Review of The Trajectories of Rural Life: New Perspectives on Rural Canada Edited by Raymond Blake and Andrew Nurse

摘要

The Trajectories of Rural Life presents papers from a Saskatchewan Institute of Public Policy conference designed to go "beyond the myths of rural Canada's past to develop a clear picture of the present reality from all perspectives .... " This could be a complicated project. The chapters range from research reports to policy essays, with notable diversity in terms of discipline and approach. Despite some lack of clarity in overall concept, many of the contributions shine through. In addition to chapters on the cultural reconstruction of rural life in Quebec, minority experiences in rural Atlantic Canada, family violence in rural New Brunswick, the underrepresentation of women in rural politics, and the need to include urban as well as rural populations in any adequate model of Aboriginal self-government, more than half the papers have a distinctly Canadian Prairies focus.