Staff
Stephen McConnachie
MA, PhD
MA, PhD
Stephen is a social scientist, trained as a social anthropologist. He specialises in qualitative, exploratory research. He joined Forest Research in October 2021. His current work focuses on land managers’ values in relation to woodland creation and public access to woodlands.
In 2016, he completed a PhD based on 15 months of fieldwork with subsistence farmers in rural Uganda exploring what it means to live a ‘good’ life.
Prior to Forest Research, Stephen worked as a social researcher in a transport and built environment innovation company at the intersection of government, academia, and industry; and as a social researcher for the Scottish Government at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014. He completed a post-doctoral project funded by NERC with Social Life and University College London examining the social and cultural values people associate with small patches of urban nature, including street trees.
NRS
Northern Research Station
Bush Estate
Roslin
Scotland
This research used a systematic process to map the social science evidence around UK land managers’ willingness and ability to create woodland.
This research involves working directly with farmers to better understand the barriers to and opportunities for increasing tree cover on farms. Specifically, it aims to explore how and where trees fit with farmers’ values – that is, where things matter to them for social, cultural, or moral reasons.
Understanding the range of values held by farmers in relation to trees allows us to learn how, when, and where farmers may embrace having trees on their land. Explicit consideration of these values will better enable those working to design policies, incentives, tools, advice, or other communications to do so in ways which are more […]
What leads some farmers to dramatically increase the number of trees on their land? What role do social and cultural values play? And how do values and behaviour interact? Increasing tree cover across England is a key priority for the UK government, driven by the benefits that trees and woodlands offer, such as climate change mitigation […]
This Research Report explores the issues that matter to dairy farmers in England regarding trees and increasing tree cover on farms. It looks beyond financial considerations to explore the other factors which guide and shape farmer attitudes and behaviours in this area. Understanding the range of values held by farmers in relation to trees allows […]
This paper summarises the social science evidence relating to tenanted farms and woodland creation in Great Britain. It draws on a literature review and a series of nine interviews with key stakeholders to sense check and build on the findings. It focuses on the barriers, opportunities, and questions which relate specifically to tenant farming.
O’Brien, L., McConnachie, S., Hall, C., Forster, J., Dyke, A., Saraev, V., & Jones, G. (2024). ‘Exploring the social and cultural values of trees and woodlands in England: A new composite measure’. People and Nature (online first). https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10644
Petrokofsky G, Dunn M, Edwards D, Harvey WJ, Hemery GE, Marshall H, McConnachie S, Petrokofsky L, Watts K, Ambrose-Oji B. (2024). ‘Development of a Tool for Navigating the Evidence concerning Land Managers and Woodland Creation in the United Kingdom’. Forests. 15(2):299. https://doi.org/10.3390/f15020299