COURSE NUMBER: POLS 434
INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Tracy L Summerville
OFFICE: Admin 3067
E-MAIL: summervi@unbc.ca
PHONE NUMBER: 960-6637
OFFICE HOURS: TBA
This syllabus and other information regarding Political Science at UNBC can be found at:
This course is an examination of issues facing rural, remote and northern resource communities across Canada. It compares issues across Canada’s provincial norths as well as has a specific focus on northern British Columbia. Issues discussed include, among other things, the economic realities of globalization, the issues of identity for resource communities, and the issue of urban policy decision processes on rural, remote and northern regions.
Among other things, students will be able to:
1. Roger Epp and Dave Whitson. Writing Off the Rural West: Globalization, and the Transformation of Rural Communities. Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 2001.
2. Ken Coates and William Morrison. The Forgotten North: A History of the Provincial Norths. Toronto: James Lorimer & Company, Publishers, 1992.
3. Reading package available from UNBC bookstore.
4. Buckley, Joanne. Fit To Print: The Canadian Student’s Guide to Essay Writing. 5th Edition. Toronto: Harcourt Brace & Company, Canada, 2001.
COURSE ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADE WEIGHTING
|
Assignment |
Due Date |
Grade Weighting |
|
Participation in class discussions of readings |
May 9 –13th |
30% |
|
Paper |
May 31st |
40% |
|
Presentations |
May 13th |
30% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Extensions on assignments are not permitted, except in case of illness or due serious extenuating circumstance. In the event of illness or serious extenuating circumstance, the student must inform the instructor before the due date, and documentary evidence of the illness or serious extenuating circumstance must be provided to the instructor. In addition, the student must also provide the instructor with a draft of his or her assignment at the time of the illness or serious circumstance that indicates that substantial progress has already been made towards a final product. Assignments that are not submitted on the due date receive a grade of zero.
Pre-course Work
Please ensure all course readings are done by the first day of class, May 9th. Please make sure you have notes for the readings so that you can refer to them in class discussions. Students will be expected to be able to discuss the readings in a seminar setting.
Paper: Primary Research Project:
Students will be required to write a 15 page paper that incorporates both primary and secondary research on resource communities in transition. Students may choose to focus on one community or do a comparative study. The details of the project will be discussed in the first class.
Presentation: The Prince Rupert Port Development
Depending on class size, students will be required to work in groups of 2 or 3 and prepare a presentation for the class that will look at the primary actors involved in the Port Development Project in Prince Rupert.
COURSE SCHEDULE
|
Date |
Subject |
Approximate Time |
Activity |
Readings and Videos |
|
May 9 |
Welcome |
8:30-10:00 |
Ice Breaker; Syllabus |
|
|
May 9 |
Break |
10:00-10:30 |
|
|
|
May 9 |
Social Capital andPutting “The North” on the map” |
10:30-12:00 |
Class Discussion of Reading |
Robert D. Putnam. “Social Capital and Institutional Success.” Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy Princeton, Hew Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993: 163-185.
Dave Whitson. “Nature as Playground: Recreation and Gentrification in the Mountain West.” In Roger Epp and Dave Whitson. Writing Off the Rural West: Globalization, and the Transformation of Rural Communities. Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 2001:145-164.
Ken Coates and William Morrison. The Forgotten North: A History of the Provincial Norths.” Toronto: James Lorimer & Company, Publishers, 1992. |
|
May 9 |
Lunch |
12:00-1:00 |
|
|
|
May 9 |
Preparation for Primary Research Project |
1:00-4:20 |
|
|
|
May 10 |
Ideology: Left / Right Urban / Rural North / South Regionalism |
8:30-10:00 |
Class Discussion of Reading |
Roger Epp and Dave Whitson. “Writing Off the Rural Communities? In Roger Epp and Dave Whitson. Writing Off the Rural West: Globalization, and the Transformation of Rural Communities. Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 2001: xiii-xxxc.
