The social and cultural role of small, remote airports in the Northern Periphery.

Bloice, Lyndsay; Baxter, Graeme; Gray, David

Abstract

This paper presented the key themes emerging from Work Package 7.1 of the project entitled Smart Peripheral and Remote Airports (SPARA) 2020. Work Package 7.1 consisted of qualitative research that explored the social and cultural importance of small, remote airports in the Northern Periphery. Using photo elicitation techniques the research gathered data from 575 participants across five communities in the Northern Periphery: Benbecula, Kirkwall and the Isle of Skye in Scotland; Donegal in north-west Ireland; and Sunsdvall-Timrå in mid-Sweden. The broad themes emerging from these discussions were: the impact of local history and heritage; the airport as a local employer; the airport's serendipitous social function; social and cultural use of airport facilities; and societal barriers to air travel.

Citation

BLOICE, L., BAXTER, G. and GRAY, D. 2017. The social and cultural role of small, remote airports in the Northern Periphery. Presented at the 2017 University of the Artic rectors' conference and forum conversations from the north conference: scholars of many disciplines and inhabitants of many places in dialogue with one another, with animals and plants, and with the land, 27-29 August 2017, Aberdeen, UK.

• Presentation Conference Type: Lecture
• Conference Name: 2017 University of the Artic rectors' conference and forum conversations from the north conference: scholars of many disciplines and inhabitants of many places in dialogue with one another, with animals and plants, and with the land
• Conference Location: Aberdeen, UK
• Start Date: Aug 27, 2017
• End Date: Aug 29, 2017
• Deposit Date: Aug 31, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 31, 2017
• Keywords: Peripheral airports; Remote airports; Rural communities; Scotland; Ireland; Sweden
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2482
• Related Public URLs: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2433 ; http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2837