Community Changes and Growth in Small Cities: Resident Perceptions of Growth in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.

While research on rural depopulation and urbanization to large cities has dominated the literature for decades, small city growth has been largely ignored. Yet, small cities are important to the regional systems in which they are located, including serving as centres to their rural surround. This paper is concerned about growth and change in small cities. Using Brandon, Manitoba as an example, citizen perceptions of a range of specific aspects of city growth are analyzed. The study is based on a household postal survey conducted in May and June 2010 in which 2,500 randomly selected households in Brandon, Manitoba received questionnaires. The results are based on the 518 useable, completed questionnaires that were returned. Differences in perceptions of the pace of change in a range of aspects of development were found based on income, age, educational attainment, employment status, and home ownership. No differences were found based on gender. The paper concludes with comments about how city governments need to be aware of citizen perceptions when pursuing and managing development. The paper also illustrated the importance of citizen perceptions in understanding the pace and direction of change in small cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]