Building rural capacity in the new economy
With the help of major funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, 15 university researchers joined with rural people and policy makers to help build capacity in rural Canada.
NRE project themes
The NRE project was organized into four major themes—with teams of researchers who specialized in each topic. A Central Team, working out of NRE Headquarters located at Concordia University in Montréal, coordinated the activities of the entire project, as well as conduct research of a broader nature.
Study sites
32 NRE research sites were chosen according to criteria which enabled the research initiative to understand the new rural economy across Canada. Data from the Census was analyzed, and census sub-divisions were categorized according to five variables: status as leading or lagging rural areas; extent of exposure to global market forces; economic stability; proximity to urban areas; and local social and institutional capacity. The sites were chosen to ensure that rural areas reflecting the various possible combinations of these variables were included in the NRE research.
“There’s a tendency in media to say it’s a crisis situation. In my mind, this is a slow burn.”
— Bill Reimer
WHAT'S KILLING RURAL CANADA
by Aaron Hutchins
read the article on
MACLEANS.CA
Funding
