Changing paradigms?: Rural communities, agriculture, and corporate and civic models of development in Atlantic Canada

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine a model of corporate and civic communities as it relates to change in rural Atlantic Canada. The aim is to frame questions relevant to what appears to be a situation of changing paradigms. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is largely conceptual. An exploration of Lyson's model of corporate and civic communities, review of selected Atlantic Canada historiography, and preliminary findings of a research consultation offer understanding of the historical and changing paradigmatic terrain of rural communities and agriculture in Atlantic Canada. Selected issues, emerging from the literature as well as from a series of consultations held with farmers, rural non-profits, policy makers, businesses, agricultural groups and others, are examined in the context of the region's past and the corporate and civic models outlined by Lyson. Atlantic historiography is discussed in view of contemporary challenges, and questions relevant to change in the region are raised and framed. Findings – Increasingly vulnerable to a number of provincially, regionally, nationally and globally formulated challenges, Atlantic Canada's rural communities have been and are being reshaped, as is the agriculture being practiced within them. In the midst of these upheavals, a practice-policy “dis-connect” is making it unclear how alternative agricultural and rural community developmental paradigms might be actualized in the region. But some of these challenges are not new. Research limitations/implications – The research consultation is at the beginning stages, and thus results reported are speculative. Practical implications – Lessons from the Atlantic past, and Lyson's civic model, may provide guideposts toward a more ecologically-sound and economically-viable way for the future of rural communities and agriculture in the region. Originality/value – This paper raises key questions that take into account the region's rural past and changing paradigms pertaining to agriculture and rural communities.