Laura Ryser

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

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.

“We're in this all together”: community impacts of long-distance labour commuting

Labour and economic development patterns in rural regions have shifted substantially as a by-product of both economic and political restructuring. An important manifestation of this restructuring has been the growth of long distance labour commuting (LDLC) associated with increased labour flexibility and worker/family preference. In this article, we draw upon research in Mackenzie, British Columbia (BC), Canada, to explore the broader impacts of LDLC on a home community from a series of different perspectives. Our findings focus on two core themes: (1) family and community dynamics; and (2) the capacity of community organizations. Numerous negative outcomes associated with LDLC were found, including family stress and volunteer burnout. Our research also revealed a variety of positive dimensions associated with LDLC, including the ability to continue to call Mackenzie home and a strengthened sense of community. The experience in Mackenzie offers important themes for research in other communities and places experiencing LDLC.

Developing the Next Generation of Community-Based Researchers: Tips for Undergraduate Students.

Universities and funding agencies are increasingly calling for collaborative research between community partners and academics. When combined with faculty roles in training the next generation of researchers, these collaborative frameworks can present a challenge to undergraduate students seeking experience with research activities—both in terms of the types of needed training and the timelines involved. The quality and effectiveness of student research experiences, however, will have longstanding impacts on their future research careers, as well as repercussions pertaining to the community experience with the research process. The purpose of this study is to provide primarily undergraduate students with information about how to get the most out of their community-based research experiences. Given geographys traditional strengths as a field-engaged discipline, community-based research is a natural fit for geography and brings renewed vitality to the discipline. Key topics to be addressed include finding community research opportunities, identifying what you should know and what you should ask before engaging with a research team, how to obtain a breadth of research skills and experiences, researcher etiquette and demeanour in the community, budgeting, time management and developing long-term, meaningful relationships with communities.

Rapid change in small towns: when social capital collides with political/bureaucratic inertia

Abstract Successful community development is usually constructed with “bottom-up” capacity and “top-down” public policy. The synergy between these approaches has been hampered by the transition from a Keynesian to a neoliberal public policy framework. Under the stress of rapid change from major industrial projects, this article examines community development responses in the small town of Kitimat, British Columbia. Using a social capital lens, our findings suggest that despite limited senior government responses, local stakeholders have been using local and non-local network structures to: improve communication and understanding of protocols and procedures, improve awareness of community needs, access a broader range of financial and in-kind supports, transfer skills and broaden access to human resources, broaden access to infrastructure, and rapidly develop and deploy new supports. By formalizing network structures and working to strengthen local capacity, local stakeholders have been able to address many social and economic development pressures. Over the longer term, however, social capital and social cohesion among voluntary and non-profit sector organizations will require the assistance of senior government policy, financial, and program supports to be sustainable.

Opportunities and Challenges to Address Poverty in Rural Regions: A Case Study from Northern BC

ABSTRACT Despite neo-liberal policies that have been restructuring and regionalizing supports over the past 30 years, most research on rural poverty has been focused at the community level. Exploring regional approaches to address rural poverty is becoming increasingly important as rural organizations have a limited capacity to respond to this complex issue. New regionalism has been one outcome of neo-liberal policies as regions experiment with different institutional structures and relationships to compensate for the government withdrawal of programs. Despite the state’s diminished role, however, new regionalism literature has been quite silent about the implications that such shifts have for civil society groups as they work to address rural poverty to allow broader innovations and economic development initiatives to have the greatest impact. Based on a descriptive case study of the Robson Valley in British Columbia, Canada, 22 key informant stakeholder interviews were conducted to explore the implications of new regionalism on regional voluntary sector responses to address rural poverty. Findings suggest that more attention must be paid to strengthen vertical relationships and regional policy imperatives by finding ways to positively construct and maintain regional structures and mechanisms in order to connect stakeholders with a broader range of information, expertise, and resources to address rural poverty.

New mobile realities in mature staples-dependent resource regions: Local governments and work camps

In resource-dependent regions, work camps have reshaped workforce recruitment and retention strategies and relationships with communities as they are increasingly deployed within municipal boundaries. This has prompted important, but controversial, questions about local government policies and regulations guiding workforce accommodations to support rapid growth in resource regions. Even as mobile workforces become more prevalent, however, few researchers have examined the development, operations, and decommissioning of these work camps. Drawing upon the experiences of local governments in Australia, Canada, Scotland, and the United States, this research examines how mobile workforces are shaping the opportunities and challenges of planning and local government operations through work camps integrated in mature staples-dependent resource regions. Our findings reveal that while some industries have taken the initiative to implement new protocols and operating procedures to improve the quality and safety of work camp environments, local governments have underdeveloped policy tools and capacities to guide the development, operations, and decommissioning of work camps. Failure to purposefully address work camps as a land-use issue, however, is significant for mature staples-dependent towns that ultimately fail to capture taxation revenues while incurring the accelerating costs for infrastructure and services associated with large mobile workforces.

Moving from mobility to immobility in the political economy of resource-dependent regions

Abstract The increasing prevalence of mobile workers who travel long distances to work presents opportunities and challenges for communities in the new political economy of resource-dependent regions. In an era where workers can increasingly choose where they wish to work and live, this paper explores the efforts of two northern communities, in British Columbia, Canada to capture benefits from resource development by attracting and retaining mobile workers and their families. The findings suggest that several complex problems – research, planning, infrastructure investments, housing, education, amenities – must all be addressed in order to facilitate a sense of place attachment in an otherwise mobile world.

Chapter 6.1 Constructing rural places in a globalized world: Place-based rural development seen from northern British Columbia, Canada

Rural and small town places around the world are experiencing dramatic change. These changes are driven by the increasing pace and complexity of the global economy. With a focus upon examples from northern British Columbia, Canada, this chapter reviews issues of rural change and the transition towards a more place-based approach to local and regional development as rural and small town places reposition themselves in the global economy.