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This chapter examines the relationship between health service restructuring and the health care experiences of women from rural and remote areas of Canada. Data were collected from 34 focus groups (237 women), 15 telephone interviews and 346 responses from an online survey. Access to services, care quality and satisfaction are salient themes in these data. Problems include: travel, shortage of providers, turnover in personnel, delays associated in accessing care, lack of knowledge of women's health issues and patronizing attitudes of some health care providers. Health care service restructuring has led to deterioration in service availability and quality. Key areas for policy development need to address health care access and quality improvement issues, including increasing access to more (particularly female) providers who are sensitive to women's health issues.

In the decades since World War II, Australia has moved from a vibrant, universalist welfare system, based on the rights of citizens to receive income support, to a residualist system that is highly targeted, based on harsh and increasingly punitive eligibility requirements and which re-defines recipients as ‘clients’. These developments have happened slowly, some would say insidiously, as Australia moved from a supportive environment where the notion of collective responsibility for the vulnerable was accepted and, indeed, embraced. More recently collectivism has been replaced by the notion of individualism in what McDonald (2006, p. 10) refers to as ‘a silent surrender of public responsibility’. Individuals and/or their families are expected to absorb their own welfare needs as much as possible, while those that fall to the public purse are treated with some suspicion, particularly if they fall into categories of the ‘undeserving’ poor. In Australia the ranks of the ‘undeserving’ appear to be widening beyond single parents and the unemployed to include those with disabilities and young people.

This chapter examines the extent to which place based and research oriented university-community engagement (UCE) models can sustain UCE in “non-campus” rural settings. It examines how effective partnerships function in non-campus rural settings, and their contributions to achieving the reciprocal aims of communities and universities. It highlights the key successes, challenges, and opportunities experienced through case studies in non-campus locations in rural Australia (Flinders University Rural Clinical School), rural Sweden (Centre for Rural Health, Storuman), and rural Canada (Northern Ontario School of Medicine). Information provided about the discussed case studies has been provided by the organizations themselves, and the chapter authors are heads of these organizations. The authors share their knowledge of the history, the challenges, the opportunities, and the mechanisms through which the models interact with the partners.

‘Crossroads’ serves as a metaphor for networks and intersections, overlaps and trajectories, and is used throughout this book to denote how criminal transgressions and the representations of crime circulate in and out of rural spaces in the Australian countryside. This chapter provides an introduction and overview of key concepts and approaches to rural criminology informed by a ‘crossroads’ metaphor. It discusses the complexities of rurality and how these, in turn, point to significant turning points and strategic directions – not only for research and scholarship but also for understanding, communicating and responding to rural crime and deviance as it presently manifests in countries such as Australia. Along this journey, a number of issues are identified, and practical concerns signalled.

On one level, motor vehicles might represent the possibility of unfettered freedom, escape (from government authority) and autonomy through providing work and leisure opportunities. On another level, in remote places, ‘hybridised’ and ‘Indigenised’ vehicles have been appropriated to speak to economic and cultural realities of everyday life. This chapter considers how night patrols may articulate expressions of decoloniality by enhancing Aboriginal social capital or what we refer to here as ‘collective efficacy’. It draws upon a subset of the findings from an evaluation of Indigenous Youth Programs in New South Wales to examine the effectiveness of night patrols operating in nine communities across the state. While the patrols were universally endorsed by the communities they served, some services were functioning at a high level while others had experienced periods of dysfunction and inactivity. The factors that impede effective service provision for night patrols in some communities were compared with other communities where services were functioning well. The chapter argues that night patrols can build and harness collective efficacy providing more than mere community policing functions.

Purpose – Present a history of interaction (1947–1996) between a remote nonmarket rural economy in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) highlands and capitalism, first via colonialism and then in the post-Independence period. The Irakia Awa sought to create an alternative local version of modernity in a context of limited opportunities for participation in the monetized market economy.Design/methodology/approach – Ethnographic, multi-temporal field research, totaling two years in residence, focused on sociocultural changes associated with reallocations of land and labor to cash-cropping (coffee), wage labor migration, and new place-based cash-generating initiatives.Findings – After more than three decades of intensive participation in labor migration, the most lucrative option available for earning cash, Irakians deemed it futile, as well as detrimental to the overall well-being of their home community. They dramatically reduced labor migration levels, increased smallholder coffee production, and set about creating a more modern and inviting village lifestyle.Research limitations/implications – This is the historical experience of one rural community in the remote PNG highlands up to the mid-1990s, but is framed around ongoing issues confronting many rural communities engaging with capitalism in PNG.Originality/value – This account presents original field research and contributes to the growing literature on PNG rural peoples with limited opportunities to participate in the cash market economy within a larger context of government policies and malfeasance that have rendered many rural communities largely “invisible.” It suggests substantial reforms are needed before all citizens can enjoy benefits from engaging with capitalism.

For the most part there is no rural welfare policy in Canada – just as there are few examples of rural policy. There are many examples where welfare policy has special implications for rural people, and even a few instances where welfare policy has targeted (explicitly or implicitly) rural regions, but this is rarely formulated from a position of rural policy or perspective. In addition, social welfare policy in Canada is complex. Within the Canadian Confederation, social welfare policy is primarily the responsibility of provinces and territories. For that reason, instead of a unified policy system, Canadians have a multitude of welfare policies, somewhat coordinated within a national structure.

This chapter considers social purpose venturing as a vehicle for addressing social exclusion in the rural developing world, illustrated with reference to case examples across a range of East and Southern African countries.

Data was collected during in-depth case study research with social purpose ventures in various African countries. Qualitative research methods were primarily employed including interviews, stakeholder focus groups and observational research.

Six channels through which social purpose ventures contribute to tackling social exclusion amongst rural BoP communities are identified. These include ventures with the BoP as employees, producers, consumers, entrepreneurs, service users and shareholders. Characteristics for successful social purpose ventures are also discussed.

The chapter adds to knowledge in the field of social purpose venturing in the developing world. It identifies various channels through which such ventures help tackle rural social exclusion and also factors influencing their success.

The chapter provides insights for practitioners and policy makers, particularly in relation to facilitating successful social purpose venturing.

This chapter contributes to better practice in rural development in the Global South.

Insights relevant to academic and practitioner audiences are provided, as the chapter addresses a subject area and region that have received limited attention.

In a time of rapid policy and curriculum change, teachers must be knowledge workers who continue to develop professionally. Professional learning networks (PLNs) offer teachers the opportunity to develop professionally by positioning them as inquirers into their own practice and authors and agents of situated innovation. Six examples of PLNs are introduced in this book to illustrate key attributes of PLNs that build educators’ ownership, practice, and expertise. Also highlighted is the potential of PLNs to address questions of equity, both for educators working in remote and rural communities who have limited access to professional development and other resources, and diverse learners and equity-seeking communities (e.g., Indigenous communities, non-dominant cultural groups). Scholar, practitioner, and policy audiences can benefit greatly from the PLNs described here and draw from these case studies to inform equity-oriented PLNs centering the importance of teachers, students, engagement, collaboration, and rural place in educational transformation efforts.