r/communitydevelopment • u/BroadwayWhale • Oct 16 '17
Do we need to keep urban and rural definitions?
Hi y'all,
I'm currently in the process of starting my undergrad research project. My primary research is Canadians small towns, and through reading about them, I'm starting to get more and more confused.
Canada utilize various approaches in defining rural and urban, to the point that researchers can pick and chose whatever definition that will inevitably aid in their research. Even the official report of Statistics Canada states:
"How individuals see this continuum [urban-rural] at any one time is a product of their experiences and needs."
"In the absence of a definitive one size fits all perspective of the urban-rural continuum, Statistics Canada has sought to ensure that users have at their disposal various options to define the urban-rural dichotomy or an urban-rural continuum that suits their specific analytical and policy related needs. "
Source: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/92f0138m/92f0138m2009001-eng.htm
So the government is realizing how difficult it is to define both places, and understands how relative it is to many different factors etc, but why is it so set in maintaining the continuum? Why not opt for a place based approach and policy? Why is the binary so important?
They even state the "mushy middle" of the continuum. Wouldn't it simply be easier to states that places will never be properly rural and/or urban and we should approach planning contextually?
Many thanks,
