CRRF’n the Archives Series

CRRF’s inclusion of researchers, policy-makers, and community members has always challenged us to communicate across different modes of expression and understandings. For some, it’s the stories that convey the insights, for others, it’s images or multimedia. Policy-makers usually ask for the numbers and analysis that they can use to make policy arguments, and practitioners frequently ask for initiatives that will solve specific problems (Reimer, Bill “Collaboration Challenges: Research, Policy, Community”).

When SSHRC became interested in “knowledge mobilization” around 1997, they used our nine years of collaboration as inspiration for others. Our explorations of various approaches left a legacy of techniques and initiatives that were recognized for their innovation and effectiveness—adapted to the variety of audiences involved. They include posters (see Entries 3, 5, 11, and 22), multi-media (see Entry 2), special graphics (see image below), radio (Entry 8), interactive maps, oral histories, field-site albums and community events (Entry 20), trades magazine articles, in addition to the usual conferences, workshops, books, reports, and articles.

SSHRC didn’t even mind when I provided a critique of their selection process from a KM point of view (http://billreimer.net/research/files/SSHRCKMatVancouver2008Reimer05.pdf).

To view other Archive entries, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrfin-the-archives-series/ For CRRF Archive news, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrf-archives/

Situated in the Parry Sound region of Ontario, Seguin is very familiar with the challenges of population surges. During the summer months, the population often triples in size as visitors and seasonal residents flock to the beaches, parks, trails, lakes, and beautiful landscapes (https://www.concordia.ca/artsci/sociology-anthropology/research/nre/study-sites/site-18-sequin-ont.html). The municipality’s attempts to finance the many infrastructure and organizational demands of these regular surges were often met with failure as summer homeowners resisted attempts to increase taxes.

In desperation, the municipality decided to encourage and facilitate the participation of seasonal taxpayers on committees and working groups. This meant arranging meetings and communication to accommodate the schedules and locations of many members—often in urban regions such as Ottawa and Toronto.

The results were positive in unexpected ways. Not only did the resistance to tax increases subside as the seasonal residents became more aware of the municipal demands (including year-round ones), but several of the urban residents used their experience and networks to access programs, projects, groups, and financial sources to support initiatives in the Seguin region. Instead of being seen as obstacles to local development, these urban-based people became rural allies and advocates.

Check out the virtual guided hike through the Rose Point Trail in Seguin (part of the Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve): https://youtu.be/4G64Pc3Kw0M.

To view other Archive entries, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrfin-the-archives-series/

For CRRF Archive news, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrf-archives/

Singing and dancing has always been a feature of CRRF events and research activities—joyously reinforced by our early decision to meet in rural and remote places. As a result, we have been delighted with demonstrations and seduced into participation by the wide range of songs and dances nurtured by small towns. This includes cotillions in Coaticook, Celtic fiddling in Wolfville, Line Dancing in Grande Prairie, Square dancing in Muenster, Hoop Dances in Gimli, choirs in Twillingate, Ukrainian dancing in Vermilion, snowshoe dancing in Whitehorse, jingle-dress dancing in Lennox Island, and Inuit dancing in Inuvik.

Local musical talent has also been inspirational among our research teams. Thanks to the skill and initiative of Ivan Emke and David Bruce, we are left with our own musical legacy in the form of clever adaptations, local radio broadcasts (see CRRF’n the Archives Entry 8), kitchen sing-alongs, and “choral” performances (see: The NRE Songbook). Rural and remote research is much more than data-collection, analysis, and reports.

In 1998 Peter Apedaile and Nobuhiro Tsuboi proposed and organized a 4-year collaborative project between CRRF and the Institute for Rural Revitalization in Tokyo. This project was originally designed to facilitate the replication of the NRE household survey in Japanese sites, but soon grew into much more as new opportunities were created. By 2005 the project had been extended for an additional 4 years and included multiple exchanges among researchers, students, and community members from both sides, comparative analysis between NRE sites and two in Japan (Awano-machi and Iitate-mura), and a ground-breaking book in comparative analysis (Revitalization: Fate and Choice http://revitalization.brandonu.ca/page-E.html).

