Journal of Rural and Community Development
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An Importance-Performance Analysis Of the Motivations Behind Agritourism and Other Farm Enterprise Developments in Canada
Get PDFChallenging conditions in the current agricultural context have encouraged farmers to develop agritourism and other enterprises on their farmland. Previous research suggests that a complex set of personal and economic goals drive the creation and maintenance of agritourism and other on-farm diversification ventures. However, the extent to which those goals are accomplished has not been verified. This study employs an importance-performance analysis (IPA) to examine the level of accomplishment of different goals driving agritourism and on-farm entrepreneurial development in Canada. IPA shows that goals with high levels of both importance and accomplishment are "to continue farming," "to enhance personal/family quality of life," "to increase or diversify the market," and "to respond to a market need or opportunity." Further, results show differences in goals between agritourism and other types of farm entrepreneurs. Study findings suggest that extension agents can focus on the operator goals considered to be most important and to yield higher levels of accomplishment as they promote agritourism and other farm enterprises. These results have important implications for rural well-being, as agritourism is suggested to keep family farms economically feasible and revitalize local communities.
Keywords: agritourism, farm enterprise diversification, rural tourism, importance-performance analysis, rural well-being, goa
Communities in Transition: Changing Views On Tourism Development as a Vehicle For Economic Diversification In Northern Ontario, Canada
Get PDFIn recent years, an increasing number of protected areas have been established as an attempt to preserve the biodiversity of coastal and terrestrial ecosystems. In Canada, government agencies have set a goal to increase the number of protected areas by establishing more national/provincial parks, marine protected areas (MPAs), national wildlife areas, marine wildlife areas, and migratory bird sanctuaries. Many of these protected areas are being created in rural areas where there is a heavy dependence on natural resources for survival. Recently in Ontario the first National Marine Conservation Area (NMCA) was established on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Due to recent global changes that have affected the resource-based economy in Canada, many rural communities have turned to developing their tourism attributes to diversify their economy. The purpose of this case study is to examine how community stakeholders‘ views toward tourism have changed over the course of the development of the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area (LSNMCA). Findings indicated that since the LSNMCA initiative was first introduced, local attitudes have positively changed toward the potential of tourism development in the area; such shifts coincide with the decline and restructuring of the region‘s resource-based industries.
Keywords: protected areas, tourism, rural and resource-based communities, Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area (LSNMCA
Troubling Contexts: Toward a Generative Theory of Rurality as Education Research
Get PDFMarsden (2006) suggests that rurality as a signifier is transformative, capable of changing behaviour and affecting the motivation of teachers, community workers, and learners. Research from the Rural Teacher Education Project in South Africa, which informs our argument in this article, demonstrates that the very generative and transformative nature of rurality serves both to inform but also to delimit the effectiveness of intervention programs designed, often with the best of intentions in mind, for education, health care, job creation, and poverty alleviation. This article asserts that a theory of rurality needs to take account of contemporary theories of globalization and society, drawing from the sociological as well as the postcolonial accounts of identity and environment. What emerges in this article is what we have termed a “generative theory of rurality,” in which the dynamic interaction between variables allows for both a descriptive and an analytical framework for data emanating from, and located within, research in rural areas
Building Collaborative Capacity for Research and Influencing Policy: The Rural Communities Impacting Policy (RCIP) Project
Get PDFBuilding Collaborative Capacity For Research and Influencing Policy: The Rural Communities Impacting Policy Project
Abstract
Many rural communities in Canada face significant threats to health and sustainability; however, the people who live in rural communities are often excluded from policy decisions on key determinants of their communities’ development and well-being. The goal of the Rural Communities Impacting Policy (RCIP) Project in Nova Scotia, Canada, was to increase the capacity of rural communities and organizations in Nova Scotia to access and use social science research in their efforts to influence and develop public policies relevant to health and sustainability in rural communities. “Capacity building” is a feature of government discourse related to rural communities in Canada, but it is not clear what the substance of capacity building is or how it might play out in terms of rural development. This article explores various dimensions of capacity building in the RCIP Project, with the intention of providing a preliminary framework for the analysis of capacity building in collaborative initiatives related to rural health and sustainability.
The framework focuses on building capacity for civic engagement in rural development, drawing on literature in the fields of health promotion and public health and an emerging framework for measuring capacity building in food security in Nova Scotia and Canada. Key dimensions of capacity building in the RCIP project included the creation of a cohesive internal environment where trusting relationships were developed, the development and strengthening of linkages between the RCIP coalition and other rural development stakeholders, the generation of research evidence, and the provision of opportunities for critical analysis and action planning on community-identified policy issues. The framework could be used by federal and provincial agencies and by other community-university-government collaborations seeking to improve citizen participation and increase individual, organizational, and collaborative capacity to support broad participation in rural policy development.
Renforcement des capacités de collaboration pour faciliter la recherche et influer sur les politiques : le projet Rural Communities Impacting Policy (RCIP)
Résumé
Au Canada, de nombreuses collectivités rurales font face à des menaces importantes en terme de santé et de viabilité. Malgré cela, les résidants de ces collectivités sont souvent exclus de la prise de décision sur les politiques touchant des éléments clés de leur développement et de leur mieux-être. Le projet Rural Communities Impacting Policy (RCIP), mis en oeuvre en Nouvelle-Écosse, au Canada, avait pour but d’améliorer la capacité des collectivités et des organisations rurales en Nouvelle-Écosse de consulter et d’utiliser les résultats de recherches en sciences humaines pour influer sur les politiques qui contribuent à la santé et à la viabilité des collectivités ou pour élaborer de telles politiques. Le « renforcement des capacités » est un élément important du discours gouvernemental sur les communautés rurales, mais on ne sait pas exactement en quoi il consiste ni de quelle façon l’aborder dans un contexte de développement rural. Cet article étudie divers aspects du renforcement des capacités relativement au projet RCIP et vise à fournir un cadre préliminaire pour analyser le renforcement des capacités lors d’initiatives de collaboration touchant la santé et la viabilité dans les collectivités rurales.
