seen to increase the effectiveness of these interventions. Conclusion The findings of this review aim to inform policymakers, practitioners and researchers about the potential and challenges of arts-based health interventions in remote and marginalised communities.

Rural America has undergone dramatic changes in the last half century. Brown and Schafft (2011) survey these changes in Rural People and Communities in the Twentyfirst Century. The book synthesizes research on the social, economic, and political aspects of life in rural America. Intended for students, policy-makers, and academics, the book is an introduction to the many issues facing these communities today. The authors introduce their work with a compelling argument for the importance of rural communities. The rural population, comprising 17 % of the US population, is larger than ‘‘other important subgroups’’ like Hispanics (Brown and Schafft 2011:11). Moreover, most of the nation’s infrastructure and natural resources exist in rural areas. American society is deeply invested in a collective rural identity. The ‘‘rural mystique’’ idealizes rural life as ‘‘somehow more moral, virtuous, and simple’’ than urban life (10). A collective memory of idyllic life before urbanization means that many Americans want to preserve such communities, even if they never experience rural life firsthand. Rural People and Communities includes sections on rural places in urban society; rural communities, institutions and environments; rural populations; rural economy and socioeconomic well-being; and policy recommendations. Each chapter relates empirical data to macro-level changes and policy debates, and each spotlights diverse theories to interpret the data. This technique makes this book a ‘‘toolkit’’ that equips readers with a broad range of analytic frames. For example, ‘‘Understanding Community in Rural Society’’ compares perspectives of ‘‘community as a social system’’ and ‘‘community as a field of social interaction,’’ to show how they can be fruitfully combined for a robust understanding of community life (38–46). Particularly compelling were Chapters 9 (‘‘Farms, Farmers, and Farming’’) and 10 (‘‘Poverty’’). Poverty is often considered an urban problem. However, the magnitude and quality of poverty in rural areas differs greatly from urban environments. Rural areas suffer from deep, persistent poverty. Whereas urban families cycle in and out of economic instability, rural families experience fewer fluctuations. The rural poor are at high poverty risk but numerically few, rendering them largely invisible in national poverty programs. These policies, designed to alleviate urban problems, are unsatisfactory outside the city. For example, in addition to living far from basic services such as grocery stores or medical facilities, rural workers often face a long, costly commute. Transportation costs quickly make work ‘‘economically irrational’’ for those who cannot relocate to pricier urban markets. However, the nation’s largest anti-poverty program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, is ‘‘contingent on work effort... [and has] strict time limits’’ trapping the rural poor in employment costs that outstrip financial returns (199). Chapter 9 dispels myths of widespread agricultural labor in rural communities. Many Americans assume that agricultural and rural policies are synonymous, but this conflation is misguided. Shifts over the last 200 years have undermined agriculture as a ‘‘viable livelihood strategy’’ for many (Brown and Schafft 2011:183). Agricultural lands are increasingly under the control of fewer individuals. At the time of publication, only 7 % of rural Americans were involved in farming. Brown and Schafft (179) suggest that, rather than just examining agriculture, scholars focus on ‘‘food systems,’’ the ‘‘complex set of social, economic, and L. R. Moore (&) University of Kentucky, 211 Lafferty Hall, Lexington, KY 40506-0024, USA e-mail: LaurenRMoore@uky.edu

Chapter 14 - Tidal Energy

Rural communities account for somewhere between 72% and 97% of the land mass in the United States and approximately 15–20% of the country’s population (United States Census Bureau. New census data show differences between urban and rural populations [Press release]. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016/cb16-210.html, 2016; United States Department of Agriculture. Rural America at a glance 2016 Edition. Retrieved from https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/80894/eib-162.pdf?v=42684, 2017). Furthermore, rural communities are an important part of the American mythos, representing a population and lifestyle that features heavily in the identity of America (Stamm. Rural behavioral health care: An interdisciplinary guide. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, 2003). As such, rural communities and people occupy both a large and socially important piece of the United States. Likewise, being only 20% of the population, rural residents are also an often overlooked and underserved minority. The dominant urban culture often portrays rural people in negative stereotypes that can both exacerbate behavioral health problems and impact the quality of care received by rural residents. Further, prejudice against rural people and communities is manifested in the lived realities of rural disadvantage and policy marginalization, which lead to challenges for the delivery of quality behavioral health care in rural communities. Taking a public narrative model for understanding community health outcomes (N. V. Mohatt et al. Soc Sci Med 106, 128–36, 2014; Rappaport. Am J Community Psychol 28(1), 1–24, 2000), we review how stigma and prejudices manifest in rural community life and relate to persistent rural health disparities. The objective of this chapter is to provide rural mental health practitioners with a deeper understanding of the ways in which stigma and prejudice toward rural communities shape the landscape of mental health in rural America. In conclusion, we provide a series of recommendations to reshape the structural and cultural biases and provide effective rural behavioral health treatment and community action.

Is Sustainable Tourism Really Sustainable?

High levels of out-migration of young people from rural and island communities has provoked significant concern around experiences of “brain drain”. However, recent research has shown that many young people who leave rural communities hold intentions or aspirations to return to their communities in the future. Although research has identified intentions to return in young people leaving rural communities, and has identified patterns of return in older migrants, the experience of young returnees, and specifically young graduates has received very little attention. This paper seeks to address this gap by exploring the phenomenon of return migration to the Scottish islands of Orkney and Shetland by recent graduates (within a year of graduation). Where previous research has identified the importance of employment and relationships in return migration, the findings from this project identify that it is how the dynamics of career and relationships interweave over time that creates specific spatial horizons. Drawing out the findings into a typology of graduate returners, this paper indicates the variety of experiences of graduate return and identifies a potential need for greater support of some graduate returners.

Every year 2800 deaths in Pacific island countries result from diarrhoea, and most are children under five years of age. These tragic diarrheal deaths are preventable as they are often linked to unsafe water, lack of proper sanitation facilities and poor hygienic practices. Effective preventive management through the framework of a drinking Water Safety Plan (WSP) is an efficient mechanism for ensuring the safe quality of drinking water thereby reducing the burden of water related diseases. The large proportion (81%) of people in Pacific island countries living in rural or outer island communities mostly have their own water supply (for example rainwater tanks or hand-dug wells), and often the water is consumed untreated. The remoteness and isolation of these rural communities prevent national surveillance authorities to regularly visit and provide advice on drinking water safety issues. In such circumstances empowering rural communities to ensure the safety of their drinking water, through trained local facilitators, could be promoted and utilised effectively. However, WSPs for rural communities have to be relatively simple hence tools such as modified sanitary inspections and the presence/absence hydrogen sulfide test could be used. The approach of empowering communities through trained local facilitators to promote the WSP framework has been implemented in the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI). Positive feedback has been received by trained facilitators in RMI on the use of modified sanitary inspections (translated into Marshallese) and the hydrogen sulfide test. It is believed that the approach of empowering communities on WSPs through training local facilitators and equipping them with the above mentioned simple tools is effective and has potential for further replication in rural Pacific communities to improve drinking water quality and reduce the burden of water related diseases.