The new director of Brock University’s Niagara Community Observatory has a simple message to residents of Niagara and beyond: we’re listening.

“We’re developing a discipline of paying very careful attention to what our community is saying: to understand, feel the pulse of where they are, and then leverage the expertise to respond to them,” says Charles Conteh, associate professor in Brock’s Department of Political Science.

“My goal is to create platforms of conversation that we can translate into research questions and then provide evidence to inform action and policy.”

The Niagara Community Observatory (NCO) is a research unit at Brock that produces policy briefs and activities that address a wide range of issues on current and emerging trends at the regional, provincial and national levels.

Topics covered in past research briefs include: the presence and impacts of poverty in Niagara; representation on municipal councils in Ontario; barriers to post-secondary education in the Region; and the most recent, “Downtown revitalization in St. Catharines: Building the public space.”

High on Conteh’s agenda is to continue building partnerships with organizations, agencies, groups and others in the community and surrounding areas as a way of tapping into peoples’ questions and concerns.

“We can then see how we will match expertise and talents to answer questions and mobilize information and new knowledge,” says Conteh. “My vision of the NCO is to serve as a platform or conduit for generating, mobilizing, leveraging and applying knowledge of relevance to the community.”

Conteh researches Canadian public policy, public management, political economy and governance.

His particular focus is on how regions re-invent themselves in the face of “seismic” local, national and international change.

For Niagara, this is especially relevant. Over the past decade, the Region has experienced a sharp decline in its manufacturing base and now needs to find new economic opportunities.

“Niagara and other regions are going through massive shaking up in their post-industrial restructuring,” says Conteh.

“Some regions are experiencing crisis but also have opportunities contained within them. So, in Niagara, how do you confront the crisis and exploit the opportunities to position the Region within the global economy?” says Conteh.

In the NCO brief Moving Niagara towards a knowledge economy that Conteh co-wrote in 2015, he talks about conditions needed to create a knowledge-based economy, which places a heavy emphasis on intellectual skills.

Activities in such an economy could include the development of: digital technology; alternative energy sources; environmentally-friendly production processes; and biotechnology.

Conteh has published widely in this area. Highlights of his recent accomplishments include:

• Finalist, 2014 Speaker’s Book Award for his book, Policy Governance in Multi-level Systems

• “Highly Commended Award” at the Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2013, for article published in the International Journal of Public Sector Management.
• One of the “Eight Most Downloaded Articles” published in the Public Management Review journal 2009.

He has also received research funding from a number of high-profile agencies including the federal government’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

“We are very fortunate to have Dr. Conteh at the helm of the Niagara Community Observatory,” says Brock interim Vice-President Research Steven Renzetti.

“His research background, expertise and skills will enable Dr. Conteh and the NCO to continue working with community partners in order to make a positive and powerful impact on the many issues we face in Niagara and areas outside our borders.”

Conteh’s first public event as NCO director will be at the NCO’s upcoming Speaker Series Presentation on the recent brief, Downtown revitalization in St. Catharines: Building the public space, Monday, Sept. 26, from 10 a.m. to noon in Cairns 207.