A new peer-reviewed article titled “Revisiting rural economic development: New Localism’s potential in Canadian local government” shines a timely spotlight on the growing pressures facing rural communities across Canada. As local governments are increasingly asked to take on roles beyond basic services, many rural municipalities are struggling to keep up. Limited staff, tight budgets, and expanding responsibilities have created real challenges for communities that are already stretched thin.

This new article in Frontiers in Political Science takes a close look at how rural local governments are expected to manage these demands and why many existing governance approaches fall short. Through a systematic review of three dominant literatures (evolutionary economic geography, staples thesis, new public management) and one emerging literature (new localism) on rural development, this article addresses gaps in existing research and practice through creating a framework for rural local government. This framework provides a practical way to think about economic development, governance, and capacity at the local level.

This research was supported through funding from the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Take a read of this recent publication by Joshua Barrett and Ryan Gibson. The article is published as open access and is freely available to read and share.