Director of the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal
Mark Shucksmith is Director of the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal at Newcastle University, where he is Professor of Planning. Mark is also a Commissioner at the Commission for Rural Communities and a Trustee of the Arkleton Trust. Previously he was Professor of Land Economy and Co-Director of the Arkleton Centre for Rural Development Research at the University of Aberdeen, and Co-Director of the Scottish Centre for Research on Social Justice (Aberdeen and Glasgow Universities). He was appointed in 2007-08 by the Scottish Government to Chair the Committee of Inquiry into Crofting. During 2005-06 he was a member of the UK Government’s Affordable Rural Housing Commission. He directed the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s programme on ‘action in rural areas’, and was secretary to JRF’s Rural Housing Policy Forum. Mark was Vice-President of the International Rural Sociological Association from 2004-08, and was Programme Chair for the XI World Rural Sociology Congress in Trondheim, Norway in 2004.
He is the author or co-author of a number of books, including: ‘Rural Transformations and Rural Policies in the US and UK’ (Routledge 2012); ‘Comparing Rural Development: Continuity and Change in the Countryside of Western Europe’ (Ashgate 2009); ‘CAP and the Regions: the territorial impact of the CAP’ (CABI 2005), ‘Young People and Rural Policy in Europe’ (Ashgate 2004), ‘Housing in the European Countryside’ (Routledge 2003), ‘Exclusive Countryside? Social Inclusion and Regeneration in Rural Britain’ (JRF 2000), ‘Rural Scotland Today: the best of both worlds?’ (Avebury 1996) and ‘Housebuilding in Britain’s Countryside’ (Routledge 1990). Recent papers have appeared in Sociologia Ruralis, the Journal of Rural Studies, Social Policy and Administration, Regional Studies, Town Planning Review, European Planning Studies, the Journal of Agricultural Economics, Land Use Policy and the Community Development Journal. His main areas of research include rural development, social exclusion in rural areas, agricultural change and pluriactivity, and rural policy.
Mark was awarded the OBE in 2009 for services to rural development and to crofting. In 2010 he was elected to the Academy of Social Sciences.
Listen to Professor Shucksmith speaking on Radio 4 in January 2012, responding to David Cameron and Grant Shappa on rural housing and NPPF.