This is the first entry in what I hope will become a conversation between you, Friends of Shawville, and me, Lyndal Neelin, a PhD student at Carleton University. This on-line forum is an important piece in the research project that will become my doctoral dissertation. I am exploring the the ability of a community to accommodate change without changing its own character, an ability I am calling ‘resilience’. Shawville, a great example of community resilience, is my case study.
The first part of my research asks how individuals and communities hold on to a sense of their identity and manage day-to-day decisions during times of change. I want to identify the strategies and resources communities make use of to keep their balance when what counts for ‘common sense’ changes. The second part of my project examines the potential costs of our ability to adapt. Social and environmental scientists who study resilience are concerned that some of the things we do to manage change make us less flexible and more vulnerable in the long run. I want to explore the possibility that how we manage change (the resources and strategies we use) might be making us (individuals, communities, and species) less resilient over time.
Shawville has experienced many social, political and economic changes since 1976. I want to discover which changes stand out in your mind as being the most significant; which moments and events you remember, and what you remember about them. I am particularly interested to learn what strategies and resources you think were most helpful to the community in managing the events that stand out for you. The objective of this research project is to offer an analysis of the present and future capacity for resilience of Shawville specifically, and small town, agricultural Canada more generally.
The first question I’d like to hear your responses to is “What makes this community (Shawville or The Pontiac) distinct from other small towns and rural communities”? Often the media make it sound as if all small towns are pretty much alike. I would like to hear your thoughts about what stands out for you about this community in particular. Shawville boosterism is okay, but answers that relate to what makes Shawville Shawville are obviously more helpful than answers that talk about why Shawville is the best.
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Wealth is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of Shawville. If the politics does not affect the individual's wealth, then it is not a topic of discussion.
ReplyDeleteCollective wealth is another issue. Shawville gets organized for the services it needs and that's it.
In french we say "autosuffisance". Self sufficienccy (?spelling). Shawville is self suffisant. The rest may crumble, be we stand.
Wealth? In Shawville? What kind of 'wealth'?
ReplyDeleteI would suggest that Shawville's diaspora and the way its connections tie Shawville to the outside world are important to examine. The politics of Quebec have been to try to ghettoize the francophone communities, and marginalize the english, so how the diaspora (english & french) transcends that might be worth looking at.