Some of the most influential outcomes of the CJ Project were the many friendships that were formed by community members on both sides as a result of the on-site exchanges (see: CJExchangeReport2003). The impact of these relationships was manifested in 2011 when disaster befell Iitate-mura as a result of damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant (details to come in a future CRRF’n the Archives entry).

To view other Archive entries, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrfin-the-archives-series/

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Comparative research has been a basic research strategy from the beginning of CRRF. It is no wonder, then, that our members were involved in the establishment of the International Comparative Rural Policy Studies program (ICRPS) in 2002 and 2003.

One of the highlights of ICRPS has been their program of summer institutes: where graduate students, mid-career professionals, and faculty members meet for two weeks in a partner country for an intense program of seminars, field trips, skill-development, and meetings with local policy professionals. Now in its 19^th year, the summer institutes have been held in such places as Leuven, Belgium; Inverness, Scotland; Toluca, Mexico; Fairbanks, Alaska; Tuskegee, USA; and Rovaniemi, Finland. Canadian sites included Guelph, Brandon, and Rimouski.

With the advent of COVID-19 restrictions, ICRPS moved to an on-line format but is now in the planning stage for a return to on-site locations. Keep an eye on the ICRPS website for details (https://ICRPS.org). Students, professionals, and faculty will find the ICRPS summer institute to be a career-enhancing and life-changing experience.

In 2001 CRRF made a financial appeal to Canadian banks. Thanks to Peter Apedaile’s initiative and the support of the Hon. Andy Mitchel (previous Chair of the Canadian Bankers’ Association), we were invited to meet with the five major banks. In January, Peter, Bruno Jean, and I travelled to Toronto to meet them.

We suggested they donate a loonie for each rural household member in their client base. The money would be used to set up a financial campaign with the goal of a twonie for each rural Canadian. Our pitch included a presentation (https://crrf.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/BanksPresentationGeneric20010115-1.pdf) and estimate of each bank’s donation.

The bank officials considered it innovative and proceeded with their due-diligence investigation of our activities and organization. Things looked promising. Unfortunately, we failed because CRRF had unknowingly lost its charitable status by missing our annual report to the CCRA. From this we learned that our institutional capacity was weak and needed to be improved before any endowment initiatives are taken. We also learned that the twonie per rural person is a good objective.

Follow-up from this experience was put on hold when we were successful in our applications to SSHRC and the New Rural Economy project was born. Is it time to reactivate our endowment dreams?

To view other Archive entries, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrfin-the-archives-series/

For CRRF Archive news, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrf-archives/

In 2012, we were invited to a meeting with Nova Scotia Deputy Ministers, Dalhousie University Senior Administration, and Deans. The topic was “Enhancing the Vitality of Nova Scotia’s Communities”. It was an in-camera meeting where wide-ranging discussion was encouraged. There was only one formal presentation (10 minutes), a brief synthesis, and plenty of time for follow-up discussion.

I was impressed by the wisdom of this initiative. It connected researchers directly with policy-makers in both the government and university, built the university’s credibility among senior policy-makers, created a venue where policy-makers were brought together across their “silos”, and communicated evidence-based insights and perspectives with policy discussions. It also provided valuable insights into the most pressing issues faced by policy-makers—along with some hints at their perspectives and questions regarding those issues.

Such face-to-face discussions are important adjuncts to the usual sources of information used by policy-makers. Unfortunately, this most often appears to be anecdotes from colleagues and friends—at least among rural policy-makers [see Reimer, B., & Brett, M., 2013. Scientific Knowledge and Rural Policy: A Long‐distant Relationship. Sociologia Ruralis, 53(3), 272–290]. Perhaps, we should explore opportunities for universities and colleges to explore initiatives inspired by Dalhousie.

To view other Archive entries, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrfin-the-archives-series/

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It has been 25 years since CRRF’s New Rural Economy project was launched. For 11 years (1997 to 2008), we worked with 32 systematically selected rural and remote communities to understand their conditions, visions, and options for revitalization (http://nre.concordia.ca). The project produced information, reports, books, bulletins, media materials, and a wide variety of insights regarding social cohesion, the formal and informal economy, community capacity, social capital, governance, services, environmental issues, communications, and several other community-focused concerns.

