Greg Halseth

Children's cognitive mapping: a potential tool for neighbourhood planning

We live in increasingly planned and controlled environments. The places we live, work, interact, visit, and travel through are the products of designers and planning regulations. The planners, designers, and others in the property development industry, employ a wide range of means by which to identify the needs and aspirations of the clients, the property owners, and the potential users of such spaces. But this paper is interested in a “single-user” group that has not often been routinely consulted as to its use of our everyday spaces. Children live and interact in neighbourhoods, and many of these spaces have been expressly designed as “child-centred” or “child-rearing” landscapes. Yet how can planners and designers learn more from children about their use of, and needs in, such neighbourhood spaces? Following a review of the literatures on cognitive mapping and some of the limitations and possibilities in using these types of techniques with young children, we recount here a project called KIDSMAP in which children draw mental or cognitive “maps”. Although there are limitations in the application of cognitive map work with children, we have found that they do work hard at representing places which are important to them. In this paper we review the childrens maps against Lynchs well-known typology of urban design elements. Through this illustration, we hope to show how cognitive map techniques may provide one way to collect information on what is really of interest and importance to this often overlooked user “constituency”.

The Struggle to Compete: From comparative to competitive advantage in Northern British Columbia

Abstract The social, economic, and political landscape of northern British Columbia (BC), Canada, has undergone considerable transformation since a recession in the early 1980s. From this, there is an emerging recognition of the need to move from an economy based upon comparative advantage to one embracing competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper, drawn from ongoing regional research, is twofold. First, we apply a rural lens to the regional planning and development literature, which highlights the significance of competitive advantage as a tool for regional rejuvenation. Second, we add to this dialogue by exploring the relevance and meaning of competitive advantage in the non-metropolitan setting of northern BC.

Communities within communities: Changing ‘residential’ areas at Cultus Lake, British Columbia

Abstract Research focusing upon rural Canada continues to highlight the complex outcomes arising from rural-urban interactions within particular geographic settings. In the ‘citys countryside’, amenity landscapes located near the urban fringe are developed as the domain of vacation- and recreation-seeking urban residents. Yet, these recreation amenity sites are also set within an existing rural landscape. The land uses and social patterns found within this setting represent an outcome of the interactions between these competing landscapes. This paper examines residential change within the rural-recreational areas around Cultus Lake, British Columbia. Comparison of the local population to those living permanently within the cottaging areas is made across selected socio-economic characteristics and household activity patterns. These comparisons are extended to the group level by examining social and spatial constructions of local community ‘institutions’. Together, these comparisons suggest a ‘shared but separate’ geographic space.

The next rural economies: constructing rural place in global economies.

Part 1 - Demographics, Migration & Immigration 2. Local Economic and Social Development in the Multifunctional Landscapes of Rural Australia. 3. Change in the U.S. Great Plains States 4. A New Rural North Carolina: Latino Place-making and Community Engagement 5. Connecting Rural and Urban Places: Enduring Migration between Small Areas in England and Wales 6. Ontarios Greenbelt and Place to Grow Legislation and the Future for the Countryside and Rural Economy Part 2 - Emerging Economies 7. Adding Value Locally through Integrated Tourism 8. Value-added and Entertainment Agricultural Products in Michigans Fruit Belt 9. Rural Restructuring and the New Rural Economy: Examples from Germany and Canada 10. Nurturing the Animation Sector in a Peripheral Economic Region: The Case of Miramichi, New Brunswick. Part 3 - Rural Policy and Governance 11. Co-constructing Rural Communities in the 21st Century: Challenges for Central Governments 12. Contemporary Approaches to Rural Development: Lauding the Local 13. Political Economies of Place and in the Emergent Global Countryside: Stories from Rural Wales 14. Rural Development: The Next Territorial Development Paradigm Part 4 - Rural-Urban Peripheries 15. The Reviving of Small Rural Towns on the Paris Periurban Fringes 16. When Urban-Rural Fringes Arise as Differentiated Place: The Socio-Economic Restructuring of Volvic Sources and Volcans (France) 17. Rural Development Strategies in Japan Part 5 - Renewal in Resource Peripheries 18. Resource Development in the Periphery: Lessons from Newfoundland 19. Fly-in, Fly-out Resource Development: A New Regionalist Perspective on the Next Rural Economy 20. Understanding and Transforming a Staples Economy: The Case of Place-based Development in Northern BC, Canada.

