Culture And Community: Sustainable Community Planning in the Rolling River First Nation

Sean Connelly; Sean Markey; Mark Roseland

doi:10.29173/jaed302

Authors

Sean Connelly
Sean Markey
Mark Roseland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/jaed302

Keywords:

Bridges, Business And Economics, Climate change, Community, Community development, Cultural tradition, Culture, Environmental economics, Environmental impact, Ethnic Interests, Implementation, Infrastructure, Local planning, Native North Americans, Planning, Quality of life, Sustainability, Sustainable development

Abstract

Urban, rural and First Nations communities across the country face a growing infrastructure deficit. Sustainable community planning processes provide an opportunity to address this deficit in a way that both improves the quality of life for citizens and reduces environmental impact. However, there remains a gap between planning processes infused with sustainability principles and implementation. The purpose of this article is to explore this 'implementation gap' from a First Nations perspective. First Nations communities face particular capacity barriers and opportunities to conducting innovative and integrated planning. Using data drawn from a case study of Rolling River First Nation in Manitoba, the article illustrates how the community identified cultural traditions and the land base as critical components of their planning process. Both served to build the social infrastructure that provided the necessary capacity to bridge the planning - implementation gap.

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