Barb Neis, Project Director

Barbara is also a University Research Professor in the Department of Sociology and Co-Director of the SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Research at Memorial University. Through the On the Move Project, Barb's focus is on employment-related geographical mobility and its impacts on workers and their families, employers, and home and host communities.

E-mail: onthemove@mun.ca
Project website: http://www.onthemovepartnership.ca

Resource Royalties: Returns to Resource Producing Rural Regions

Neil Argent

Neil’s research interests centre on understanding the factors and processes that make robust and sustainable rural communities. Neil has been working with our team on the Resource Royalties project, as well as part of the International Collaboration Research Group examining the transformation of rural regions.

E-mail: nargent@une.edu.au

Fiona Haslam McKenzie

Fiona is the Co-Director and Senior Principal Research Fellow at the Centre for Regional Development at the University of Western Australia. Her research interests focus on the socio-economic impact of different workforce arrangements for the mining industry and uneven economic development in Western Australia, including issues of competitiveness, resilience, and spatial integration.
E-mail: fiona.haslam-mckenzie@uwa.edu.au

Rural Policy Learning Commons

Bill Ashton

Bill Ashton is the Director of the Rural Development Institute at Brandon University in Brandon, Manitoba. Bill is also the Project Director for the RPLC.

E-mail: Ashtonw@brandonu.ca
Website: http://rplc-capr.ca

Bill Reimer

Bill Reimer is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University in Montréal and Adjunct Professor at Brandon University. From 1997 to 2008, he directed a Canadian national research project on the New Rural Economy which included 13 universities, 35 partners, and 32 rural communities from all parts of Canada (http://nre.concordia.ca). He is also the former Director of the RPLC.

Website: http://www.billreimer.net    

Our Past Partners

International Collaboration Research Group to Examine Rural and Regional Restructuring

Roger Hayter

Roger is a geography professor at Simon Fraser University with interests in the relationships between institutions, industrial organization, location and regional development. Our team worked with Roger through the International Collaboration Research Group to examine rural and regional restructuring.
E-mail: hayter@sfu.ca
Website: https://www.sfu.ca/geography/people/profiles/roger-hayter.html

Markku Tykkyläinen

Markku is a professor in the Department of Geographical and Historical Studies at the University of Eastern Finland.  His research interests focus on rural, social, and economic geography all with an interest in the changing conditions for natural resource and environmental land uses.  Markku worked with our team as part of the International Collaboration Research Group examining rural transformation in resource-based regions.

E-mail: markku.tykkylainen@uef.fi

Sean Connelly

Sean Connelly is a lecturer in the Geography Department at the University of Otago in New Zealand.  His research interests focus on the social economy and community mobilization for sustainable community development.  Our research team engaged with Sean through the International Collaboration Research Group examining the restructuring and transformation of rural regions.

E-mail: sean.connelly@otago.ac.nz

Etienne Nel

Etienne is a professor in the Geography Department at the University of Otago in New Zealand. His primary research interests lie in economic geography, local economic development, urban geography and livelihood strategies. Our research team worked with Etienne through the International Collaboration Research Group examining the transformation of rural regions.

E-mail: etienne.nel@otago.ac.nz

Homes Beyond Homes: Multiple Dwelling and Everyday Living in Leisure Spaces (Hobo)

Mervi Hiltunen

Mervi is a researcher with the Centre for Tourism Studies at the University of Eastern Finland.  Her research focuses on second home tourism with closely related interests in multi-place attachment and mobility.  Our CRC team has been working with Mervi on the Homes Beyond Homes Project.

