Journal of Rural and Community Development
Not a member yet
598 research outputs found
Sort by
Influencing Government Decision Makers Through Facilitative Communication via Community-Produced Videos: The Case of Remote Aboriginal Communities in Northwestern Ontario, Canada
Get PDFIn Canada’s diverse, vast landscape approximately one fifth of the population lives
in small rural/remote communities. The capacity of these communities to influence
policy and program development that directly impacts them has historically been
minimal because policy is often influenced by an urban bias and a lack of
sensitivity to their needs and uniqueness. Drawing on the literature on development
communications, with a special emphasis on the Fogo Process as a historical
antecedent, this study examines how community-produced videos influenced
decision makers with regard to information and communication technology policy
and programs, and the impact they have had on Aboriginal communities in
Northwestern Ontario. Semistructured interviews were conducted of 22 decision
makers who had seen the videos. Decision makers reported that (1) communityproduced
videos provide a highly valuable context for policy makers about
communities; (2) videos can be used to inform and galvanize federal staff working in
the service of these communities who might not otherwise have the opportunity to
visit these communities or meet their inhabitants; (3) community-produced videos
are a legitimate and effective way of providing qualitative data for policy-making
processes; (4) videos can serve as an organizing structure or event around which
senior bureaucrats and politicians can form policy directives and influence other
policy makers; and (5) videos have the potential to influence policy makers, thereby
shifting the direction of policy in response to community needs and aspirations.
Key words: telecommunication, remote communities, Aboriginal communities,
participatory video, policy communicatio
Resistant, Flexible, Diverse: Revaluing Rare Farm Animal Breeds As Countryside Capital
Get PDFThis article explores the past, present, and potential contributions of rare and indigenous farm animal breeds to countryside capital, a concept emerging in discussions of rural tourism. Older breeds of farm animals, evolving with human societies and adapting to a broad range of climatic and landscape conditions, have played multiple essential roles in the development of communities throughout the world and continue to offer vital products and services to societies living in marginal areas of the planet today. As such, older farm animal breeds embody unique genetic traits and rich cultural heritage of actual and future value to rural communities seeking to adapt and diversify, often into tourism, in today‘s climate of uncertainty. Potential contributions of heritage farm animals are discussed in relation to agrotourism and last-chance tourism, with a focus on the Newfoundland pony and Canadienne cow, two of Canada‘s indigenous and rare farm animal breeds.
Keywords: rural geography, animal geographies, indigenous breeds, agrotourism, last-chance touris
A Critical Analysis of Ontario's Resource-Based Tourism Policy
Get PDFConflicts between resource-based industries and resource-based tourism are commonplace, complex, and long lived. The Resource-Based Tourism Policy (Government of Ontario, 1997) was one of a number of documents produced by the Government of Ontario in response to such conflicts in Northern Ontario, Canada. Yet in the 13 years since the policy was produced, there has been no research to examine either the impact or effectiveness of this document in achieving its stated goal: “to promote and encourage the development of the Ontario resource-based tourism industry in both an ecologically and economically sustainable manner” (Government of Ontario, 1997, p. 1). This article reviews the context within which the policy operates, summarizes the policy document, and questions both the impact and effectiveness of the Resource-Based Tourism Policy based on five critiques: (a) the level of transparency, collaboration, and representation in the policy’s development; (b) the unity of the policy direction and actions; (c) the incorporation of science into proposed policy solutions; (d) the adaptability of the policy to changing industry and contextual trends; and (e) the completeness of the policy’s implementation. In conclusion, we suggest that it is time to revisit, reexamine, adapt, and update this policy document in consideration of current trends in the industry and contextual factors.
Keywords: policy critique, resource-based tourism, Ontario, resource conflic
Firefighters Volunteering Beyond Their Duty: An Essential Asset in Rural Communities
Get PDFFire departments are essential assets in American rural communities. The current
study aims to understand the motivations and the personal, organizational, and
communal aspects that drive firefighters (both paid and volunteers) to engage in
additional voluntary community work. Their volunteer activity challenges existing
theories on motivation to volunteer, since these firefighters already have what most
volunteers seek (e.g., recognition and satisfaction). Two focus groups of
firefighters were assembled in which volunteer and career firefighters shared their
perceptions about their communities and the work they do for them. Qualitative
data analysis showed that leadership, attitudinal commitment, a strong sense of
affiliation, altruism, and a sense of community all influenced firefighters’
perceptions and motivations.
