Key rural stakeholders at European, national, regional and local levels lack the knowledge and tools to design future-oriented policies, programmes and services aiming at younger rural generations aged 18-29. Specifically, these stakeholders are faced with the lack of methods and indicators for capturing these youths future visions in multiple domains (e.g. employment). This challenge limits on-the-ground capacity to manage the demands stemming from the dual transition (e.g., rural labour markets transformations), shrinking social services resources and autonomy, rural societies loss of critical mass driven by youth out-migration or risks of worst educational and employment outcomes among rural young people.
This CIG tackles the central problem and all its ramifications through the development of the Future Youth Information for Rural Areas (FYI-R). The FYI-R is a strategic foresight toolbox for anticipating rural young people’s needs and perspectives, co-developed with all stakeholders across 16 European countries. The toolbox constitutes an integral component of the main deliverable of CA18213: the European Rural Youth Observatory (EURYO), a newly created researchassociation dedicated to move rural young people forward through knowledge development. The FYI-R is a hybrid instrument combining a national foresight hub, a permanent web-based survey, visual foresight displays and tailored reporting for end-users. The toolbox development will rely on using COST networking tools for: (a) outreaching key stakeholders who are, often, potential clients; (b) implementing co-production methods, involving top-down and bottom-up approaches – meaning from the decision-making arena to rural young people and their representatives; (c) piloting the FYI-R solution across 16 countries; and (d) ensuring the CIG results exploitation across potential clients and the scientific community. Overall, this CIG encompasses four innovation features in terms of: (1) vision, by following and “alternative futures” perspective for rural areas, whereby multiple scenarios can be explored for policies, programmes and services design, beyond the usual decline and decay narrative about the countryside; (2) delivery method, as the FYI-R toolbox combines web-based deliverance with onsite, nationally based support, as well as multiple reporting instruments that can be tailored to the users’ needs; (3) contextual relevance, with the proposed toolbox being managed by national contact points, decreasing the risks of failing to connect future trends with national/local conditions in the forecasting process; and (4) methods, by ensuring that the FYI-R dimensions are co-produced, something that is unusual in scientific approaches to rurality.
We anticipate that this CIG will meet market-driven outcomes, including established capacity to support stakeholders at all levels in anticipating future trends associated with rural young people and a well-established strategy to ensure the scalability of the FYI-R toolbox. This CIG will also lead to important scientific outcomes, including improved understanding of the channels through which co-production methods can be effectively used in rural settings and established evidence of the knowledge quality provided by the FYI-R toolbox. These outcomes will contribute to one central ambition: to position EURYO as the beacon for forecasting approaches regarding rural young people among potential end-users.