Are you interested in working on NRE-related topics and/or data?

What better way to celebrate our 25^th anniversary, than to launch a new set of studies building on the legacy of the NRE? If you wish to explore the insights, use information collected from the NRE project, or to update that information for analysis, contact us via nre@concordia.ca. Longitudinal data and related instruments from the Rural Observatory (1986 to 2016), NRE field site data regarding households, businesses, key institutions, community events, co-ops, services, and communications are available (https://www.concordia.ca/artsci/sociology-anthropology/research/nre/resources/Instruments.html). We would also be happy to provide support and mentorship for those who wish to make use of this legacy for research projects, theses, publications, or public media materials.

To view other Archive entries, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrfin-the-archives-series/

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This is a series of 4 English and French posters that identify some ways in which rural places are important to all Canadians. They are typically single statement posters with a link to the New Rural Economy Project for details.

These posters were produced during our experiments with communication to public audiences. We have often been criticized for our use of language and analysis that makes it difficult for most people to understand. These posters, along with flyers, workshops, bulletins, special conference sessions, webinars, and many other “knowledge mobilization” initiatives are part of our constant search for effective ways to engage the public. More of these items can be seen via https://www.concordia.ca/artsci/sociology-anthropology/research/nre/research-findings/CapacityProfiles.html and https://www.concordia.ca/artsci/sociology-anthropology/research/nre/research-findings/In-SitesFlyers.html. Although produced more than a decade ago, many remain relevant for current conditions in rural Canada.

To view other Archive entries, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrfin-the-archives-series/ For CRRF Archive news, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrf-archives/

Communities in trouble have typically been viewed as liabilities by governments, businesses, and even community members. The Québec Rural Policy of 2007 was able to turn that around by making use of its regional infrastructure and “Rural Pacts” initiatives. It provided regions with additional funding if they took on the challenge of helping their lagging communities. By doing so, they turned regional liabilities into assets, increased the resources available to communities in trouble, and significantly increased the skill and capacities of all regional leaders in community development (see Jean, Bruno and Bill Reimer, 2015 “Québec’s Approach to Regional Development: An historical analysis” RPLC Webinar, Feb 23).

Esprit-Saint is a small Québec municipality in the MRC of Rimouski-Neigette. In 2021, its population was 340. Under the BAEQ policies, the village was threatened with closure. Citizens were moved to organize themselves for development. With the help of their regional MRC, they were able to construct ecological homes, reopen a local restaurant, and add tourism and cultural amenities within their community.

Check out the long-term legacy of Québec’s Rural Policy at the CRRF/CEDEC 2022 Conference (May 25-27, 2022) https://www.inclusiveeconomies.ca/. This year the in-person event is held in Rimouski—with on-line access available elsewhere.To view other Archive entries, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrfin-the-archives-series/

Comparative analysis has always been a basic feature of CRRF. It provides a significant source of knowledge, inspiration, and support for researchers, policy-makers, practitioners, and community members. One of the most successful initiatives of The New Rural Economy project was the “Cross-site Learning” program. It brought community members together at CRRF conferences, supported inter-community collaboration, and even organized an international exchange of community members among two Japanese communities and the NRE sites.

Participants reported the following types of outcomes.

• The creation of a Community Development Commission after learning about the limitations of volunteer organizations and hearing about other communities’ initiatives.
• “I was inspired to run for mayor.”
• “People came to the conference and made contacts with other site people, which gives them a sense that they are not doing something wrong in their community (there are other communities experiencing similar challenges).”
• “It raised levels of hope”
• It established a mechanism for networking that went beyond the meetings
• “From this information and exposure, these women were able to understand the state their community was in (a state of grieving), to recognize the need to work together with other communities and the necessity of strong leadership. In the following two years, one of these women made a successful bid for the Mayor’s chair and the community is beginning to move forward again.”
• A community participant was able to meet the Director of the Fondation Rues Principales from Québec: a foundation that supports small communities wanting to refurbish the main street of their town to make it more attractive and to maintain small local businesses. The Foundation is already at work in his community, to his great satisfaction.
• As a result of participation in our Twillingate (and other) meetings, a community leader initiated a plan to recruit workers from some nearby sites (or regions) where employment is a problem.
• Inspired by a strategy used in a rural Japan site, a planning committee was assembled to develop a plan for creating a regional high school to service the whole area.

