Research

My research has two main themes that run through it: the first theme is the significance of the household as a site in which decisions are made about provisioning and the importance of household relations in affecting these decisions. I have explored these issues over the past ten years both theoretically and empirically. The theoretical underpinning of my work has been Amartya Sen's Capabilities Approach, using and operationalising concepts of wellbeing to the achievements of capabilities.  I first used these ideas in my PhD work in Western India and since then have developed the application and framework in projects in the UK, Central and Eastern Europe, Jordan and, most recently, Sub-Saharan Africa. Control and use of resources within the household is played out through relations of power: of gender, age and position within the household. The institutions that affect the relations of power are both formal and informal and are thus linked explicitly to systems of governance in rural development.

One stream of work has involved the study of members of micro-business households, mostly in the UK and northern Europe, and the ways in which they achieve wellbeing through the establishment and development of their businesses. The second stream has related more strongly to the household in the natural environment and has been carried out in Central Europe, Jordan and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Most recently I have been exploring household livelihoods through research in the EU funded WHaTeR programme http://whater.eu/  Through projects in Burkina Faso and Ethiopia I have been looking at the ways in which household livelihoods and improved food security of the household relate to the use of water harvesting technologies and the factors that constrain or support the uptake of improved technologies.

The second maor theme of my work has been a developing interest in the practices of interdisciplinarity in academic studies and in particular the application of interdisciplinary research to livelihood creation in rural environments. These interests have been followed through substantive research projects funded under the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme http://www.relu.ac.uk/ . In our first project, Relating physical and social science perspectives on the use of rural catchments  http://relu.data-archive.ac.uk/explore-data/search-browse/project/?ID=RES-224-25-0058 we uncovered and developed the significance of language to the success of interdisciplinary projects. Building on this work went on to explore further the Angling in the Rural Environment  http://relu.data-archive.ac.uk/explore-data/search-browse/project/?ID=RES-227-25-0002 and environmental decision making across borders, both  disciplinary and  institutional, in the Managing borderlands: adaptive decision making among specialists and non-specialists http://relu.data-archive.ac.uk/explore-data/search-browse/project/?ID=RES-240-25-0020 .

Research council funded projects have been complemented by a number of shorter pieces of work for DEFRA and local environmental stakeholders such as Cheviot Futures http://www.cheviotfutures.co.uk/phpdocuments/63.pdf .

