Second Growth
Community Economic Development in Rural British Columbia
A look at historical and contemporary restructuring, linking development of rural communities with resource development and Aboriginal marginalization.
Description
This book is drawn from a three-year participatory research project with four communities in British Columbia: two municipalities and two Aboriginal communities. It examines historical and contemporary forces of restructuring, linking the development of rural communities with the legacy of resource development and Aboriginal marginalization across the province. The book then presents the theoretical and practical dynamics of the community economic development (CED) process and outlines a variety of strategies communities can initiate to diversify their local economies. Second Growth shows that sound theoretical frameworks and tested best practices are important tools in facilitating the prospects for a second growth in rural and small-town communities.
Reviews
This theoretically rich, community economic development (CED) work, written by four members of the Centre for Sustainable Community Development (formerly the Community Economic Development Centre) at Simon Fraser University, is the product of a three-year participatory-action-based research project involving four “forest-based” British Columbia communities. This book offers many useful insights into the complexity of CED theory and practice for communities that seek to assert some control over their economic and political futures.
- Andrew Molloy, Cape Breton University
This is an especially well-documented and insightful account of conceptualising and operationalizing CED ... This book adds extra layers to our understanding of staples and resource-dependency theory, provides rich case-study documentation and reflections of the serious constraints and difficulties encountered in the case communities and explores dimensions of what might make up good-practice CED. The book offers hope, at least of how communities might fashion realistic hopes in their own terms.
- Richard Le Heron, School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Auckland
The “how-tos” of research are beautifully laid out, and the reader gets to follow a clear path from the conception of the project (literature review, theory, methodology) to its completion (data collection and analysis) ... Second Growth is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it.
- Tracy Summerville, University of Northern British Columbia