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 analysis of Canadian regional development policies and programs or the theories and concepts upon which many contemporary regional development strategies are implicitly based.

On June 19, 2019, a team of researchers delivered a webinar highlighting the results of five years of cutting-edge empirical and theoretical analysis of changes in Canadian regional development and the potential of new approaches for improving the well-being of Canadian communities and regions, with an emphasis on rural regions. Dr. Ryan Gibson presented research findings focused on rural governance in five case study regions from across Canada. The video recording from the webinar can be found here [1].  

The research team also recently published an edited volume with Routledge titled “The Theory, Practice and Potential of Regional Development“. Further information about the multi-year research initiative can be found at www.cdnregdev.ruralresilience.ca [2].