Publications

• Bunclark L, Gowing J, Oughton E, Ouattara K, Ouoba S, Benao D. Understanding farmers’ decisions on adaptation to climate change: Exploring adoption of water harvesting technologies in Burkina Faso. Global Environmental Change 2018, 48, 243-254.
• Reed MS, Vella S, Challies E, de Vente J, Frewer L, Hohenwallner-Ries D, Huber T, Neumann RK, Oughton EA, Sidoli del Ceno J, van Delden H. A theory of participation: What makes stakeholder and public engagement in environmental management work?. Restoration Ecology 2018, 26(S1), S7-S17.
• Cook B, Forrester J, Bracken L, Spray C, Oughton E. Competing paradigms of flood management in the Scottish/English borderlands. Disaster Prevention and Management 2016, 25(3), 314-328.
• Bracken LJ, Oughton EA, Donaldson A, Cook B, Forrester J, Spray C, Cinderby S, Passmore D, Bissett N. Flood risk management, an approach to managing crossborder hazards. Natural Hazards 2016, 82(Supp. 2), 217-240.
• Bracken LJ, Oughton EA. How to make sense of our rivers: using assemblage to understand angling. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water 2014, 2014(1), 315-322.
• Bracken LJ, Oughton EA. Making sense of policy implementation: the construction and uses of expertise and evidence in managing freshwater environments. Environmental Science & Policy 2013, 30, 10-18.
• Bell S, Vanner R, Oughton EA, Emery SB, Lock K, Cole L. Defra NE0109 Social Research Evidence Review to Inform Natural Environment Policy. Final Project Report to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. London: Policy Studies Institute - Defra, 2011.
• Emery SB, Oughton EA. Interventions in managing environment conflicts: what works, in what contexts and why? Final report to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. London: Policy Studies Institute - Defra, 2011.
• Baines S, Wheelock J, Oughton E. Working life in rural micro-enterprises: Old forms of organisation in the new economy. In: Southern, A, ed. Enterprise, Deprivation and Social Exclusion: The Role of Small Business in Addressing Social and Economic Inequalities. London: Routledge, 2011, pp.142-157.
• Ness M, Brennan M, Oughton E, Ritson C, Ruto E. Modelling consumer behavioural intentions towards food with implications for marketing quality low-input and organic food. Food Quality and Preference 2010, 21(1), 100-111.
• Bracken L, Oughton E. Interdisciplinarity within and beyond geography: Introduction to special section. Area 2009, 41(4), 371-373.
• Oughton E, Bracken L. Interdisciplinary research: Framing and reframing. Area 2009, 41(4), 385-394.
• Oughton EA, Wheelock J. Conservation in context: A view from below - implementation of conservation policies on the North York Moors. In: Keulartz, Jozef and Leistra, Gilbert, ed. Legitimacy in European nature conservation policy: case studies in multilevel governance. Netherlands: Springer, 2008, pp.159-176.
• Bock BB, Shortall S, Oughton E. Rural gender relations issues and case studies. European Review of Agricultural Economics 2007, 34(2), 290-293.
• Oughton EA, Wheelock J. Provisioning as the fundamental economic problem: the implications for a social economics of the household. In: Clary B. J. Dolfsma W. Figart D.M, ed. Ethics and the Market: Insights from Social Economics. 2006.
• Korf B, Oughton EA. Rethinking the European countryside-can we learn from the South?. Journal of Rural Studies 2006, 22(3), 278-289.
• Oughton EA, Wheelock J. The relationship between consumption and production: conceptualizing well-being inside the household. In: Clary, B.J.; Dolfsma, W.; Figart, D.M, ed. Ethics and the market: insights from social economics. London: Routledge, 2006, pp.98-111.
• Bracken LJ, Oughton EA. 'What do you mean?' The importance of language in developing interdisciplinary research. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2006, 31(3), 371-382.
• Oughton EA, Wheelock J. A capabilities approach to sustainable household livelihoods. Review of Social Economy 2003, 61(1), 1-22.
• Wheelock J, Oughton EA, Baines S. Getting by with a little help from your family: Toward a policy-relevant model of the household. Feminist Economics 2003, 9(1), 19-45.
• Oughton EA, Wheelock J, Baines S. Micro-businesses and social inclusion in rural households: A comparative analysis. Sociologia Ruralis 2003, 43(4), 331-348.
• Wheelock J, Oughton EA. The household as a focus for research. In: Mutari, E. and Figart, D.M, ed. Women and the economy: a reader. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc, 2003, pp.138-146.
• Magnussen T, Baines S, Wheelock J, Oughton EA, Ljunggren EC, Pettersen LT. Work and employment in rural, non-farming micro-businesses: a return to old ways of working?. In: Andersson K; Eklund E; Granberg L; Marsden T, ed. Rural Development as Policy and Practice. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 2003, pp.91-114.
• Baines S, Wheelock J, Oughton EA. A household based approach to the small business family. In: Fletcher DE, ed. Understanding the Small Business Family. London: Routledge, 2002, pp.168-179.
• Baines S, Wheelock J, Oughton EA. A household based approach to the small family business. In: Fletcher DE, ed. Understanding the Small Family Business. London: Routledge, 2002, pp.168-179.
• Wheelock J, Oughton EA. The household in the economy. In: Himmelweit, S., Simonetti, R. and Trigg, A, ed. Microeconomics: neoclassical and institutionalist perspectives on economic behaviour. London: Thomson Learning, 2001, pp.113-141.