Le cadre est axé sur le renforcement des capacités pour favoriser la participation de la société civile dans le développement rural et s’appuie sur des études existantes dans les domaines de la promotion de la santé et de la santé publique ainsi que sur un nouveau cadre servant à mesurer le renforcement des capacités dans le domaine de la sécurité alimentaire en Nouvelle-Écosse et au Canada. Le renforcement des capacités du projet RCIP comprenait les éléments clés suivants : la création d’un climat de cohésion au sein de l’environnement interne afin de permettre l’établissement de relations de confiance; la création et le renforcement de liens entre la « coalition » du RCIP et les autres intervenants en développement rural, et la possibilité de faire une analyse critique et d’agir sur certains aspects des politiques relevés par la collectivité elle-même. Les organismes fédéraux et provinciaux, ainsi que les groupes de collaboration réunissant les collectivités, les universités et les gouvernements, pourraient avoir recours à ce cadre pour accroître la participation de la population et améliorer les capacités individuelles et organisationnelles, ainsi que la capacité de collaboration, pour encourager une participation massive dans l’élaboration de politiques rurales
Empowering Youth Through Research: Adolescent's Perceptions of Physical Activity
Get PDFActive participation in evaluation and research projects can empower youth and effect community change. Adolescents along with supervising teachers participating in after-school Health Sciences and Technology Academy clubs conducted research projects to increase physical activity in Appalachian communities. The sample involved 50 adolescents who participated across one of six focus groups. Two primary themes emerged from the focus groups, indicating the impact of the research experiences on students, teachers, and their communities. First, students reported increased public health and research competence as well as feelings of self-worth. Second, the participants reported developing a stronger sense of the barriers to and facilitators of physically active lifestyles relevant in their local communities. This research substantiates the “youth as asset” paradigm and suggests that involving adolescents in community health research benefits both them and their communities
Narratives Justifying Unregulated Child Labour in Agriculture
Get PDFCanadian governments statutorily limit the employment of children under the age of 15. Nevertheless, child agricultural employment in the Province of Alberta is largely unregulated. This paper identifies and evaluates the narratives used to justify this exclusion. Analysis suggests these rationales are at once both deficient and robust and they draw attention away from the interplay between economic pressures facing agricultural operators and the limited social rights of children
Understanding Community Resiliency in Rural Communities through Multimethod Research
Get PDFCommunity resiliency is a theoretical framework and social process that attempts to explain how communities address adversity. Generating information about this concept has largely been accomplished through qualitative research methods and the development of the Resiliency Scale, which was based upon previous qualitative research on the topic. A multimethod study was used to explore community resiliency in two rural communities and one urban neighborhood. In this article we specifically examine: “What are the merits of employing different research methods to explore community resiliency and health status?” Qualitative interviews, a household survey, and analysis of provincial health databases were all used. The understanding of community resiliency as identified from each of these three methods as well as a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each method is presented
Assessing the Future of the Bioeconomy in Greene County, Iowa
Get PDFThe bioeconomy is changing the landscape of some U.S. Corn Belt states. Not surprisingly, Iowans are experiencing significant effects from the developing ethanol industry, and many, including Greene County residents, are becoming more aware of bioeconomic trends. Knowing that positive and negative impacts arise as bioeconomic initiatives evolve in Iowa, this case study addresses the following central question: What should Greene County do to minimize the potentially negative impacts and maximize the positive prospects of the bioeconomy? The phases of the study were: (1) analyze current conditions with respect to feedstock potential and transportation; (2) determine residents’ opinions about topics related to the bioeconomy, such as environment, water resources, and livestock; and (3) assess potential impacts and make recommendations. Geographic information systems (GIS) technology was used in part to address these phases. This study represents a replicable first step for analyzing growth of the bioeconomy in a rural Midwest county
Multiple Capacities, Multiple Outcomes: Delving Deeper Into the Meaning of Community Capacity
Get PDFAlthough community capacity is widely discussed in policy circles, the links between academic work on the subject and practical applications remain weak. This paper describes a high-generality conceptual model that represents a novel approach to depicting and articulating the concept of community capacity. The model describes four dimensions to community capacity: assets, catalysts, relational spheres, and outcomes. The latter category largely informs this work, since the main question addressed is, The capacity to do what? We also present an innovative visual tool for communicating the results from community capacity studies. The “asset amoebas” we present are graphical snapshots that allow readers to quickly discern a community’s capital base. The intent is to provide a tool useful to both communities and researchers alike
Are Urban Youth More Modern? Spatially Based Differentiation, Home Leaving, and Transition Outcomes in Gatineau, Rouyn-Noranda, and Saguenay
Get PDFThis article focuses on an interesting question for studies of youth and regional development: How are the transitions and social integration of young people shaped by the localities and spaces they are brought up in and through which they pass on their way to adulthood? Using social differentiation theory, our study focuses on how the socioeconomic and historic structuring of regions and individual mobility may leave imprints on the life course of young adults. We examine this issue from the angle of the transitions to adulthood of migrant and nonmigrant youth who live in the cities of two region types: metropolitan or urban fringe environments and resource- and agriculture-dependent regions. The analysis is based on survey data collected from young adults aged 20 to 29 years (N = 1,202) living in Gatineau, Rouyn-Noranda, and Saguenay in the Province of Quebec. Results show not only that metropolitan youth are not more “modern” than their regional counterparts but also that youth mobility has effects on the locales under study