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This paper examines voluntarism as a response to the challenges faced by people growing old in rural communities that are themselves being transformed in fundamental ways, both socially and demographically. Informed by evolving theorisations within the rural aging and geographies of voluntarism literatures, we outline the key processes in space and consequent impacts in place that have affected the experience of growing old in rural communities. We identify the changes in service systems that have led to concerns about "vulnerable people in vulnerable places" and explore this idea in regional contexts ranging from the agricultural heartland to the resource hinterland of Canada. We argue that a distinction needs to be made between the impacts of long and short cycles of change flowing across rural space and attention paid to voluntarism as a critical process at the intersection of broad shifts in service and settlement systems and particular changes in rural communities. Specifically, we suggest that the "local dynamics of voluntarism" involving the activities of voluntary organisations, community groups and individual volunteers in particular communities can be understood, at once, as a "barometer of change", a "mechanism of adjustment" and a "space of resistance", and we draw on recent case studies of rural voluntarism to illustrate this three-part distinction. In considering the transformative potential of voluntarism for the experience of aging in place, our findings suggest that public discourse, as reflected in media coverage, tends to romanticise voluntarism at the expense of a more nuanced and critical appreciation of its importance to the future of aging rural communities and their elderly residents. The research raises timely questions about academic-versus-popular conceptions of aging in evolving rural spaces and changing rural places. (Contains 1 figure.)

Amidst much discussion of the values and venues of local food, the Farmers' Market (FM) has emerged as an important, but somewhat uncertain, site of engagement for producers, consumers and local food "champions". Despite the evident certainty of various operational rules, the FM should be seen as a complex and ambiguous space where (contingent) notions of local, quality, authenticity and legitimacy find expression in communications and transactions around food. This paper seeks to extend current reflections on the nature of the contemporary FM and its relationship to the tenets of local food. An empirical analysis involving sellers, shoppers and managers at 15 markets in the Province of Ontario, Canada sought to understand how participants "read" the market as an operating space and subsequently construct the terms of (their) engagement. Findings suggest that Ontario FM customers wish to support farmers and farming via their food-related spending and express attachments to a wide range of alleged benefits pertaining to local food. Yet these values are also malleable in their meaning and amenable to trade-off against other considerations--particularly where social capital is concerned. The notion of "local" emerges as being widely valued but also highly interpretive in its meaning and variable in its absolute importance. The paper concludes with some reflection on the degree to which the findings support, challenge or modify current normative beliefs about local food at the FM.

In North America and elsewhere it is frequently asserted that changes in rural society have led to an economic and social "decoupling" of agriculture from the wider rural community. Casual analysis of contemporary media reporting and popular discourse would suggest that interactions between the two spheres are as often characterized by neglect or conflict as by complementarity and collaboration. However, scholarly interpretation of evolving relations between farming and the wider rural community, and whether these constitute a trend to relinking or decoupling, has remained elusive and problematic. This paper advocates for and articulates a case study approach to the analysis of "ambiguous interdependency" at the local level. Specifically, it is argued that much can be learned from a comparative analysis of farm and town views of sector-specific development trajectories and of implications for agriculture-community linkages. Insights obtained from in-depth interviews with 68 farm and town residents of South Huron County, Ontario, suggest a strong tendency for farmers to undervalue their importance and influence within the local community, but also highlight certain consequences of ongoing agricultural change and recent municipal restructuring that point toward the continued reshaping of agricultural community linkages. The research suggests both points of convergence and divergence that may be valuable in understanding, and perhaps managing, future development at the local scale and beyond.

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-5871.2009.00572.x Byline: LEX CHALMERS (1), ALUN E. JOSEPH (2), JOHN SMITHERS (2) Keywords: New Zealand; rural; local food systems; enterprise; consumption landscapes; Newztext Abstract: Abstract In this paper we explore the extent to which a reciprocal relationship exists between contemporary theorisation about farmers' markets in geography and the rapidly expanding public discourse surrounding these sites of exchange in New Zealand. Activities branded as farmers' markets are seen widely as local phenomena of systemic significance for the understanding of evolving geographies of production, consumption and exchange. As something 'new' on the landscape, farmers' markets also attract attention in the media. An electronic database of significant print media contributions over the period 1995 to 2007 provides the empirical basis for an assessment of the extent to which theorisation and the public discourse address common themes. Our analysis indicates that, while the economic and social constructions in both the research literature and the media database share common themes, strong contrasts in ways of 'seeing' farmers' markets are apparent. We note the predilection in the print media to present the nature and purpose of farmers' markets through the personal experiences and 'stories' of participants. There is a tendency to focus on the appeal of markets to the consumers who form the readership base. The theorised alterity of the farmers' market, either in terms of production methods or motivations for consumption, is not reflected strongly in media reports, and this raises questions about 'over-theorisation' in the academic literature. Our aim is to promote reflection in both the editorial offices of the media and in the academy by documenting the nature of these contrasting views. Author Affiliation: (1)Department of Geography, University of Waikato, P O Box 3105, Hamilton New Zealand (2)Department of Geography, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1 Article History: Received 24 April 2007; Revised 30 August 2007; Accepted 2 February 2009 Article note: (*) Email: lex@waikato.ac.nz