To view other Archive entries, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrfin-the-archives-series/
For CRRF Archive news, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrf-archives/

In Nov 2006, CRRF and NRE Researchers were invited as witnesses to the Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food special study on Rural Poverty. In addition, we were asked to suggest other potential witnesses for the committee. It was encouraging to see how many of our suggested witnesses were invited.

CRRF-related witnesses made contributions and answered questions regarding the following issues.

• Definitions of rural poverty and impoverishment (Bollman, Bruce, Jean)
• The importance of place-based rather than people-based approaches (Annis, Jean)
• Rural-sensitive perspectives on housing, child care, employment supports, and health (Bruce, Pong, Reimer)
• The importance of regional rural-urban collaboration (Apedaile, Partridge)
• The value of non-farm activities—including those beyond natural resources (Partridge)
• The need for rural infrastructure, especially transportation, communication, housing, services, education, child care, and health care (Bruce, Emke, Fuller, Halseth, Martz, Pong)
• The vulnerability of rural youth, elderly, women, and Indigenous Peoples (Annis, Fuller, Martz)
• The importance of the informal economy, artisanal activities, and local assets (Apedaile, Reimer)
• The need for innovative sources of capital (Apedaile, Merrifield)
• The identification of public goods provided by farmers (Apedaile)
• The key role of education and employment to deal with the shifting demands of rural labour markets and youth migration (Freshwater, Halseth)
• The importance of multi-government, multi-departmental, and multi-disciplinary rural policy for dealing with all aspects of rural poverty (Freshwater, Halseth, Jean, Merrifield, Pong)
• The need for more information and research regarding rural and northern places (Annis, Halseth)

CRRF contributions figure prominently in both the interim and final reports.

Interim Report (December 2006)

Final Report (June 2008)

You can also read the transcripts from the committee hearings via the following link. CRRF-network witnesses can be found in the following issues: 9, 10, 11, 16, 19, 20, and 28. Witnesses are listed on the first few pages of each document.

https://sencanada.ca/en/committees/AGFO/transcriptsminutes/39-1

To view other Archive entries, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrfin-the-archives-series/

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CRRF changes lives. The NRE Project, for example, involved more than 150 students over several years. They not only learned formal research skills such as literature evaluations, statistical analysis, interviewing, and writing, but also the more informal aspects such as team collaboration, administration, policy analysis, and field work with rural people and communities. These experiences prepared them well for their future careers—both within and outside academic circles. Many of them did not continue with rural-related activities, but they took a heightened sensibility for rural and remote issues wherever they went.

Generalizable Skills

Using her NRE experience in research and administration, one of our students was hired by an international corporation to propose projects for their charitable giving. Several students were hired by businesses and government organizations for the data analysis skills they had acquired during their participation in the project. The field work and analysis experience with the NRE helped another student gain the confidence to create her own consulting business regarding rural and urban issues.

Send your own stories of CRRF/NRE impacts to crrf-fcrr@live.com and I will include them in future posts.

To view other Archive entries, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrfin-the-archives-series/

For CRRF Archive news, go to: https://crrf.ca/crrf-archives/

CRRF’s unbroken record of 34 annual conferences, numerous workshops, and frequent collaborations with partner events has provided us with a valuable store of experiences and innovations. Foremost among the principles guiding our success are the following.

• Locate the event in a rural place wherever possible.
• Provide the local community with the lead regarding the program topic, events, speakers, and questions to address. CRRF acts as advisor to their interests and connects them to other communities and people, both national and international.
• Begin the conference with a local tour including all participants. The tour introduces participants to local initiatives, history, challenges, and assets that frame the community’s capacity and visions.
• Develop the means for people from other rural and remote communities to attend—along with opportunities for them to share their experiences.
• Provide extra support for people and organizations who have limited resources.

For conference organizers: check out the guides and checklists that CRRF had developed over the years. Some examples are the following: ConferencePlanningChecklistAndNotes2004-06-21.pdf  and CRRFConferenceHandbook2013-03-19.pdf.

