As part of the Sustainable Households seedcorn funding, researchers at the University of St Andrews, the University of Edinburgh and the James Hutton Institute ran a workshop around ‘Mapping and Understanding Van Dwelling in Scotland’. Our motivations for running this workshop stemmed from shared academic interests in sustainable living, community development and small-scale living, and personal interests in van dwelling. The workshop was held in Dundee in July and was attended by a range of participants including van dwellers, academics, and representatives from tourism, and land and conversation-focussed organisations. A visual note taker was also present throughout the workshop to create a large-scale illustration of the workshop discussions.
We were keen to explore the experiences and extent of van dwelling across Scotland, from a range of perspectives. Van dwelling is the practice of living in a van (including campervan, motorhome, caravan, unconverted van), for extended periods of time (i.e. more than a holiday). Discussions of Van Dwelling has spawned a TV series on BBC Scotland, been featured on BBC Radio Woman’s Hour, and covered in countless media articles. It has caught the public imagination as an ‘alternative’ lifestyle of freedom, simplicity and sometimes, sustainability. Beyond the growth of popular accounts, little reliable evidence exists about van dwelling in Scotland including the extent to which it is a permanent or temporary arrangement for people, by choice or necessity. The impacts that van dwelling has on the individual ‘resident’ and the specific places of dwelling are also not well understood, although some academic scholarship on Van Dwelling is emerging from other parts of the world.
To facilitate our discussions, we used creative methods from ‘serious play’ including personas, scenario cards and models to better understand the range of views and experiences that exist within van dwelling.
Initial reflections from our workshop include how we might undertake future research with van dwellers, the necessity for greater evidence-sharing about van dwelling (what evidence matters, and who needs it for what purpose), and that there are a diverse range of challenges and opportunities van dwelling (and similar styles of living) present for both Van dwellers residents and wider supporting organisations.
For next steps, we are currently analysing the findings from our workshop, with the aims of:
a) writing up a report for the participants
b) building these findings into a larger scale research funding bid to be submitted later this year.
This work has also been made possible with the help of two research assistants who have been undertaking a review of the relevant literature which will inform our future research bid.
We are very grateful to our workshops participants for giving up their time and expertise, and to the funders for giving us the opportunity to undertake a seedcorn project in what is for us a new and exciting area of research.
Anonymised drawing of the participants undertaking the workshop game (credit: Katrina Swanton)
Research Team – Drs Rachel Hunt, Louise Reid, Rachel Creaney (credit: Katrina Swanton)
