Laura Ryser

The accelerating impacts of climate change call for urgent action to decarbonize our socio-technical systems based on coal and oil. Frequently, these shifts involve decisions made in distal capital cities, or distant countries, that have significant impacts on resource-based communities. Among those impacts, we focus on temporal justice: the disjuncture between the timeframes of urgent decisions about transition options to meet policy objectives and the timeframes experienced by residents of regions affected by those decisions. This article reveals how these impacts fit within trajectories of change in energy-related resource-extracting regions through six case examples in Australasia (Hunter Valley, Latrobe Valley, West Coast region of New Zealand), Canada (Alberta), and Africa (Ghana, Zimbabwe). Each setting is at a different point in the mine lifecycle (from exploration and planning of new mines, through to closure, rehabilitation and relinquishment). Included are places where residents mourn the past glory days of coal to regions where closure is imminent, to regions wary of the rush to start new mines for energy transition minerals to support increases in electrification. Collectively, the case studies illustrate the varied complexity of energy transitions and how multiple forms of justice (environmental, procedural, recognition, restorative, distributive and intergenerational) shape the key issues and required responses to transition challenges. The cases highlight the notion that a capacity for local communities to respond to these changes is impacted by embedded senses of identity, agency in the transition process, and a legacy of past activity and injustices. Because each of these factors takes time to work through, there is a disconnect between the urgency of transition due to growing global impacts and the time required for host communities to become effective participants in their own local transitions.

Housing is a key part of the sustainability discourse of any community. It can affect the recruitment and retention of workers and their families that, in turn, support the resilience of rural communities, businesses, and economies. The purpose of this paper is to examine the scalar dimensions of transition management to support socio-economic development and sustainable housing markets in small municipalities. Drawing from the case study of Canmore, Alberta, Canada, this chapter explores the power and governance dynamics that have unfolded through the municipality’s attempts to bring sustainability to its rapidly growing housing market, community, and economy. This endeavour is unfolding within complex and unclear statutory environments guiding the governance of municipal enterprises within the Province of Alberta. The research deepens our understanding of the governance processes guiding municipal enterprises, broadens our awareness of new approaches to sustainable rental and home ownership markets, and shares the use of community housing enterprises to support sustainable transitions with other municipalities in Canada and internationally.

Since the 1980s, Canadian municipalities have experienced pressures due to legislative/policy reforms and the downloading of responsibilities from senior governments. This shift has affected daily operations as municipalities struggle with outdated financial and jurisdictional structures. Such pressures have been exacerbated in Alberta by provincial and federal ‘coal phase-out’ policies, as the coal industry has historically been a primary source of revenue for some communities. In response, municipalities have engaged in processes to generate revenue, maintain service levels, and diversify their economies. This research, in Parkland County and Forestburg, Alberta, explores impacts and responses associated with top-down policy change. Results indicate that senior government supports were inadequate in the delivery of effective transition supports, which created challenges for local governments grappling with transition impacts. Municipalities have developed innovative and entrepreneurial solutions in transition, but the research outlines lessons and policy recommendations to better integrate municipalities into future transition policy and programs.

Municipal reform has accelerated since the 1980s, with municipalities learning to adjust to changes in responsibilities downloaded by senior governments. However, small municipalities struggle with outdated financial and jurisdictional structures as senior governments ask them to become more ‘entrepreneurial’ for a broader range of responsibilities. To date, little research has explored the influence of statutory settings that shape municipal powers, and hence, an understanding of the concept and associated processes pertaining to municipal entrepreneurialism. Drawing upon key informant interviews in four regions across Canada, this paper explores how small municipalities are generating revenue and other resources needed to address community and economic development priorities. Findings indicate that small municipalities are engaging in a variety of entrepreneurial activities, including municipal enterprises, social enterprises, and service contracts, while pursuing pro-active approaches to leverage place-based assets. These endeavours, however, are shaped by many dimensions of risk that underline the conceptualisation of municipal entrepreneurialism.

Debates about the future of small municipalities in Canada are set against a backdrop of economic, political, and social restructuring processes that have displaced former state investment policies in favour of neoliberal public policy approaches. Small municipalities struggle with outdated financial and governance structures and a provincial public policy agenda that asks them to become more creative, innovative, and “entrepreneurial” in their approach and responsibilities. Drawing upon key informant interviews with eight case studies in British Columbia, Canada, this research examines the tensions between municipal reforms mandated by the provincial government over the past 30 years and commensurate fiscal levers and capacities in place to address these broadening responsibilities for small municipalities in volatile staples‐dependent regions. Our findings demonstrate how successive provincial governments have mobilized New Public Management objectives through a host of legislative and regulatory changes that have increased the responsibilities and requirements on local governments without commensurate fiscal or jurisdictional capacity.

In resource-based communities, housing can be a contributing asset or challenge to attracting and retaining workers and families. In Kitimat, BC, Canada, a housing crisis threatened vulnerable, low income, and middle income residents during a period of rapid growth associated with renewed industrial investments. Even though housing policy and public housing provision falls under provincial government jurisdiction, the crisis response was largely mobilized by local stakeholders. Drawing upon a five year tracking study, this paper traces the rise of new governance arrangements to address local housing pressures. These governance arrangements fostered greater community awareness of housing issues; strengthened relationships across community, industry, and some senior government stakeholders; and renewed local housing assets. This collective capacity to manage housing pressures, however, remains vulnerable due to public policy incoherence that undermines or fails to adequately support local governance initiatives.

Research in contentious and fluctuating political and economic conditions presents many challenges. Given the potential for the politicization of research in an era where information is rapidly changing, there is pressure to consider pathways to ensure quality and transparent research. This perspective builds upon a tradition of considering the methodological implications associated with conducting research within volatile settings. The paper reflects on the research process associated with interviewing mobile workers at BC Hydro’s Site C Project (hydroelectric dam) in northeast British Columbia, Canada. Based on these reflections, we explore opportunities to extend the transparency of research in volatile settings by considering the broader political and subjective influences that shape credibility and validity as universities, industry, and labour engage with the research process.