CRRF Conferences under COVID

The limitations of COVID create some challenges for these principles. It is very difficult to get a rich sense of local community conditions without the physical tours. It is also difficult to provide the opportunities for story-telling, debate, networking, and collaboration without the coffee-breaks, meals, and late-night parties that are part of physical proximity. On the other hand, there may be innovations of the internet era that could be developed to meet some of the principles above. Perhaps the money saved from travel and venue could be redirected to facilitate community production of podcasts or blogs that allow others to see and hear about their conditions and innovations. Establishing community radio events on the internet might become a conference activity (see CRRF’n the Archives #8: May 2021). Can we carry on the CRRF traditions of local engagement and innovation for the new conditions?

I received an inquiry last month regarding “lagging” communities. It recalled for me how this had become a primary theme CRRF research. Over the 11 years of the NRE project we grappled with the problem of defining the difference between leading and lagging communities, developing appropriate indicators, processing relevant data, and trying to identify contributing conditions and policies (https://www.concordia.ca/content/dam/artsci/sociology-anthropology/nre/docs/reports/LeadingAndLagging.pdf). It even became one of the five dimensions of the NRE Rural Observatory (https://www.concordia.ca/content/dam/artsci/sociology-anthropology/nre/docs/reports/Reimer_Sample_Frame.pdf).

Our research includes the following insights.

• Exposure to the global economy, economic uncertainty, proximity to urban centres, and institutional capacity all contribute to community decline—often beyond local control (https://www.concordia.ca/content/dam/artsci/sociology-anthropology/nre/docs/reports/ReimerExploringDiversity.pdf).
• Their fate is not inevitable, however, since strategies and actions can be taken to reverse or mitigate the challenges (https://www.concordia.ca/content/dam/artsci/sociology-anthropology/nre/docs/reports/StrategicObservationsSept30.pdf).
• We have even documented policy options and programs that are likely to improve conditions for communities in decline or crisis. One of the most successful examples can be found in the Québec Rural Policy—particularly in the way it encouraged and facilitated local-based strategies by supporting regional collaboration (see Jean, Bruno and Bill Reimer, 2015 “Québec’s Approach to Regional Development: An historical analysis” RPLC Webinar, Feb 23. [Link to recording]).

In 2004, CRRF partnered with the Rural Secretariat to organize the first National Think-Tank of the newly formed National Rural Research Network (NRRN). That event, held in Prince George, included the signing of a collaboration agreement with the Federation of Municipalities, and visits to two of the NRE field sites: Mackenzie and Tumbler Ridge.

Mackenzie citizens showed us how they took control of their community initiatives after repeated failures of petitions to the local paper mill. The traditional approach to community development involved requests to the mill for support. Since many of the managers were also community members, the need and priority for such support was usually clear and forthcoming.

Over time, however, the mill was bought and sold by international corporations and local ties to management were broken. It took the community several years to realize that the old approach to community development would no longer work. They finally turned to their local assets and skills to manage community development. This approach was reflected in such initiatives as the expansion and marketing of snowmobile trails, establishment of a community radio station, and the relocation of their health and social services.

Throughout much of CRRF’s history, workshops (usually in the spring), have been a useful compliment to our fall conference program. This was especially true during the NRE period since we had the funding to make them possible.

Workshops were smaller events attended by about 20 to 30 researchers, policy-makers, and community people with a particular focus on research activities and strategic planning. As with the conferences, we sought to hold them in rural places with local tours as important components of our visit. Workshop locations included Merrickville, ON, St-Clément, QC, Corner Brook, NL, Quesnel, BC, North Bay, ON, St-Damase, QC, Newtown, NL, Sackville, NB, Altona, MB, Ferintosh, AB, Prince George, BC, Benito, MB, Taschereau, QC, Springhill, NS, and Whitehorse, YT. For many years, the field sites in the NRE Rural Observatory were workshop locations.

As the photos below illustrate, the CRRF Workshops were not all about work.