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-7939.2007.00096.x Byline: Mark W. Skinner (1), Alun E. Joseph (2) Keywords: ageing; health and social care; interdependence of change; restructuring; rural communities; voluntarism Abstract: Abstract: This paper conceptualizes voluntarism as a critical process at the intersection of changes underway in rural communities, and in health and social care systems. Three aspects of the evolving role of the voluntary sector are identified and set within a descriptive model of rural change. Initially, voluntarism is cast as a 'barometer of change' in health and social services, and in rural communities, then considered as a 'mechanism of adjustment' and, ultimately, as an emerging 'space of resistance' to these same changes. The nature and significance of each of the three dimensions of voluntarism is illustrated using results from suites of case studies of ageing in Ontario and the Waikato. The efficacy of the descriptive model and its tripartite view of voluntarism is discussed in light of the under-theorized and under-researched rural dimensions of ageing, voluntarism, and health and social care. Author Affiliation: (1)Department of Geography, Trent University, Canada (2)Department of Geography, College of Social and Applied Human Sciences, University of Guelph, Canada Article note: E-mail: markskinner@trentu.ca

The linkages between agriculture and the rural community in the US are explored, as perceived by people embedded within each sector, against the backdrop of long-term development trends and rapid latest changes. Evolving structural change in the farm sector reflects not only voluntary business decisions made by individual duals, but also the outcome of a complex and ongoing restructuring of agriculture.

This paper examines the interplay of commercial imperatives and health care legislation in the survival of a privately owned psychiatric hospital in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Using documentary and archival evidence, we show how the Homewood Retreat (later Sanitarium, and eventually Health Centre) was able to respond to and anticipate legislative developments through the agency of successive medical superintendents and the structural positioning of the institution as an inextricably integrated element in local and provincial mental health provision. Our case study is used to draw out wider lessons concerning agency, legislative context and treatment modality in the determination of organizational histories. We conclude by noting the important role of the private sector in ensuring the continued provision of an asylum form of mental health care. Keywords: Asylum; Private sector; Mental health policy, Canada

This paper examines the extensive restructuring of community-based long-term care that was initiated in Ontario, Canada in 1996, and does so with particular reference to longstanding problems of provision in rural communities. Specifically, it draws on a case study focussed on two small rural towns to develop a 'situated understanding' of service-user and service-provider perspectives on service coordination issues and on service cuts, particularly as they affect the ability of elderly people reliant on publicly-funded community services to stay in their homes, to continue to 'age in place'. The general and specific antecedents of long-term care reform are considered prior to the presentation of the case study. General antecedents include the rapid aging of Canada's population and aggressive strategies to reduce government deficits, while specific antecedents flow from a decade of failed attempts to address longstanding issues of service coordination and from the ideologically-driven, free market stance of the provincial government elected in 1995. The analysis of interviews conducted with 14 community-service users and 17 providers suggests that the managed competition system introduced as the centerpiece of long-term care reform has resulted in increasing diversity and uncertainty on both sides of the service provision equation. Despite continued attempts by rural elderly people and their families to 'cut and paste' support packages, it seems that the restructuring of publicly-funded community services, combined with a substantial re-investment in long-term care facilities, will make some elderly people more vulnerable to institutionalization.

The impact of technological change in rural New Zealand on the aged is examined by focusing on changes in the banking industry and through interviews with older people in Tirau.

