Governance & Community Renewal in a Digital World: Prospects & Challenges

1. Governance & Community Renewal in a Digital World:Prospects & Challenges J. Roy, University of Ottawa / Victoria Tweed, October 15th, 2004

2. Session Overview • 1) Introduction - Three Questions • A Geo-Digital Divide • 2) From Cooperation to Collaboration • The Cases of Northern Ontario & Cape Breton • 3) Conclusions • Future Research Directions

3. 1) Three Questions • Can all cities and towns survive and flourish? • Are we doing enough to empower small towns and non-metropolitan regions? • Does the Internet guarantee a successful rural and small town renewal?

4. The Geo-Digital Divide • Market forces favour urbanization • Demographic flows follow • A centralized public sector (federally & provincially) does the same • 21st Century Canada as a nation of cities • Rural communities & small towns are often left as the residual • To be assisted rather than empowered

5. 2) From Cooperation to Collaboration lCooperation - Informal relationships that exist without any commonly defined mission, structure or planning; and l Collaboration - A more durable and pervasive relationship involving shared structures and joint authority, a full commitment to a common mission and pooled resources, risks & rewards (Mattessich & al. 2001).

6. Collaborative Engagement • The current ‘cooperative’ focus of federal online assistance involves infrastructure • A more ‘collaborative’ approach must also seek to forge new institutions • Empowerment - information • Engagement – participation • Accountability - authority

7. Cape Breton & Northern Ontario • Local change is happening but inter-governmental structures are lagging • A more localized & collaborative culture across governments must be forged, with local empowerment (not assistance) as the goal • Working paper attached (on these two case studies)

8. Cape Breton & Northern Ontario • FedNor & ECBC • Agents of local change within federal structures • Federal decentralization (limited), but not devolution to communities • An absence of collaborative accountability

9. Cape Breton & Northern Ontario • Demographics & Youth: • The necessity of governance online in addressing demographic divides • Youth expectations • Technology disruptions • Community corporatism

10. 3) Conclusion • For stronger local capacities, the Internet must serve as a foundation to strengthen the endogenous drivers of all communities • Empowerment / Engagement / Accountability • Purposeful dialogue & participative development are keys

11. Participation must be seen more broadly and more powerfully as an opportunity to strengthen local democracy, empower citizens to influence the quality of life in their communities, and educate citizens more broadly about economic forces and trade-offs at play within their communities and beyond. • Kukensmeyer & Hasseblad Torres, 2003 • AmericaSpeaks

12. In the 21st century, communities can only survive and prosper by being something more than soulless zip codes of brick and glass inter-connected by fiber optic cables. More than anything, this reclaimed sense of civic spirit, not technology or government intervention, will determine how future communities secure their place in the geography of the digital age. • Joel Kotkin, The New Geography (2000)

13. A Next Step: SSHRC – CURA (with CRRF & FCM) • Exploring the emerging patterns of rural and urban development across the country • Economic & commuting flows versus civic and political capacities • Digital development as a new variable to assess • Re-aligning governance for both rural – urban independence and interdependence • Working with communities to gather data, develop case studies and undertake pilot projects aimed at governance experimentation

14. Thank You! • For any feedback or follow-up, please do not hesitate to be in touch: - jroy44@hotmail.com