In 2008, the CRRF annual conference was held in Inuvik, NT to discuss community options for boom-bust economies. Peter Clarkson, the mayor, described how the benefits of the boom period were invested in community improvement projects from infrastructure to social and cultural facilities. The objective was to make the community so attractive that when the inevitable bust hit, citizens would be motivated and supported to find innovations and initiatives to stay and survive. The evidence for the success of this strategy was all around: from a new recreation centre with pool, ice rink, and meeting rooms to a well-equipped and state-of-the art hospital. Community-initiated activities were a common feature of everyday life, from co-ops to festivals. Even the old arena was repurposed as a community garden—providing a social centre and laboratory for northern agriculture.

In honour of the location, CRRF moved the conference date from our usual fall location to the summer solstice. It was delightful to join in the many celebrations afforded by 24 hours of daylight—including the annual Midnight Sun Fun Run.

Now that wildfire season is upon us, I was reflecting on research conducted by Dr. Judith Kulig and her team. Their research regarding wildfires included four community case studies exploring local responses and impacts on health and community resiliency (http://www.ruralwildfire.ca): La Ronge, SK (1999), Crowsnest Pass, AB (2003), Barriere, BC (2003), and Slave Lake, AB (2011). The team produced many “Lessons Learned” booklets, technical reports, academic and public materials, popular media materials, and a large number of presentations. The lessons learned remain relevant for current conditions.

The team’s examination of long-term impacts revealed some surprising and useful information for communities and support services. I was particularly struck by the finding that many of the children involved hid their anxiety from their parents—most likely because they did not want to add to the stress their parents were experiencing (https://policywise.com/wp-content/uploads/resources/2016/07/FinalReport11SMKuligSept42012pdf.pdf). The effects on home and school continued well after the fire crisis had passed.

These 13 posters in English and French identify some of the most important insights from CRRF’s New Rural Economy Project. They are beautifully designed and include Implications of the insights, strategies for communities to consider, and questions to ask arising from the insights. Although prepared in 2004, the observations remain surprisingly accurate. Perhaps they can inspire someone looking for a thesis topic.

https://www.concordia.ca/artsci/sociology-anthropology/research/nre/research-findings/posters.html#observations

The posters are accompanied by a text document outlining the observations.

https://www.concordia.ca/content/dam/artsci/sociology-anthropology/nre/docs/posters/Strategic-ObservationsSept30.pdf

CRRF conference locations were chosen from community invitations and a rotation among Western, Central, and Eastern regions. In 2003 we were delighted to receive such an invitation from Tweed, Ontario—but somewhat nervous about their capacity to manage it. They appeared to lack the infrastructure for meetings, meals, and accommodation. The local organizing committee assured us they could manage—by using a local theatre building, Legion, and municipal hall to manage meetings and food. As the organization proceeded, however, they discovered they needed help, so they turned to nearby communities (and long-time rivals) to fill in some of the gaps. Not only was the conference a great success, but those local communities found that working together was possible and mutually beneficial—laying the basis for a regional initiative entitled “Comfort Country” (http://www.comfortcountry.ca/). The initiative was cited as an inspiration and model for similar inter-community collaboration among Prince Edward, Lennox and Addington counties in Eastern Ontario.

Press Release by Tweed area business associations: “COMFORT COUNTRY TOURISM AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT  PROJECT TO BE LAUNCHED MARCH 1^ST, 2004. Three area business associations (Tweed, Madoc, and Marmora) have been meeting on a regular basis since May 2003 along with representatives from the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Community Futures Development Corporation of North & Central Hastings & South Algonquin and the Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance.  It has been agreed, after some discussion, that our concerns about the growth and development of our communities would be better addressed by working as a group rather than individual communities.  It is with great pleasure that we welcome Stirling to this venture as of February 11^th, 2004, so now we are a group of four communities working for the economic betterment of central Hastings with the COMFORT COUNTRY PROJECT.”

Many rural communities are deeply concerned about slowing the “loss” of their youth and community members. However, our collaborating communities in the Canada-Japan Project (1998-2004) took a different approach.

They welcome outmigration—and use it as a community-development opportunity. When individuals or families leave, the community keeps in touch with them through regular bulletins, websites, and special community events. They argue that some of these outmigrants are likely to become interested in their community of origin at a later point in their lives—when they start to raise a family, finish school, change their job interests, look for new opportunities, or simply dislike being away. Maintaining communication and ties with them keeps the option of returning both salient and easy.

