public-professor-lars-hallstrom
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Dr. Lars Hallstrom
Political and Policy Innovation in Alberta: The More Things Change...?
Although the policy challenges facing democracies are increasingly recognized as complex and difficult to manage, if not impossible to actually resolve, many governments, at all levels, struggle with the demands such challenges may place upon them as institutions, as sites of collective action and as spaces where the "social mess" must be debated. For Alberta, that reality is exacerbated by long-standing patterns of single-party governments, tensions with other governments and perceptions of both who Albertans "are", and what they "want" that are not always aligned with more empirical realities. This talk examines that reality, and the implications for political and policy-based change in the province. Drawing from a body of work that extends from rural community governance, to policy innovation, to provincial politics and comparisons of populism, join Dr. Lars Hallstrom to examine how and why Alberta can struggle with policy innovation, why "anti-politics" is a common refrain within the province, and how many "big" issues frustrate both policy-makers and the public.
Dr. Lars K. Hallstrom is a political scientist who has held faculty positions at St. Francis Xavier University, the University of Alberta, and since 2021, the University of Lethbridge. He is currently the director of the Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy, and teaches courses on public policy, Albertan politics and research methods. He has a 25-plus year history of externally funded research, and currently holds grants for projects that look at rural and Albertan populism, the political economy of rural development, rural refugees and immigration, and rural entrepreneurialism. He is also a gigging musician, a powerlifter, an avid cook and a father of three.