Bridges
Urban Versus Rural Perspectives
May 4, 2025
Discussion Questions
These questions are just to start and aid discussion. Please skip around in the list, indulge diversions, and let your discussion develop naturally.
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Have you lived in (or visited) both rural and urban areas? What unites these areas in your experience? How are they different?
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What are some of your favourite memories from rural, urban, or suburban places? Are there unique aspects of these areas that contribute to these good memories?
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Are suburbs and exurbs more like rural areas or urban cores? Are they different from both of these areas in any distinct ways?
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Where would you want to live if you had no restrictions? (earning an income, career development, relational ties, or other things that connect you to an area).
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Would it be easier to survive in an urban, suburban, or rural area if you were experiencing poverty, or other marginalizing social issues? How are equity issues, and attitudes toward them, typically different in urban, rural, and suburban areas? Are there ways we can work toward consensus, and address social challenges together?
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In the past week's election outcome, did you pay attention to the rural, suburban, and urban differences and similarities? Higher numbers of progressive votes in urban cores, and higher numbers of conservative votes in rural areas has been a significant phenomenon not just in Canada, but in many other nations too. Why do you think this is? How do you square this with other demographic differences between rural and urban areas?
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What can urbanites learn from rural folks? What can rural people learn from urban life experiences?
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What are your thoughts on the first video below? Did anything that the outside-the-province, progressive, urban development experts said about Calgary or Alberta surprise you?