Nearly half of Quebec's municipalities have fewer than 800 inhabitants and are struggling with conditions of economic decline, outmigration of youth, and political marginalization. In 1991, a regional coalition called Coalition Urgence Rurale was formed in the Lower Saint Lawrence area to support initiatives that promote community empowerment,…

This chapter addresses the role of action research in projects that link literacy education and cultural action in peripheral rural areas. These programs aim to improve the living conditions of a population without destroying its cultural heritage or way of life. Action research begins with three broad questions: In what terms do local people pose…

This document cites theoretical works and actual cases to examine the notion of community as the web of learning. The first half of the document explores the different perspectives about the concept of community and traces the evolved nature of community through an overview of how humans have banded together to form communities from the early days…