Building a Community Wealth Plan: A community-based participatory approach to inclusive economic development in a rural resource-dependent Alberta community

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Mayan, Maria

• SSHRC PDG awarded 2024: This project builds on existing research partnerships in a rural town of Alberta (population 7,000) and seeks to establish new partnerships with diverse, intersectoral community organizations. As a result of these challenges, the Town is keen to try alternative and novel approaches to economic development to address the resultant economic and social consequences. This project employs a community wealth building (CWB) approach. CWB is a unique approach to economic development that prioritizes local, democratic and broad-based ownership and control of economic assets, and measures economic success by achieving equitable economic outcomes. Common CWB strategies include the establishment of inclusive and democratic enterprise, locally rooted finance, policies which encourage fair working conditions (e.g. living wage policies), just use of land, and progressive procurement. A key objective of CWB, and this project, is to "build wealth, reduce poverty, and foster sustainable development" within the community. This project represents a critical opportunity to experiment with alternative, equitable and sustainable economic models for just transition at an urgent time and in an unlikely place.

• Date created

  2023-11-06

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Partnership Developmen Grant
  • PDG
  • SSHRC
  • Community Wealth Building
  • Rural Development
  • Community Development
  • Community-Based Participatory Research
  • Urban, Rural and Regional Economics
  • Interdisciplinary Studies
  • Poverty
  • Social Development and Welfare
  • Western Canada
  • North America

• Type of Item

  Research Material

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-qdbe-1463

• License

  ©️Mayan, Maria. All rights reserved other than by permission. This document embargoed to those without UAlberta CCID until 2030.