By Dr Annie McKee
Social Researcher
James Hutton Institute
Dr Annie McKee is a qualitative social researcher, working in the Department of Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences (SEGS), at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen.
Annie is an internationally recognised expert in social justice issues relating to land, rural governance, agricultural transitions, and land reform. She has led interdisciplinary research projects and has mobilised scholars from around the world to participate in land reform discussions at the James Hutton Institute. Her research has influenced Scottish Government policy, including the development of ‘A Guide to Joint Ventures with New Entrants’, published by the Scottish Land Commission (see also BBC News Online, 17.5.18). She has also given evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee regarding regulations arising from the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016.
Annie’s PhD research focused on the role of private landownership in facilitating sustainable rural communities in upland Scotland, as part of the ‘Sustainable Estates for the 21st Century’ project. In 2016, she completed an OECD Comparative Research Fellowship, undertaking fieldwork in Central Norway, to identify lessons for Scottish land reform. She has led and contributed to a range of projects commissioned by the Scottish Land Commission, e.g. on new entrants to agriculture and community land ownership, and she was a member of the Scottish Government’s Women in Agriculture Taskforce.
Outwith academia, Annie is currently the convener of Rural Housing Scotland, a national charity which supports community-led housing solutions. She is also a Trustee of Tarland Development Group, leading on the Tarland Community Housing Project, and the secretary of the Andrew Raven Trust, a charity that seeks to support sustainable rural development through facilitating knowledge exchange events. In the future Annie wishes to pursue transdisciplinary research projects that focus on land reform and social justice in land-related issues in the Global North.
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