The Japanese community of Awano holds an annual contest to identify the family that best represents their town. The prize is a trip away. After the trip, a community event is held where the voyagers present stories and photos of their experiences. I was impressed to see how the local farmers used these travellers as “intelligence agents”—asking them to report on potential markets for local produce. Instead of viewing their town as an outpost, those in Awano saw their community as the centre of a vast network nurtured by previous residents.

Ivan Emke introduced us to community radio at the CRRF conference in Tweed Ontario (2004). Using an ipod, microphones, small transmitter, antenna, and local broadcast license, he created a studio upstairs in the Tweed Playhouse while the conference unfolded below. He invited the local high school students to provide material and learn how to establish their own station. The broadcast became a central feature of our conferences—a new way to engage the community in the meetings and hear themselves echoed to their neighbours. See https://www.concordia.ca/artsci/sociology-anthropology/research/nre/study-sites/site-15-tweed-ont.html for the NRE introduction to Tweed.

Three events stand out for me from that Tweed initiative. On one of my visits to the makeshift studio, a local father and son arrived up the back steps with a violin case in hand. He asked if his son could play a tune on the radio. They were thrilled to be included. The second event was the transformation that took place when local students were given microphones and invited to interview speakers and participants at the conference. In the beginning, they appeared as shy, hesitant interviewers, but by the end of the conference, they had graduated to confident interrogators—pressing important questions and raising issues that were central to their community. My third delight occurred when visiting local businesses in the community—and discovering how the community radio had become the “musac” of choice. It is no wonder that Ivan’s contribution became a central element of our conferences from that point on.

The New Rural Economy project (http://nre.concordia.ca) was rooted in 9 years of conferences, retreats, seminars, workshops, and collaborations among ARRG and CRRF participants. These years provided ample evidence of our collective success, honed our networking skills, and gave us the confidence necessary to dream large. As the idea of a national, long-term, systematic, and community-engaged project emerged in our discussions we were not put off by its ambitious nature. As we developed the details of the project, its stages became identified as “Ambitious 1” and “Ambitious 2”.

In response to my request about the emergence of these original formulations, Peter Apedaile wrote “The concept comes from the motto of Hokkaido University. “Boys Be Ambitious”. I was impressed, not by the chauvinism, but by the aspiration, while visiting my grad student doing her research on the structure of Japanese cereal trade and trade policy in 1987. I seem to recall the concept coming up during several of our animated conversations Bill, when we were walking somewhere in Ottawa or Hull, perhaps at the time of our Senate presentation. The origin of the concept is this motto. One of the great products of our ARRG/CRRF experience has been intellectual adrenalin!  Peter (Feb 14, 2021)

Peter Apedaile initiated the exploration of endowment funding for CRRF in 1992. The first stage included discussions with contacts in some of Canada’s major commodity companies. After a series of encouraging suggestions, but no follow-through, we concluded that these companies have little interest in rural community development. Their primary preoccupation is with the movement of commodities to national and international markets. The production and transportation of commodities no longer require strong rural communities.

Our 1992 National Conference in Goderich included an invitation to a supper organized by the local community. We were surprised to discover that there were no children or young people at the event since liquor was served. This meant that parents were required to arrange for child care and young people never had a chance to see community adults “at play” in such a venue. Similar events in Québec provided a sharp contrast, where community events included all ages since liquor licenses were less restrictive. The comparison provides an interesting example of the way in which general policies can exacerbate stratification in smaller communities.

This series of 8 English posters provides suggestions for rural communities that are interested in improving their capacity through collaboration with urban places. They provide examples of such collaboration and strategies for action. The suggestions arose from our recognition that rural and urban places are interdependent—so instead of treating them as if they are in competition, it makes more sense to build alliances. https://www.concordia.ca/artsci/sociology-anthropology/research/nre/research-findings/posters.html#rural-urban

The 1995 Coaticook, QC conference on Rural Employment was a study in community innovation. This small town with one motel (about 30 rooms) and no conference facilities put on an international conference with about 200 people under the patronage of CRRF and the OECD. They converted an agricultural building into a conference venue with outdoor carpeting, AV equipment, tables, chairs, and greenery; used the high school kitchen for preparing food; and trained local students for cooking, catering, and serving. By organizing a network of billets and transportation, they solved the accommodation problem. Our international guests were particularly pleased to meet local people over the breakfast table each morning.

