As my research continues to take shape and develop, here is a handy overview of the key frameworks behind it and some exciting next steps.
Research question:
How does social capital influence environmental stewardship and sustainable business development in protected landscapes, and in what ways can the Community Capitals Framework (CCF) be applied to assess and enhance governance outcomes in the Cornwall National Landscape (CNL) five-year plan?
Research Aim:
Explore the tensions between mandatory sustainable business growth and conservation within Cornwall’s National Landscape (formerly Cornwall AONB). Understand how social capital influences environmental stewardship and sustainable business development within protected landscapes, using the Cornwall National Landscape (CNL) as a primary case study.
Why?
This research responds to a novel and essential challenge in UK environmental governance:
How can protected landscapes historically designed for conservation and recreation also act as drivers of local economic resilience and community wellbeing, without compromising their ecological integrity?
Overview of the research
This research examines how social capital influences environmental stewardship and sustainable business development within the Cornwall National Landscape (CNL). Social capital is the networks, trust, relationships, and norms that enable people and organisations to work effectively together, the glue that holds a community together.
The study uses the Community Capitals Framework (CCF) to explore how governance structures, partnerships, and resource flows intersect across natural, cultural, social, financial, built, political, and human capitals. Applying CCF across CNL areas ensures context-sensitive governance that aligns environmental goals with local livelihoods and identities.
The novelty of this study lies in developing a social-capital-informed sustainability framework that can help protected landscapes act as drivers of local economic resilience and community wellbeing, without compromising their ecological integrity.
Why the Community Capitals Framework (CCF)?
The CCF provides a structured way to examine how natural, social, human, cultural, financial, built, and political capitals interact. It is especially relevant in Cornwall, where the strength of the landscape is often balanced against limited public funding, volunteer reliance, and the need for community-driven stewardship.
Using CCF will allow the study to identify:
Where capital strengths can be leveraged.
Where capital deficits restrict plan delivery.
How building social and political capital could unlock better environmental and economic outcomes.
Why Social Capital?:
Social capital reveals what enables or blocks effective joint working between agencies, communities, businesses, and volunteers.
Shows how policies are adapted locally, depending on the quality of relationships and communication channels.
Operational asset, not just a theory, directly influencing stewardship, business development, and community wellbeing in protected landscapes.
Why governance matters
Recent national and local political changes create a fluid
governance context, making it possible to see how shifting priorites shape
environmental stewardship in real time. This is valuable for the research
question because it allows a direct examination of how governance conditions
affect sustainable development in protected landscapes.
For this thesis, which asks how social capital shapes
environmental stewardship and sustainable development in the Cornwall National
Landscape (CNL), these governance dynamics present a rare opportunity. They
allow for the examination of how trust, collaboration, networks, and
cross-sector relationships either buffer or amplify the effects of political
shifts. This is particularly novel because few studies analyse a protected
landscape operating through a unitary council, bordered by multi-tier authorities
and cross-county complexities.
This establishes the CNL as a compelling site for advancing
theoretical and practical understandings of landscape governance.
Proposed focus areas
To reflect the geographical, cultural, and socio-economic heterogeneity of Cornwall, four contrasting case study sites have been selected.
Given the distinctive character of all 12 CNL areas, it is not feasible, within the scope and capacity of this research, to undertake full social-capital analysis across the entire area. Selecting four differing case-study areas enables sufficiently deep, context-specific exploration while still allowing meaningful cross-site comparison to identify shared patterns and important variations.
Tamar Valley
Cross-border, multi-authority governance presents opportunities for collaborative working.
Peri-urban pressures from Plymouth highlight tensions and opportunities around land use, access, and landscape protection.
St Agnes & North Coast
Biodiversity significance and intense visitor pressure create a dynamic space for studying community stewardship and visitor management partnerships.
A highly active local community offers insight into grassroots delivery.
Bodmin Moor
Upland area of moorland which presents a differing economic and geological landscape.
Traditional farming systems and common land governance provide rich examples of natural, cultural and social capital in action.
Highlights rural service provision and environmental management challenges.
West Penwith
Strong cultural identity and thriving but seasonal visitor economy.
Area of significant industrial heritage.
Issues around housing, service provision, and social cohesion reveal how financial, cultural and social capital interact.
What the research will deliver
A map of stakeholder networks, trust dynamics, and partner relationships.
Analysis of how governance arrangements (unitary Cornwall vs cross-border areas like Tamar Valley and Hartland) influence delivery.
Recommendations for strengthening partnership working, community engagement, and sustainable business development.
A refined CCF-based model for protected landscape governance that can inform future iterations of the CNL Management Plan.
Next Steps
Align early fieldwork with ongoing or upcoming projects where governance dynamics can be observed.
Key References:
If you wanted to do some more reading of your own then here are some great sources to get started with:
Emery, M. & Flora, C.B. (2006) ‘Spiraling-Up: Mapping Community Transformation with the Community Capitals Framework’, Community Development, 37(1), pp. 19–35.
Seminal CCF paper showing how bonding/bridging social capital catalyses gains across all seven capitals, offering a rigorous logic model to trace “spiraling-up” community change. (Accessed 17 Oct 2025).
Fine, B. (2001) Social Capital versus Social Theory: Political Economy and Social Science at the Turn of the Millennium. London: Routledge.
Gkartzios, M., Scott, M. & Gallent, N. (2022) ‘A capitals framework for rural areas: “Place-planning” the periphery’, Land Use Policy, 116, 106058.
Extends capitals thinking in UK/European rural planning, clarifying how planning instruments interact with capitals, bridging theory and spatial governance relevant to AONB/National Landscape contexts. (Accessed 17 Oct 2025).
Pretty, J. & Ward, H. (2001) ‘Social Capital and the Environment’, World Development, 29(2), pp. 209–227.
Classic environment–society analysis defining social capital (trust, reciprocity, norms) and evidencing how participatory groups improve environmental outcomes. (Accessed 17 Oct 2025).
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