Key words: firefighters, community, volunteer, focus groups, asset-based
community developmen
Fostering Innovation in Sustainable Tourism
Get PDFSustainable tourism development has been a topic of considerable research and policy reflection across Canada for the past two decades. Sustainability is especially important to people in rural areas, since tourism products often rely on sensitive natural and cultural resources. In order to encourage the adoption of sustainable tourism practices among operators, research was conducted by a collaboration of four tertiary institutions in the Fostering Innovation in Sustainable Tourism Project. The team conducted a study in the spring of 2009 to (a) determine attitudes of tourism operators toward sustainability; (b) assess the extent and type of sustainable tourism practices adopted by operators; (c) understand the influences on the adoption of sustainability practices, including motivators and barriers; and (d) determine ways to support the adoption of sustainability practices among tourism operators. An online survey was administered and interviews were conducted with rural operators throughout the Canadian province of British Columbia. Results showed an overall strong ?pro-sustainability? attitude among respondents. Dominant barriers identified were lack of available money to invest, lack of incentive programs, other business priorities, and limited access to suppliers of sustainable products, with the most common recommendation being the need for incentive programs to encourage businesses to become more sustainable. The results also indicate differences in adoption behaviour among three groups of operators: those who have fully committed, those who have piloted a few strategies, and those who have not. Understanding differences in adoption of sustainable practices using innovation theory may help to support the development of programs and policies that can be used as incentives to create behaviour change among tourism operators, thereby furthering collective efforts toward sustainable tourism development
Community Banking for All: Rural Women's Savings and Loan Scheme in St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Get PDFThis paper presents a model for an indigenous community-based banking system
that also provides microcredit for rural women in the small remote village of
Fancy, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. This model of a savings and loan scheme,
the Fancy Help Group Loan Scheme, was established in 2003 by the women of
the community-based women’s organization the Fancy Community Help Group
as a strategic response to the economic realities in St. Vincent and the
Grenadines, which include the difficulties rural women face in accessing loans
and credit from financial institutions in the formal banking sector.
The only known example of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean, the
Fancy Help Group Loan Scheme has also been an innovative way for women to
assist each other to achieve some measure of economic independence through
their own efforts and industry on the basis of mutual support, mutual trust, and
mutual sharing.
Key words: Caribbean; Fancy, St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Fancy Community
Help Group; microcredit; rural savings and loan schemes; rural wome
"At Risk" of Being Rural? The Experience of Rural Youth in a Risk Society
Get PDFThis paper uses data from a researcher-designed longitudinal survey of youth to
examine factors associated with whether rural youth return to or stay in their home
communities or a similar rural community. It discusses the effects of this decision
to be a young adult in a rural community. A qualitative analysis expands the more
quantitative one in order to document how rural youth articulate what it means to
be rural in relation to educational and/or career choices. Drawing on risk-society
discourse and study, the paper argues that what remains largely hidden to date is
that the features of the risk society, including greater uncertainty, fragmentation of
and increasingly individualized life-course transition processes, have mostly
ignored the fact that rural youth remain at greater comparative risk than their urban
counterparts. Our analysis suggests that, despite feeling satisfied with their
personal and family life and despite seeing home and family as important, many
rural youth now frame their rurality and their choice to live in their home
communities as failures, either in relation to education and/or to occupation and
career. In the absence of systemic solutions to mitigate and address the risks of
staying home for rural youth, many individuals, we find, embody socioeconomic
problems as an inability to “get very far.” They often see themselves as having few
options. Our findings suggest that more attention is needed on what it is about our
ideas of modernity and urban mobility, evidenced in notions of the risk society,
which leads so many rural youth to leave their home communities, or to be
dissatisfied with their opportunities if they opt to stay.
