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...