Agriculture can only be understood in its full economic, social, and environmental context. In 1994, this was a radical perspective. It was our message when members of the ARRG network were invited to make a presentation to a joint committee of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food and the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry.

Seven ARRG members elaborated the implications of this perspective for rural women, the quality of rural life, community networks, local initiatives, and the operation of complex systems. Check out the record of these presentations via the following link (or click on the image).

https://crrf.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/TowardsAWholeRuralPolicyForCanadaARRGWorkingPapersSeriesNumber7-1994.pdf

Did we get it right? Have things changed? What is your vision today?

“We cannot expect a major revitalization of rural Canada, but absolute population growth is likely to be positive, particularly in non-farm regions and those close to large urban centres…

We cannot expect urban standards of service delivery, but with appropriate monitoring and exploration we should be able to make more efficient use of the means at our disposal…

The identification of general benefits and resources provided by rural areas would serve as a basis for justifying the transfer of funds from urban to rural areas as well as the limitation of costs that exported to the rural areas.” (Towards a Whole Rural Policy for Canada, 1994, p41)

This is a series of 41 flyers in English and 26 in French that identify some of the key insights from the New Rural Economy Project of CRRF. Download and copy them for events or places where you think they may be useful. They made a great series for posting on office doors or at conferences in the pre-COVID days. Perhaps you can think of ways they may be used in our current, more online, world. If you do, let us know so that we can pass on your suggestions to others.

We made three decisions regarding our annual conferences that have served us well over the years. The first was to meet in rural areas wherever possible (more than 1 hour from an international airport); the second was to give program control to the local community; and the third was to integrate local tours by which participants learned about community challenges and initiatives.

As part of the 11-year New Rural Economy Project, David Bruce and his cohorts produced a series of 8 videos regarding the ways in which rural communities are turning the challenges they face into new opportunities. In the process, the videos identify the general lessons emerging from these examples so that other communities might be inspired in similar ways.

In 1988, Ray Bollman (Statistics Canada), Fran Shaver (Concordia U.), and I (Tony Fuller) attended the International Rural Sociological Society conference in Bologna where Harriet Friedmann in her presentation first hinted at global restructuring. Ray and I felt that Canadian scholars were probably not very well equipped to debate such ideas and to measure their potential impacts in Canada’s diverse rural regions. Ray’s response was to increasingly make available data on rural social and economic issues, while mine was to press for a think tank that would attract top scholars such as Peter Apedaile, Phil Ehrensaft, Hartly Furtan, Bruno Jean, Bill Reimer, Fran Shaver, and Jack Stabler. Together, we persuaded Ag. Canada to sponsor the first group meeting in Regina to the tune of $2,000… The conference marked for the first time officially that rural was not necessarily agricultural. This was not popular in Saskatoon, especially among the farm women’s group!” [Tony Fuller, 2020/06/08: What I Remember.docx and email 2020/10/21

Our present activities and insights rest on a 32-year history of research, discussion, collaboration, and projects among researchers, policy-makers, practitioners, and community people. Over those 3 decades we have learned a great deal about rural places, people, and communities. They serve as a solid foundation for our current activities and hopefully a source of pride and inspiration for the present cohort of participants. Check out the following video slides that outline the first 30 years of that history. You may be surprised how many of the insights are reflected in our current discussions and initiatives.

30 Years of CRRF

“I would like to add another item to the discussion of evolution of CRRF. Lynden Johnson was the head of the federal Rural Secretariat and collaborated on some projects with the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC, now known as Colleges and Institutes Canada). He was quite insistent that CRRF should include college-based researchers in its network. As a result, I was the first college-based researcher to address a CRRF conference (Tweed, I think it was 2004) and I believe there has been college representation at CRRF conferences ever since. Unlike other research networks I have been part of over the years, CRRF people have been very welcoming of the applied research perspective of colleges.” [Nelson Rogers, 2020/10/16-email]