Broader political and economic changes are dramatically reshaping rural and small-town communities in British Columbia and across Canada. Increasingly, however, much of the responsibility for community-based prosperity and survival is falling to communities themselves.

This book is drawn from a three-year participatory research project with four communities in British Columbia: two municipalities and two Aboriginal communities. The first part of the book examines historical and contemporary forces of restructuring, linking the development of rural communities with the legacy of resource development and Aboriginal marginalization across the province. The second part of the book presents the theoretical and practical dynamics of the community economic development (CED) process and outlines a variety of strategies communities can initiate to diversify their local economies.

Second Growth advances understanding of local development by addressing two important deficiencies in the CED literature. First, CED is a rapidly expanding field that requires enhanced theoretical direction and historical analysis. Second, there is a need for systematic case study analyses of CED strategies in rural, small-town conditions. As communities struggle to confront complex forces of change, sound theoretical frameworks and tested best practices are important tools in facilitating the prospects for a second growth in rural and small-town communities.

The book will appeal to educators and students of rural and economic geography, policy makers, and citizens who wish to better understand the transformations taking place across the rural landscape.

Sean Markey is an associate professor with the School or Resource and Envrionmental Management and an associate with the Centre for Sustainable Community Development at Simon Fraser University.

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Kelly Vodden is a research professor with the Environmental Policy Institute and Associate Vice-President of Research and Graduate Studies at the Grenfell Campus of Memorial University. She has been engaged in the rural community and regional development research, policy, and practice across the country, particularly in Newfoundland and Labrador, for more than 25 years. She has published and led projects on topics ranging from rural regional governance and development models to climate change adaptation, rural drinking water systems, and labour force mobility, and has written and presented widely on these topics.

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Mark Roseland is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Community Development at Simon Fraser University and a professor in SFU's Department of Geography. A former editor of RAIN Magazine and North American editor of Local Environment, his publications include Eco-City Dimensions: Healthy Communities, Healthy Planet (New Society, 1997). He lectures internationally, advises communities and governments on sustainable development policy and planning, and participates actively in sustainable community development projects in Vancouver and elsewhere.

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This theoretically rich, community economic development (CED) work, written by four members of the Centre for Sustainable Community Development (formerly the Community Economic Development Centre) at Simon Fraser University, is the product of a three-year participatory-action-based research project involving four “forest-based” British Columbia communities. This book offers many useful insights into the complexity of CED theory and practice for communities that seek to assert some control over their economic and political futures.

Canadian Journal of Political Science

This is an especially well-documented and insightful account of conceptualising and operationalizing CED ... This book adds extra layers to our understanding of staples and resource-dependency theory, provides rich case-study documentation and reflections of the serious constraints and difficulties encountered in the case communities and explores dimensions of what might make up good-practice CED. The book offers hope, at least of how communities might fashion realistic hopes in their own terms.

Environment and Planning A, 2005, vol. 37

The “how-tos” of research are beautifully laid out, and the reader gets to follow a clear path from the conception of the project (literature review, theory, methodology) to its completion (data collection and analysis) ... Second Growth is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it.

BC Studies, Num. 148, Winter 2005/2006