This paper considers the impact of the distance between employed caregivers and their elderly relatives on the provision of various forms of family-based assistance ('eldercare'), and in so doing it contributes to two overlapping literatures, one on the geography of care for elderly persons and the other on eldercare as a 'work and family' issue. The paper also seeks to interpret and understand the spatiality of eldercare in light of evolving public policy on the care of dependent populations, and does so with an eye to the highly gendered nature of family caregiving. The empirical portion of the paper draws on a national survey of work and family conducted by CARNET (The Canadian Aging Research Network). Analysis of data for 1149 respondents with eldercare responsibilities reveals significant distance-decay effects in the average (weekly) number of hours devoted to eldercare. However, disaggregation by gender reveals that only male caregivers display this normative behaviour. Analysis of the average time-distances at which particular types of assistance are provided reveals a similar 'gender gap' - women are willing to travel farther, more often, than male caregivers. The results suggest that the reconceptualization of aging as a 'private' problem, to be attended to (by women) in the family and community, will particularly affect the careers and family lives of female caregivers, for they are more likely than their male counterparts to take on more travel and try to squeeze more into already tight time budgets. Key words - Canada, geography of the family, eldercare, time-distance, gender effects, public policy

This paper focuses on an overtly geographical issue, the introduction of a housing facility for people living with AIDS (PLWAs) into the urban landscape. Specifically, we critically analyze the location of Casey House, an AIDS hospice in Toronto and presently the only facility of its kind in Canada. Three questions are addressed: (i) how did Casey House come to exist?; (ii) why is Casey House located corner of Huntly Street and Isabella Street?; and (iii) will Casey House be reproduced? In our response to the first two questions, we draw selectively upon three perspectives (accessibility, structuralist and humanistic) that have been appealed to in analyses of (controversial) health care facility location processes. In the concluding discussion, three relevant spheres of reproduction are considered: locational, institutional and social. In consideration of the obvious constraints on reproduction, we conclude that the creation and location of Casey House may well be a unique geographical event in Canada. Key words - AIDS hospice, location, reproduction, Casey House

This paper argues that the use of socio-demographic indicators to represent actual or potential demand for mental health services needs to be informed by knowledge of local settlement conditions and trends. Following a selective review of the literature on the use of socio-demographic indicators in mental health care planning and on the spatial ecology of mental illness, a case study of a non-metropolitan jurisdiction in southern Ontario, Canada is presented. The results of a regression-based analysis reveal a strong association between the socio-demographic composition of populations and hospitalization rates for mental illness. The pattern of correlates appears to be underlain by residential location processes that 'filter' populations on the basis of age and socio-economic status. It is concluded that, in the absence of this knowledge of local social geography, applications of indicators methodologies run the risk of being 'black boxes'.

This paper argues that a re-examination of the interrelationship between constructs of place and space is crucial to geography's involvement in the broader endeavor of health research. Place has re-emerged as nexus of ascribed meaning within contemporary social theory. Places, however, are related in space, by distance or proximity. The distinction needs to be made between this orthodox (geometric) view of space and two types of social space: the (experienced) space described by humanist geographers; and the more recent (socio-spatial) conceptualization which is both experienced and (re)produced by societal structures and advocated by social theorists in geography. We argue that advancing a recursive understanding of space and place is an appropriate direction in medical geography. This direction will include both an understanding of the ways in which space shapes the character of places and how the particularities of places resist or set in motion (orthodox) spatial processes. Illustrations are drawn from studies of mental illness and mental health care and primary health care in a remote area of New Zealand.

This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the experience of population aging in rural small towns from the complementary perspectives of communities and their aging residents. We begin by noting that high proportions of elderly residents distinguish small rural towns from dispersed rural communities as well as from larger towns and cities. Then we consider the socio-economic characteristics of the rural elderly and the major features of their social world. This leads, in turn, to an examination of the recursive relationship between person and place. Voluntarism is used to exemplify the dynamic link between the aging individual and the aging community. The paper concludes with a consideration of the ways that 'personal troubles' may become 'public issues' in rural small towns struggling to cope with their aging populations.

This article represents an extension of an earlier paper on the rural population turnaround in Canada. It provides an updated analysis of rural growth rates for (1) two periods, 1976-81 and 1981-86, (2) provincially based regions, and (3) area types based on proximity to urban centres. Unlike the earlier study, it also provides a comprehensive comparison of rural-versus-urban rates of population change in a regional and area type framwork and introduces relevant material on rates of natural increase and patterns of net migration. The two shorter time periods, less influenced by definitional problems in the census data, and the interpretation of rural trends against a backdrop of rural-versus-urban growth rates, allow for a more thorough investigation. The analysis reveals that in the period 1976-81, any rural population turnaround was at most a Quebec-specific phenomenon in Canada, while for the period 1981-86, an urban - or more specifically metropolitan - dominated growth scenario is clearly evident. This article is concluded by a discussion of research design issues, particularly as they relate to the identification of the relative contributions of the urban and rural sectors to population growth.

INTRODUCTION The 'experiment' in neo-liberal structural adjustment (Kelsey 1997) that began with the election of a reform-minded Labour government in 1984 has touched virtually every aspect of New Zealand life [...]