The Changing Roles of Rural Communities in an Urbanizing World: Saskatchewan 1961-1990

Raj S. Gandhi is a sociology professor at the University of Calgary.

Saskatchewan’s communities continue to change in the functions they
perform, the number of people and businesses they attract, and the way
in which they relate to other centres within the province as well as to
those beyond provincial boundaries. At the time of settlement, spacing
of communities was closely related to the grain distribution and
transportation system. Changes in both transportation and production
technology rendered the initial system of communities obsolete almost
before it was fully in place. This book traces the evolution of the
trade-centre system in Saskatchewan to the present, and offers some
explanation for the form the consolidation process has taken.

In the context of central place theory, 598 communities are grouped
into six types of centres (in ascending order of sophistication in terms
of the functions they perform) known as Minimum Convenience, Full
Convenience, Partial Shopping, Complete Shopping, Secondary
Wholesale-Retail, and Primary Wholesale-Retail. The resulting
distribution of communities in 1990 is compared with the results of the
same grouping procedure using 1961 and 1981 data. Over the entire
period, the trend toward greater urbanization, with the largest centres
gaining at the expense of the smaller places, is pervasive.

The 10 largest centres are the main beneficiaries of population
redistribution and growth. Even more dramatically, several high-order
business functions, specialized education, and specialized health care
have become the near-exclusive preserve of the province’s two major
cities. Another 52 centres perform the role of regional shopping centres
in their respective parts of the province, and, as such, their viability
is not seriously threatened. Below this, 117 communities are classified
as Full Convenience centres, and in this group there is perhaps some
potential for viability.

In documenting changes in Saskatchewan’s trade-centre system between
1961 and 1990, this book provides a general overview of some of the
factors that have contributed to the observed changes. Unfortunately, no
attempt is made to tie those factors to any general theory of social
change, rural community change, or urban change, despite the book’s
ambitious title.