Ashleigh Weeden, a PhD candidate in rural studies in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, appeared on TVO’s The Agenda to discuss some of the pitfalls of efforts to gentrify rural towns in Ontario.
Weeden was part of a panel discussion on how to restore and revitalize lagging rural towns.
She argued that community-led development strategies can be welcome in small communities – but only if they are based on inclusive frameworks and collaborative decision-making, rather than wealthy landowners moving in to encourage rural tourism or other strategies that are what Weeden called “extractive.”