Women are an inherent and critical part of the global agri-food sector and are a valuable resource for farming within Canada. Women have important roles to play in addressing current challenges, such as rising land values, fluctuating and uncertain commodity markets, new disease risks and climate change. However, the role of women in agriculture has traditionally been less visible than that of men. Women are becoming more prominent in some subsectors...
Rural economic development practices are often applied under the same instances across all rural towns as it is believed that what will work for one rural town will work for the next. However, not all rural economic development practices work in smaller rural towns. I had the opportunity to attend the 2019 Teeny Tiny Town Summit on April 11th, 2019 in Orono, Ontario.
The day was spent learning from Peter Kenyon (a social capitalist and community enth...
Rural Canada is doing immigration differently. Although historically not sites of large-scale immigration, rural communities and regions throughout Canada continues to welcome new immigrants. This session explores how rural communities and regions are building strategies to attract, settle, welcome, and integrate new immigrants. These strategies, however, can not simply replicate urban-based strategies. This session highlights lessons learned from the pers...
During the 2019 Rural Symposium, five graduates supervised by Dr. Ryan Gibson, presented their research focused on evidence-based policy, rural policy interventions, rural innovation, opioid crisis, trail development, and rural infrastructure. Copies of the presentations and posters can be found below:
Making a Difference: Provincial Policy Reflections on Knowledge Mobilization (Ashleigh Weeden)
Creating Effective Rural Policies: Rural Lenses and thei...
Ashleigh Weeden (PhD student, School of Environmental Design & Rural Development, University of Guelph) will share insights and reflections on knowledge mobilization and provincial rural policy through a webinar hosted by Joshua Barrett and the Rural Policy Learning Commons on March 19, 2019 at 3:00pm (EST).
Titled "What’s the evidence on evidence-based policy? Reflections on knowledge mobilization in provincial rural policy," the webinar will share i...
Communities across rural Ontario are exploring new strategies for economic development opportunities. In partnership with the Ontario Good Roads Association, rural planning and development students in the economic development course discussed the future of rural economic development with over 150 municipal leaders from across Ontario. Building on Michael Fenn's report on the six megatrends impacting rural Ontario, students facilitated a series of small gro
A new research initiative aimed at investigating the influence of rural communities' capacity to respond to infrastructure challenges on their immediate and long-term economic development potential is underway. Dr. Ryan Gibson is the lead investigator of the project, which includes researchers and policy experts from across Canada, including University of Guelph PhD student Ashleigh Weeden.
Funded through the research partnership program between the Ont...
On January 24, 2019 Ashleigh Weeden (PhD Student, School of Environmental Design & Rural Development) presented her early-stage research on place-based rural innovation systems at the 2019 European Regional Science Association's (ERSA) Winter School, co-hosted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Trento, Italy.
The 2019 ERSA/OECD Winter School was themed around spatial productivity and local development and Ms. Weed...
Ashleigh Weeden (PhD Student, University of Guelph) shared insights on rural innovation and community story-telling with the Community Foundations of Canada's Rural Philanthropy Learning Community during an intensive webinar on January 10th, 2019 alongside Arthur Bull from the Rural Communities Foundation of Nova Scotia. The webinar focused on rural innovation, the role of philanthropy and its connection to resilient rural communities.
For more informat...
Alex Petric's recent thesis is now available online! You can download Beyond the Smart City: Assessing Open Data in Rural Ontario from the Univeristy of Guelph's Atrium website: https://atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca/xmlui/handle/10214/14704.
