Dr. Ivan Townshend is an urban/social geographer with wide-ranging research interests in the social geography of cities, urban systems, and rural communities. These include the geography of aging; residential segregation, geography of deprivation and disadvantage, Aboriginal communities; voluntary sector housing provision; privatization of space and gated communities, community health; the experiential structure of place-community, and the geography of well-being. He is currently working on a number of rural community studies, including the economic and social impact of BSE throughout the Rural and Small Town (RST) system in Alberta.