Publisher's Synopsis
Rural communities have been profoundly affected by recent political-economic, demographic and cultural change. In Canada, the impacts of these changes are all about us: in the absolute population declines in Saskatchewan and Newfoundland, in the crises of the east and west coast fisheries, in the farm crisis, in serious ecological problems, and in the reorientation of rural social services. There is a tendency to view these problems in stark terms: as part of a qualitatively new era in Canadian history triggered, perhaps, by the forces of "globalization" or "urbanization" or the rise of the "service sector economy." In important ways, however, the problems of rural Canada are not particularly new. Rural migration, pollution, wildlife conservation, and other matters have been long-standing, persistent concerns of rural Canadians. This book attempts to both resist the seemingly persistent urge to romanticize and prognosticate about rural Canada and the people who live geographically outside the urban environment and suggest different ways of looking at rural life. In this sense, its goal is to build upon an increasingly strong base of research and writing on rural Canada to suggest different perspectives on the countryside, the small town, the environment, and the landscape.