Closing the implementation gap: a framework for incorporating the context of place in economic development planning

Abstract Since the early 1980s, rural and small-town Canada has experienced considerable transformation from social, economic, and political restructuring. These changes put pressure on communities and regions to assume increasing levels of responsibility for economic planning and development. The record to date, however, reveals implementation gaps between plans and the results on the ground. This paper explores this implementation gap using a case study from northwestern British Columbia, Canada. The findings indicate that a failure to incorporate the context of place in the analysis of economic strategy reports results in flawed local and regional development processes and misdirected action plans. This research is set within a broader revival in the regional development literature, where an interest in regions is accompanied by enquiry into the ability of local action to influence economic development planning and longer-term community sustainability.

Housing Costs in an Oil and Gas Boom Town: Issues for Low-Income Senior Women Living Alone

In resource-based towns that have historically been dominated by young workers and their families, seniors’ housing issues have received little attention by community leaders and senior policymakers. However, since the 1980s there has been a growing trend of older women living alone in Canadian rural and small town places. Although research on rural poverty focuses on small towns in decline, booming resource economies can also produce challenges for low-income senior women living alone due to higher housing costs and the retrenchment of health care and service supports. Because housing costs can consume a significant proportion of household income, low-income senior women living alone may not have the financial resources to cover expenses in a competitive housing market. Using a household survey, we explored this different dimension of the Canadian rural landscape by looking at housing costs for low-income senior women living alone in the booming oil and gas town of Fort St. John, British Columbia, Canada. The authors findings indicate that low-income senior women living alone are incurring higher housing costs compared with other senior groups.

Establishing a distributed campus: making sense of disruptions to a doctor community

Medical Education 2010: 44 : 256–262

Resource Town Employment: Perceptions in Small Town British Columbia

This paper reports on a study of economic restructuring in the small, resource-based communities of Quesnel, Williams Lake, and 100 Mile House in British Columbia, Canada. Using survey data, the paper reviews three issues connected with household adjustment to local employment/economic conditions. The first concerns patterns of employment, and among the findings are that over half of respondents have experienced periods without employment income. The second concerns perceptions of change in local economic conditions. While recent public debates have highlighted significant regional economic pressures, the findings suggest that many respondents are still very optimistic regarding the economic vitality of their community. The final issue concerns whether residents are actively taking steps to respond to changing economic conditions. Findings suggest that while most households have engaged in educational and skills upgrading, there are potentially serious limitations to the future efficacy of some of these coping mechanisms.

Locating emergency medical services in small town and rural settings.

Locating emergency medical services in small town and rural settings presents subtle, but significant differences to those in metropolitan areas. The lack of service mix and unit choice, the measurement of response time in minutes rather than seconds, and the limits of the planning environment are discussed. Using time-distance comparisons and location-allocation techniques within a microcomputing environment, some aspects of planning emergency medical services are illustrated within the context of the Kingston (Ontario) Regional Ambulance Service.

Institutional barriers to incorporating climate responsive design in commercial redevelopment

For decades the literature on the winter cities and on urban design has explored the implications of poorly designed urban spaces on pedestrian mobility during various seasons. In Canada, however, practice in using climate responsive design principles tends to be the exception. Using a case study methodology, this paper explores the application of climate responsive design principles in the commercial redevelopment process in Prince George, British Columbia. Findings indicate that, despite expressed interest in winter city development, professionals and decision makers involved in the development permit process do not possess sufficient knowledge about climate responsive design to apply these principles to everyday practice. More importantly, knowledge about climate responsive design did not appear to be a major consideration in creating or evaluating commercial redevelopment projects. A range of educational, attitudinal, regulatory, structural, and political barriers impede the development of an institutional framework to support the implementation of climate responsive design.