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The Centre for Hate Studies at the Â鶹ÊÓƵ was awarded funding from the Leverhulme Trust to lead a major new study entitled The Rural Racism Project: Towards an Inclusive Countryside (2023–2025). This large-scale research project, led by Professor Neil Chakraborti, Professor Corinne Fowler and Dr Amy Clarke, challenges dominant depictions of rural England as peaceful, neutral and apolitical by investigating the realities of racism experienced by minoritised ethnic individuals and communities in rural spaces, in order to understand how racism is expressed in rural contexts.

The research team share further details below and outline how their evidence contributes to national debates on race, belonging, rural identity and access to countryside spaces.

Why does this research matter?

Racism in the UK is often portrayed as an urban issue. As a result, the specific ways it manifests within rural spaces are frequently overlooked, minimised, or denied. However, the countryside can be a site of deep racial exclusion and symbolic contestation, despite the enduring but misleading imagery typically used to convey idyllic, problem-free rural environments.

What does the research involve?

To address critical gaps in knowledge and policy, The Rural Racism Project employed a multi-strand qualitative methodology to explore the nature, impacts and expressions of racism in rural England. The research centres the voices of individuals from racially minoritised backgrounds, as well as white rural residents and allies, to foreground their lived experiences of exclusion, belonging and resistance within the countryside.

Spanning 115 interviews and informal conversations with individuals who live in, work in or visit rural spaces,. the study provided rich insights into everyday experiences of racism, including microaggressions, institutional harms and community responses. In addition, the project analysed public discourse surrounding race in rural contexts by examining approximately 193,000 words of user-generated content from social media platforms and news sites. This analysis uncovered patterns of denial, deflection and backlash that often follow public engagement with rural racism.

Crucially, the project adopted a community-informed, co-produced approach by recruiting 20 Community Research Partners from White and minoritised ethnic backgrounds. These partners played a central role in shaping research questions, gathering data and producing creative outputs that explored the cultural and symbolic dimensions of rural exclusion. This included analysis of contested placenames, minority ethnic narratives and the aesthetic representation of rural life.

Together, these strands offer a comprehensive and intersectional account of how racism is articulated, experienced and embedded within rural landscapes. By bringing hidden stories to the surface, the project challenges romanticised narratives of rural England and provides an evidence base for more inclusive policy, practice and cultural engagement.

How will the research catalyse change?

Drawing directly from participant testimonies and co-produced insights, the research offers a platform for more inclusive narratives to support change across multiple sectors and to reshape national conversations about race and inclusion in rural England. 

To increase public understanding and institutional engagement, project outputs include a series of presentations, webinars and public-facing reports tailored to policymakers, rural planners and community stakeholders. These highlight the key barriers to racial inclusion in rural spaces and outline evidence-based recommendations for improving access, representation, and safety.

In collaboration with Community Research Partners, the project also delivers a creative programme of outputs—including photography, audio storytelling and place-based reflections—which will be showcased through a film, reports and events. These artistic expressions offer powerful, accessible ways to challenge dominant portrayals of the countryside.

Our Reports and Executive Summaries

The three reports and executive summaries below summarise the most significant findings from the project and provides evidence-based insights to challenge racism and make the countryside an inclusive environment for all:

1. Unpacking Experiences of Hostility: Assesses the ways in which minoritised groups are included and excluded in rural environments, and the impacts that this has on individuals and communities.
   Read the Executive Summary (PDF, 243kb)
   Read the Report (PDF, 107MB)
2. Unpacking Expressions of Hostility: Explores the historical, cultural and symbolic expressions of racism in rural locations through arts-based media to produce more inclusive narratives about rural life.
   Read the Executive Summary (PDF, 201kb)
   Read the Report (PDF, 54MB)
3. Unpacking the Backlash: Identifies the underpinning factors that trigger hostile reactions to the exposure of rural racism through the analysis of public reactions to issues of ‘race’ within rural environments.
   Read the Executive Summary (PDF, 227kb)
   Read the Report (PDF, 2.25MB)

The Rural Racism Project Film

Produced by Feel Good Films, this short film follows the lives of three minoritised ethnic people living in rural England and features the testimonies of participants who generously shared their stories. The film brings to life key findings from The Rural Racism Project: Towards an Inclusive Countryside, exploring themes of racism, belonging and identity in rural spaces.

Creative Contributions of Community Research Partners

As part of the Rural Racism Project, we invited a number of people to become our community research partners. They were drawn from a range of ethnicities, communities, age groups, and rural settings across England. The community research partners responded to an open call for research volunteers with knowledge and experience of living or visiting the countryside. These partners produced a wide range of creative and reflective work, including articles, blogs, poetry, podcasts, film and photography. Their contributions were shaped through reflection on personal experience, encounters with rural places and ongoing dialogue with the research team. We share a selection of their creative contributions below:

Read Emily Zobel Marshall's Poem Anansi's Tongue (PDF, 68kb)

Read Emily Zobel Marshall's Poem Rock Cakes (PDF, 121kb)

Read Emma Glasgow's Blog Article (PDF, 110kb)

Read Kate Bernstock's Critical Inventive Poem Maria from Penryn (PDF, 103kb)

Read Niellah Arboine's The History of Breadfruit (PDF, 112kb)

Watch Jake Bower's film This Land:

The team

This project is led by Professor Neil Chakraborti (Principal Investigator) and co-led by Professor Corinne Fowler and Dr Amy Clarke (Co-Investigators). Dr Rachel Keighley, Dr Adrian Yip, and Dr Viji Kuppan are Postdoctoral Research Associates on the project, with Mulka Nisic as Research Officer. The project has also worked closely with a network of Community Research Partners and contributors from across England.

Contact

For any questions or more information about the project, please contact us at ruralracism@leicester.ac.uk.