Towards a Political Economy of Resource-dependent Regions

This book advances our understanding of resource-dependent regions in developed economies, exploring a range of geographical regions including Canada, USA, UK, Australia, and the Nordic countries. Resource production in remote, rural, and small town locations is certainly not new, and while change has always been a characteristic of these regions, the more rapid pace of transition and change for regions and economies through the contemporary global economy has been well underway for more than 30 years. How are we to understand these regions? How are we to understand the changes and transformations of their communities and economies? What elements in these changes reflect emergence, what elements reflect transition, and what elements reflect a continuity with the past? Where are the trajectories of change leading remote, rural, and small town resource-dependent regions? It is to these questions that this book is addressed.

This book advances our understanding of resource-dependent regions in developed economies in the 21st Century. It explores how rural and small town places are working to find success in a new economy marked by demographic, economic, social, cultural, political, and environmental change. How are we to understand the changes and transformations working through communities and economies? Where are the trajectories of change leading these resource-dependent places and regions? Drawing upon examples from Canada, USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and the Nordic countries, these and other questions are explored and addressed by constructing a critical political economy framework of resource hinterland transition.

Towards a Political Economy of Resource Dependent Regions is a key resource for students and researchers in geography, rural and industrial sociology, economics, environmental studies, political science, regional studies, and planning, as well as policy-makers, those in industry and the private sector, and local and regional development practitioners.