The Newfoundland Household Resettlement Programs : a case study in spatial reorganization and growth centre strategy

Courtney, David Stanley (1973) The Newfoundland Household Resettlement Programs : a case study in spatial reorganization and growth centre strategy. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The Newfoundland Household Resettlement Programs represent a government policy designed to redistribute rural population within a region. This type of structural change involves concentration into or near larger centres offering goods and services and employment opportunities. The primary objective of this thesis is to provide a spatial analysis of household resettlement for the period 1965-1972 in terms of a proposed complementary growth centre strategy. This strategy incorporates the notion of growing service centres functioning as the natural growth centres of the province and the idea of expanding the growth centre concept to include growth area. The importance of the rural population segment achieving dual accessibility to these service centres and to areas of rural employment opportunities is stressed. -- A modification of Hermansen's suggested synthetic approach to growth centre research provides the theoretical and organizational framework for the study. A progressive four-stage examination is developed. The descriptive stage is concerned with the region’s structural characteristics and changes necessitating population redistribution, the spatial household resettlement patterns, and the theory, policy applications and empirical identification of growth centres for the province. The positive stage interprets the resettlement patterns in terms of the nature and emphasis of the various Programs during the study period. The normative stage proposes an optimal form of complementary resettlement and growth centre program. Finally, the control stage outlines several basic policy needs to achieve the normative situation. -- The main conclusion of the study is that the revealed pattern of short distance movement into comparatively small size reception centres reflects, in part, the social service nature of the Resettlement Programs’ objectives. It is felt that this pattern should be further encouraged, consonant with a policy of simultaneous urban and rural development. -- During the study, several secondary objectives are accomplished, including: new uses for telephone system data; a methodology for the identification of the natural growth centres in the province; the utilization of a marginality index; and finally, the application of Transaction Flow Analysis, a model designed to identify salient flows.

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