Students improving life: Using innovative public policy to improve rural communities

Building vibrant rural communities requires innovation, redefining policy in rural contexts, and stepping outside of your comfort zone.

Ashleigh Weeden, PhD candidate in rural studies, is an advocate for rural communities and improving life through place-based, innovative public policy.

She completed her undergraduate in international development studies at the University of Guelph and soon realized that the policy work she was driven towards required a master’s degree. Ashleigh set out to the west coast to complete a master’s in public administration (MPA) at the University of Victoria.

Following her MPA, Ashleigh worked almost entirely in local government, starting with the Region of Waterloo, followed by the City of London, and then moving onto Grey County. 

Through a variety of projects connected to local and community development, Ashleigh ended up working on the Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) rural broadband project, where she met Dr. Helen Hambly, a professor in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD). It was at Dr. Hambly’s encouragement that Ashleigh began to consider opportunities to research the role of innovation policy in rural communities. Dr. Hambly connected Ashleigh with Dr. Ryan Gibson, who further encouraged and supported Ashleigh’s interest in the rural studies program by agreeing to supervise her research.

“It was the only PhD program I considered. The only one I applied to, and that's on the strength of the rural focus in the rural studies program,” says Ashleigh. “The work done in SEDRD and across the University of Guelph arguably represents one of the most significant investments in rural research in Canada. Getting to learn from some of the world’s pre-eminent leaders in rural studies and being at the heart of so much that goes on in rural research has just been such a joy.”

Her research is looking at innovation systems around two different nuclear energy sites, one located in Ontario and the other in Scotland. 

“My dissertation explores how place-based contexts and public policy influence rural innovation by examining two contrasting experiences with the nuclear sector,” says Ashleigh. “In Canada, Bruce Power has been renewed to 2065 and is having a massive impact on social and economic development in southwestern Ontario, while in northern Scotland, the decommissioning of the Dounreay nuclear site has been ongoing since the 1990s and is pushing communities to consider ways to transfer the skills and knowledge from the nuclear sector to new activities, including a satellite launch pad,” says Ashleigh. 

She says there are interesting comparisons between the two sites, with both navigating the challenges and opportunities brought by economic intensification and diversification, demographic change, climate change, and a complex relationship to urban centres. Her research takes a deeper dive into how rural innovation is framed in public policy, the type of investments made (or not made) in rural development, and the people who are leading the way in championing rural innovation. Her goal is to highlight points where rural communities and policy makers can intervene to support vibrant, prosperous futures by investing in and leveraging the place-based qualities that make rural regions unique. 

“The common saying in rural research is that ‘if you’ve seen one rural community, you’ve seen one rural community’ – but there is a tendency to import policy from Europe, United Kingdom, or United States and we plunk it down somewhere in Canada and expect it to work the same there as it did in its original context - and then we wonder why it fails or performs unexpectedly,” says Ashleigh. “Similarly, we expect that the kinds of investments we put in place in one rural community in Canada will work in all rural communities, and we know that that's just not true. My goal is not to provide a particular policy prescription, but to highlight different processes that shape rural innovation so that rural people can take control of their own futures.”

Ashleigh is nearing completion on her dissertation and is excited about how her findings can improve life by using better understanding of place-based innovation to inform more robust, responsive, and adaptive rural policy. 

“Through the opportunities I've been afforded at the University of Guelph, I’ve had the pleasure of developing and using my skills and knowledge to engage in and contribute to critical conversations in contemporary public policy. I’m proud to be a Gryphon and grateful for the strong foundation I’ve received in SEDRD that will allow me to continue shaping contemporary rural policy today and well into the future.”