The COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for significant change at a rapid pace. Rural communities across the world have pivoted to address both the short-term and long-term implications for rural people, rural economies, and rural landscapes. Prof. Ryan Gibson joined a panel discussion hosted by the International Comparative Rural Policy Consortium examining three rural regions and their responses to COVID-19. The webinar share experiences of how rural
Canadian regional development today involves multiple actors operating within nested scales from local to national and even international levels. Recent approaches to making sense of this complexity have drawn on concepts such as multi-level governance, relational assets, integration, innovation, and learning regions. These new regionalist concepts have become increasingly global in their formation and application, yet there has been little critical analys...
On March 20, 2019, Dr. Ryan Gibson and Ashleigh Weeden (PhD Student & Research Assistant, University of Guelph) joined Gemma Mendez-Smith (Executive Director, Four County Labour Market Planning Board) and Patrick Jilesen (Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture) to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the current labour market in Western Ontario. Hosted by the Town of Saugeen Shores, the event focused on the specific challenges facing the fa
Graduate students in the Rural Planning and Development program at the University of Guelph will be able to take a course this winter focused on building healthy rural communities. Dr. Wayne Caldwell is teaching an online course titled, "Healthy Rural and Small Town Communities". The course builds on recent research and publications, such as the Healthy Rural Communities Toolkit. As part of the course, Dr. Gibson shared perpsectives from recent r
Authors from across Canada and internationally hosted a webinar to highlight the key stories from a new publication called From Black Horses to White Steeds: Building Community Resilience. The book celebrates and critiques the dynam- ics of innovation, governance, and culture in place. Case studies from both sides of the North Atlantic illustrate episodes of “turning around”: evolution, transformation, and visionary strategy that breath
On March 15, 2017, researchers explored how you can use social media more effectively to engage your stakeholder and encourage knowledge mobilization between partners and colleagues. A six-person panel put a spotlight on some of the successful social media initiatives from across the country. The webinar included presentations from:
Bojan Furst: Manager of Knowledge Mobilization at Memorial University's Harris Centre will provide a quick introdu
During the recent Our Way Forward: Sharing Knowledge and Building Capacity for Regional Development conference Dr. Gibson participated in a radio/webinar interview on regional governance. The interview with Dr. Kelly Vodden was live broadcast on radio in the Northern Peninsula region during the conference and has been recently posted online. The discussion focused on how communities can explore regional governance models to address regional oppor