Key words: rural youth, risk, life-course transitions, education, mobilit
The Leisure Style of Canadian Rural Recreation Participants
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to investigate the leisure styles of rural recreationists in Canada. The study involved a secondary analysis of data from a previous study, with a sample of 248 Canadians, which gathered data on four dimensions of leisure style: time use, leisure setting, leisure activity participation, and leisure motivation (Heintzman & Mannell, 2003). Correlation analyses were conducted on the data to determine if frequency of participation in three rural leisure settings was related to other dimensions of leisure style. The analysis revealed the following: Nonurban Natural Area Visitors were characterized by participation in outdoor, cultural, social, and travel and tourism activities, motivated by stimulus-avoidance motivations, and had a preference for other natural leisure settings in addition to nonurban natural areas; Pastoral/Rural Visitors were characterized by participation in outdoor, cultural, social, hobby, and personal development activities, motivated by intellectual and competence-mastery motivations, and had a preference for nonurban natural areas, cottage or lodge settings, urban and near-urban natural areas, and quiet urban recreation areas in addition to pastoral/rural areas; Cottage and Lodge Setting Visitors were characterized by participation in outdoor, cultural, social, sports, and travel and tourism activities, motivated by competence-mastery and social motivations, and had a preference for pastoral/rural areas in addition to cottage and lodge settings.
Keywords: rural recreation, leisure style, natural areas, pastoral areas, cottage
Examining the Use of Student Extension Tours to Expose the Costs and Benefits of Tourism to Rural Communities
Get PDFThis article focuses on the use of student extension tours to understand the realities of tourism development in the rural context through dialogue with community and business leaders. The examples provided will be drawn from three tours that took place within British Columbia from 2006 to 2008. In an extension tour, the learning environment is expanded outside of the classroom as a group of faculty and students (usually from a number of tertiary institutions) venture into rural communities. In this project, the focus of extension activity was to (a) give students from typically urban backgrounds the opportunity to gain insight through a “rural lens”; (b) connect rural community operators and local/municipal government agencies with resources from the academic sector; and (c) initiate dialogue about the realities of tourism in rural Canada. Theoretically, the notion of extension tours follows along the continuum of Kolb?s (1984) experiential learning cycle, with a modification that such a cycle links to both individual students and the wider communities with which they interact. Students, as future industry leaders, learned to apply their book knowledge to real life in a rural setting. During their experience they became more aware of the costs and benefits, challenges, and opportunities of and for tourism in rural areas. Upon reflection that took place each evening, students were able to generalize what should or could be done differently or better. They then applied these lessons in the next community along the route. Through a number of mechanisms this knowledge was then fed back to participants on the other side of the dialogue (community members/operators/local and municipal government), both in immediate and longer-term ways.
Keywords: extension tours, tourism development, rural communitie
Recreation in Remote communities: A Case Study of a Nova Scotia Village
No full textWith diverse living conditions and distinctive natural environments, remote rural communities typically foster a unique way of life, which are often displayed through leisure activities. As rural communities feel the effects of globalization and population decline, the leisure styles of community residents change. This paper examines recreation in the lifestyles of rural residents living in remote communities. The purpose of this study is to highlight the unique lifestyles of rural residents in the fishing village of Newport, Nova Scotia, Canada. Specifically, this study explores the leisure styles of community members in one remote community over a 30-year period during which time the economy has changed from being dependent on resource extraction to resource appreciation. Data were gathered using multiple techniques, including content analysis, focus groups, and key stakeholder interviews. The findings indicate that community members are not engaged with one another, as each cohort in the community indicates varying leisure pursuits. There is a strong level of individualized recreational activities for the youth and young adult males, leading to segregation from the community. The senior cohort group provides recreation for itself, while adult men and women appear to have limited to no time for recreation, due to work, family, and household obligations. The residents of Newport report placing high value on community recreational activity, yet no segment of the population is willing to provide the leadership to facilitate recreational opportunities. We conclude that individualized pursuits, coupled with the limited recreational opportunities in the community, have limited the sense of community cohesiveness in Newport. Further research is needed to find out whether this is the case with other rural communities in Canada.
Keywords: rural communities, leisure styles, sense of community, cohesio