E-mail: mervi.hiltunen@uef.fi
Website: http://www.uef.fi/en/secondhomes/people

Dieter Müller

Dieter Müller is professor in social and economic geography and dean of the faculty of social science. Dieter Müller has research interests with respect to tourism and regional development, mobility and tourism in peripheral areas. Our research team engaged with Dieter on the HOBO Project.
E-mail: dieter.muller@umu.se

Mia Vepsäläinen

Mia Vepsäläinen is a human geographer with research interests focused on second home tourism, cultural representations, post-productive change of environmental orientation, and environmental conflicts as well as social and regional equality of mobility. Our CRC team has been engaging with Mia on the HOBO Project.
E-mail: mia.vepsalainen@uef.fi

Kati Pitkänen

Kati Pitkänen works as a researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute. Her research interests focus on second home tourism, tourism landscapes, rural development, and the green economy. Our team engaged with Kati on the HOBO project.
E-mail: kati.pitkanen@ymparisto.fi

Seija Tuulentie

Dr. Seija Tuulentie works as a senior researcher at the Finnish Forest Research Institute, METLA, Rovaniemi Research Unit. As a sociologist, her research focuses on the interactions and negotiations between different actors related to the use of natural resources. Our research team worked with Seija on the HOBO project.

E-mail: seija.tuulentie@metla.fi

Eeva Furman

Professor Eeva Furman is the director for the Environmental Policy Centre at the Finnish environment institute SYKE. Her research interests include policy effectiveness, mechanisms of problem oriented and policy relevant knowledge production and transfer and socio-ecological processes. Our team worked with Eeva through the HOBO project.

E-mail: eeva.furman@ymparisto.fi

C. Michael Hall

C. Michael Hall is a Professor at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand and the leader of the HOBO research consortium. His research has focused on tourism related mobility, servicescapes, amenity and entrepreneurial migration, and the geography of tourism and recreation. 

E-mail: michael.hall@canterbury.ac.nz

The Transformative Role of Voluntarism in Aging Resource Communities

Mark Skinner

Dr. Mark Skinner Ph.D., Canada Research Chair in Rural Aging, Trent University, is a health geographer with expertise in rural aging, voluntarism, and health care. Our research team engaged with Mark on The Transformative Role of Voluntarism in Aging Resource Communities Project.
E-mail: markskinner@trentu.ca
Website: www.trentu.ca/aging

Neil Hanlon

Dr. Neil Hanlon, Professor in the Geography Program at UNBC, is a health geographer with expertise on rural and remote health and health care. Our research team worked with Neil on the Transformative Role of Voluntarism in Aging Resource Communities Project.
E-mail: neil.hanlon@unbc.ca
Website: https://www.unbc.ca/neil-hanlon

Alun Joseph

Dr. Alun Joseph is University Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences at Guelph University. Over the last thirty years, Dr. Joseph has researched and published extensively on rural studies focusing specifically on the delivery of health and social services to rural populations. Our team has worked with Alun on the Transformative Role of Voluntarism in Aging Resource Communities Project.
E-mail: ajoseph@uoguelph.ca

Rachel Winterton, Ph.D.

Dr. Rachel Winterton is a Research Fellow at the John Richards Initiative at La Trobe University. Her research explores how communities and local agencies are managing and responding to challenges posed by local population ageing through systems of governance and health/social infrastructure.  Rachel worked with our team on a project about community-based research, and she was also a contributor to a book about the transformative role of voluntarism in aging resource communities.

E-mail: r.winterton@latrobe.edu.au

Kieran Walsh

Dr. Kieran Walsh is Senior Research Fellow on Project Lifecourse and Deputy Director at the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology at NUI Galway. Kieran has worked primarily in the areas of environmental gerontology and infrastructures of care. This has included studies on rural ageing and social exclusion, older adult community and voluntary activity, the impact of assistive technology on the lives of older people. Kieran worked with our team on a project about community-based research, and he also was a contributor to a book about the transformative role on voluntarism and aging resource communities.

E-mail: Kieran.walsh@nuigalway.ie

Sustainable Development in the Circumpolar North

Tor-Arne Gjertsen

Dr. Gjertsen is an Associate Professor at the UiT Arctic University of Norway. He is an expert in local and regional development in the Circumpolar North, with a particular interest in governance and networks. He founded, and led until 2013, the University of the Arctic’s successful Thematic Network on Local and Regional Development in the North. Our team engaged with Tor on a project examining sustainable development in the circumpolar north, and he was also a contributor to a book about the transformative role of voluntarism in aging resource communities.

E-mail: tor-arne.gjertsen@uit.no