City – PSI Partnership Pathway Explorations

Collaboration and Capacity building are required to engage with the challenges and benefits of technical expertise within, and available to, municipal politics and policy, the challenges and benefits of both representative and direct democracy, and the existence of multiple sources of knowledge, including the social sciences, Indigenous knowledges, and local knowledge. This project is the first step in addressing these challenges in southern Alberta, through the development of a robust and long-term partnership and collaborative space between the University of Lethbridge, the City of Lethbridge, and the Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy.
Municipal government presents both the greatest opportunity for local and evidence-based responses grounded responses, but also some of the greatest challenges in terms of public perception, engagement (whether electoral or otherwise), fiscal policy, population equity, and the broader trends of neoliberal devolution.
To ensure that cities and local governments can affectively respond to these opportunities, and to these challenges, city managers, planners, and elected officials, need up-to-date, relevant, and rigourous information from any number of different sectors and sources..

Faculty Supervisor:

Lars Hallstrom

Student:

Partner:

City of Lethbridge

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Public administration

University:

University of Lethbridge

Program: