“Locking antlers”: considerations on conflicted issues around deer management in the Scottish uplands

An article in the new issue of the Journal of Rural Studies looks at ‘conflicts over the use and management of rural land, wildlife and other natural resources’. Authors Callum Leavey-Wilson, Janet Fisher and Sam Staddon look at ‘multiple layers of contention, beyond the issues that are most readily observable’.

Their focus is on ‘upland deer management in the Scottish Highlands, which has been the subject of fierce debate for many years’. They say that ‘drawing on the perspectives of a wide range of stakeholders and applying an adapted ‘levels of conflict’ framework, we show that whilst the superficial manifestation of this dispute concerns deer numbers, their impacts and methods of management, beneath this sit underlying factors of historical controversy, blame and mistrust between parties as well as tensions around the individual and collective identities of stakeholders in a changing rural landscape’.

Callum and his colleagues carried out some of their research for this piece through observing and relating to the Finding the Common Ground programme which was facilitated by Centre for Good Relations. We are pleased to see such thoughtful consideration of the issues published in a well-known and highly regarded academic journal (click here to read the piece).