Activity

The Right to be Rural began as a public lecture (video below), was published as an essay in The Dalhousie Review, inspired several sessions at academic conferences, and is now the impetus for an edited volume (Jennifer Jarman and Karen Foster, eds.) under review with University of Alberta Press. 

Read the essay here (library account required), or watch the video below, and watch this space for updates about the book.

Effective and sustainable environmental policy and advocacy is based on knowing what people think, and understanding how they perceive social and environmental issues. This study, funded by the Ocean Frontier Institute and as part of the larger Future Ocean Coastal Infrastructure (FOCI) project, examines the multiple, and potentially divergent, social perceptions of climate change among the general public, while also engaging experts, media, and policy network actors to build social capacity and knowledge mobilization in Atlantic Canada.

Local food movements argue that a reduction of food-miles has positive social, environmental and economic impacts. A full account of the costs of food production, however, needs to go beyond the path from food to plate and consider the wider set of translocal social and economic relations involved in local food production. Using a multi-method, ethnographic approach, this project examines the costs of local food production with special attention on the international labour migration that sustains Nova Scotia’s agricultural sector.

The study entails:

Dr. Foster's research on work and productivity inspired two non-academic publications in early June, both focused on the impacts of the COVID19 pandemic on working conditions and norms in Canadian workplaces. Read them here:

"The Day is Dawning on a Four Day Workweek," in The Conversation.

Official launch of the Knowledge Synthesis Report, Finding a Place in the World: Understanding Youth Outmigration from Shrinking Communities. With special guest, Ray Bollman (retired, Statistics Canada), on Rural Youth Out-migration: A look at some numbers.

Like most other parts of the world, Atlantic Canada is characterized by social inequality. There is considerable academic and public discourse about economic insecurity, but it focuses on income and expenditures, devoting comparatively less attention to how personal debt affects social inequality and the well-being of people and households in the region.

On July 9th, 2018, Dr. Foster sat down with Global News Halifax for an interview about her SSHRC-funded research on generations and work in Atlantic Canada.

In many countries, concerns are mounting around what will happen when the ‘Baby Boomers’ exit the labour force permanently. This SSHRC Insight project takes a critical look at rural occupational succession.

Governments and communities in Nova Scotia and around the world are struggling to meet the housing and independent living needs of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Pressure from self-advocates, families, caregivers, and service providers points to a significant unmet demand for resources to allow thousands of young adults with ASD to establish and maintain households of their own.

RFRC researcher and SOSA MA student Rachel McLay led a regional survey of Atlantic Canadians that asked about their political values and behaviours, and where they get their news. The survey was conducted in the RFRC by a team of undergraduate student interviewers and graduate student supervisors. Rachel and supervisor Howard Ramos wrote about it in Policy Options here.