ABORIGINAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: THEORY AND PRACTICE
Robert
B. Anderson, University of Regina
Robert J. Giberson, University of Regina
Principal Topic
This paper explores economic development among Aboriginal people in Canada. The first section describes their socioeconomic circumstances and the approach to improving these circumstances that is emerging among them. The second examines this approach from a theoretical perspective addressing question one—Is the approach likely to succeed? The third considers question two—Is the approach being implemented?
Method
To determine if the Aboriginal approach to development being implemented a questionnaire was circulated to 231 members of the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO). The survey was faxed to the membership of CANDO on April 3, 2002 with instructions to complete and return by fax. Thirty completed surveys received, 29 usable.
Results and Implications
Question one is answered using regulation theory. Scott (1988, pp. 108) says that new economic spaces result from a “specific articulation of local social conditions with wider coordinates of capitalist development in general.” Dicken (1992, pp. 307) emphasizes that successful participation in the global economic system “is created and sustained through a highly localized process” and that “economic structures, values, cultures, institutions and histories contribute profoundly to that success.” The strategy adopted by Aboriginal people is an example of this ‘highly localized process’; and the answer to the question is a qualified yes.
The answer to question two is also yes, according to our survey results. What remains to be answered is the question—Is the approach working? Theory and common sense say that the answer will not be a simple yes or no. Rather, it will be some times, some places, to some extent. The next phase of this research will explore outcomes in an attempt to identify the level of success being achieved and the factors that contribute to this success.
This work has implications that extend beyond Aboriginal people in Canada to Indigenous people everywhere and to other ‘under-developed’ communities and subnational regions. People in all these ‘places’ have socioeconomic goals. Like those of Aboriginal people in Canada, their goals go beyond improved economic circumstances to include others—social, cultural and political. It is with respect to these other goals that communities, regions, peoples and nations differ. The question that is common to all is—Can their particular goals be met through participation in the global economy and, if so how? We think they can.
CONTACT: Robert B. Anderson, Faculty of Administration, University of Regina, Regina SK, S4S 0A2; (T) 306-585-4728; (F) 306-585-4805; Robert.Anderson@uregina.ca
2002 Babson College. All Rights Reserved. Last Updated March 2003.