From path dependency to path renewal? Opportunities for local government entrepreneurialism in historically resource-dependent rural communities

Keywords: rural, reform, path dependency, municipal entrepreneurialism
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

As communities seek to diversify their economies, these patterns of change become more complex as they are situated within state neoliberal policy environments that have reduced funding and offloaded more responsibilities onto local governments. As a part of this transition towards a market-oriented approach to governance, provincial governments are also encouraging municipalities to become more innovative and entrepreneurial. Drawing upon the case studies of Burns Lake, British Columbia and Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, we explore how small municipalities are using municipal entrepreneurial mechanisms to support transformative change that would lead to path emergence. As such, the research explores how rural municipal stakeholders are pursuing municipal entrepreneurial activities in order to recapture some semblance of centrality in the control of their economic destiny, as well as to regain vitality in their local community and economic development pathways. This provides an opportunity to address an important gap in the literature as much of the work surrounding evolutionary economic geography (EEG) has focused on exogenous factors (i.e. state policies and industry strategies) to change lock-in conditions in rural regions. Our findings suggest that municipalities are pursuing a variety of entrepreneurial strategies, including municipal enterprises and social enterprises, while leveraging municipal policies and place-based assets. Despite investments in entrepreneurial strategies, however, these small municipalities still struggle with internal debates to invest resources to meet new municipal responsibilities and increased demands on aging infrastructure and services versus transformative change.