Pat a visiting scholar with the World Leisure Centre of Excellence presented at VIU on Tuesday the 16 of October 2012. Pat started his presentation by providing a definition of the following:
- Periphery: is a location on earth that is often consider rural or remote, has access issues and is removed from rural populations
- Sustainability: sustainability is a context dependent subject, some realities have limited infrastructure and due to their reality this means approaching different sustainability issues. These issues are all interlocked into three main categories ecological, socio-cultural, and economic. Sustainability does not always mean “green”. It is a balance.
- Innovation: firstly innovation is not the implementation of “daily business” as in the opening and operating of a normal business, innovation is the implementation of a new idea or concept that is often out of the norm. People often associate innovation as merely technological improvements, this is just one piece of innovation.
- Change: this involves action it is the occurrence that happens often after innovation has been implemented.
Pat provided these definitions from his interpretation as he felt it was essential to the understanding of his presentation. He then drew upon four examples: Burns Lake, Gwaii Haanas – and Torngat Mountains NP, New Zealand , and Antarctica all of which he had visited for work and studies. Pats intention was to show how some cases are context dependent, based on the realities that each location faces, where others are more cross applicable as ideas can be shared and implemented in other locations. Often we study the successes of community development where it might be more beneficial to analyse the failures, since this can be utilized as a warning to those considering the same idea.
Dr. Pat Maher (Visiting Scholar), Dr. Nicole Vaugeois (Co-Director WLCE), Joanne Schroeder (Co-Director WLCE) and Dr. Suzanne de la Barre (VIU). There is no one stop solution for every context, there is no golden egg concept to development. It is possible that sustainability can be this golden eggs theme. Good ideas come from everywhere so when considering the development of a community, look at other models that have been used regionally, nationally, and internationally as they are often cross-applicable. Finally the periphery zone is not inferior, and neither is the core (populated areas of the world) superior.