Ken Coates. “Northland: the Past, Present and Future of Northern British Columbia in An Age of Globalization.” In Roger Epp and Dave Whitson. Writing Off the Rural West: Globalization, and the Transformation of Rural Communities. Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 2001:109-125. |
|
May 10 |
Break |
10:00-10:30 |
|
|
|
May 10 |
Ideology: Left / Right Urban / Rural North / South Regionalism |
10:30-12:00 |
Class Discussion of Reading |
|
|
May 10 |
Lunch |
12:00-1:00 |
|
|
|
May 10 |
Research / Guest Lecture |
1:00-4:20 |
|
|
|
May 11 |
Conflict in Rural Communities
|
8:30-10:00 |
Class Discussion of Reading |
Bruce Milne. “The Politics of Development on the Sunshine Coast.” In Roger Epp and Dave Whitson. Writing Off the Rural West: Globalization, and the Transformation of Rural Communities. Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 2001:185-202.
Murray Mandryk. “Uneasy Neighbours: White-Aboriginal Relations and Agricultural Decline.” In Roger Epp and Dave Whitson. Writing Off the Rural West: Globalization, and the Transformation of Rural Communities. Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 2001:205-221.
Cameron Harder. “Overcoming Cultural and Spiritual Obstacles to Rural Revitalization.” In Roger Epp and Dave Whitson. Writing Off the Rural West: Globalization, and the Transformation of Rural Communities. Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 2001:223-246.
|
|
May 11 |
Break |
10:00-10:30 |
|
|
|
May 11 |
Conflict in Rural Communities |
10:30-12:00 |
Class Discussion of Reading |
|
|
May 11 |
Lunch |
12:00-1:00 |
|
|
|
May 11 |
Research / Guest Lecture |
1:00-4:20 |
|
|
|
May 12 |
Globalization, Transition and Networking
|
8:30-9:30 |
Class Discussion of Reading |
Roger Epp. “The Political De-skilling of Rural Communities.” In Roger Epp and Dave Whitson. Writing Off the Rural West: Globalization, and the Transformation of Rural Communities. Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 2001: 301-324.
William Ramp and Mustafa Koc. “Global Investment and Local Politics.” In Roger Epp and Dave Whitson. Writing Off the Rural West: Globalization, and the Transformation of Rural Communities. Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 2001: 53-70.
Maureen Reed. “Local Politics in the Provincial Norths: Struggles in Resource Management and Economic Development.” In Margaret E. Johnston ed. Geographic Perspectives on the Provincial Norths. Thunder Bay, Ontario: Centre for Northern Studies Northern and Regional Studies Series, Volume 3, 1994: 249-250. |
|
May 12 |
Break |
9:30-10:00 |
|
|
|
May 12 |
Globalization, Transition and Networking
|
10:00-12:00 |
Sheila Dobbie |
|
|
May 12 |
Lunch |
12:00-1:00 |
|
|
|
May 12 |
Research / Guest Lecture |
1:00-4:20 |
|
|
|
May 13 |
Globalization, Transition, Networking and Regionalism
|
8:30-10:00
|
Class Discussion of Reading |
Ian Urquhart. “Blind Spots in the Mirror: Livelihood and The Cheviot Debate.” In Roger Epp and Dave Whitson. Writing Off the Rural West: Globalization, and the Transformation of Rural Communities. Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 2001: 127-144.
Mary Louise McAllister. “Grounding Environmental Policy: Rural and Remote Communities in Canada.” Second Edition Debora L. VanNijnatten and Robert Boardman eds. Canadian Environmental Policy: Context and Cases. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press, 2002: 233-252;
Quigley, Sir George. “Perspectives on Regional Inequalities and Regional Growth.” In Trevor C. Salmon and Michael Keating, eds. The Dynamics of Decentralization: Canadian Federalism and British Devolution. Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001:163-174.
|
|
May 13 |
Break |
10:00-10:30 |
|
|
|
May 13 |
Globalization, Transition, Networking and Regionalism |
10:30-12:00 |
Jim Rushton, Manager Prince Rupert & Port Edward Economic Development Corporation
|
|
|
May 13 |
Lunch |
12:00-1:00 |
|
|
|
May 13 |
Student Presentations |
1:00-4:20 |
|
|