Resource Communities in a Globalizing Region
Resource Communities in a Globalizing Region
Development, Agency, and Contestation in Northern British Columbia
Northern British Columbia has always played an important role in Canada’s economy, but for many Canadians it also existed as an almost forgotten place: a vast territory where only a few roads, some railroad tracks, and a ferry system connected small cities, towns, and villages to the outside world. Now, as the global appetite for oil, gas, hydroelectricity, wood, and minerals intensifies, this resource-rich and geographically important region is being pulled onto the national and international economic stages.
Resource Communities in a Globalizing Region is key reading for anyone seeking to understand the tensions between resource-rich regions and global market demands. It opens with an examination of the theories underpinning neoliberal globalization, provides an overview of northern BC and its history, and introduces local stakeholders and their experiences with globalization. From there, it explores the changing economy of the region and its evolving relationship with China and other Asian economies before launching into a discussion of how the residents of northern British Columbia are trying to exert greater control over the development of their region.
As debates about pipelines, mines, and hydroelectric projects intensify in local coffee shops, distant boardrooms, and the halls of Parliament, this timely volume explores how governments, Aboriginal peoples, organized labour, NGOs, and the private sector are adapting to, resisting, and embracing change.
An analytical template for the study of globally-driven change, this book will appeal to a diverse range of students and scholars, including those interested in globalization, resource studies, BC studies, northern and rural studies, geography, political economy, indigenous studies, and Asia-Pacific studies.
Resource Communities in a Globalizing Region provides an important framework for approaching the closely interconnected contemporary and historical problems associated with primary resource extraction in hinterland regions … Resource Communities should be required reading for policy-makers, businesspeople, and academics involved in or studying the diversity of issues associatedd with industrial development in northern British Columbia.
Canada’s heavy reliance on resource development makes this book essential reading for anyone interested in a highly informed and insightful analysis of the consequences of resource-led export strategies and what they mean for the future of resource communities in both BC and Canada.
This examination of the ‘new’ globalization’s impact on northern British Columbia will help people with a range of interests and concerns better understand what is happening in the north of the province.
Frontier economies are the storm centres of the modern global economy, subject to intense resource booms, chronic price instability, and the high costs of short-termism …This book sets out to answer the question, is there a better path for development? The volume makes a valuable and original interdisciplinary contribution to a domain we are struggling to know more about, particularly the pivotal role of First Nations, the strategies of governments, the complexity of market dynamics, the critical role of communities, and the emergence of new actors. This book is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise gloomy global era.
A path-breaking book that will stimulate research into other resource-dependent regions, in Canada and elsewhere. It comprehensively presents not only the challenges confronted by northern regions in the face of contemporary globalization but also the historical context in which these regional-global encounters are taking place.
Paul Bowles is a professor of economics and international studies at the University of Northern British Columbia. He is the author of Capitalism (Pearson, 2012) and co-author (with Henry Veltmeyer) of The Answer Is Still No: Voices of Pipeline Resistance (Fernwood Books, 2014).
Gary N. Wilson is a professor of political science at the University of Northern British Columbia and an adjunct professor at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan. His work has appeared in the Canadian Journal of Political Science, Canadian Foreign Policy, and Europe-Asia Studies among other journals.
Contributors: Ken Coates, Fiona MacPhail, Jim McDonald, Tracy Summerville, Henry Veltmeyer, John F. Young
Introduction: Globalization in a Northern, Resource-Based Region / Gary N. Wilson and Paul Bowles
1 “Globalizing” Northern British Columbia: What’s in Word? / Paul Bowles
2 Northern British Columbia: What’s in a Place? / John F. Young
3 Development, Province Building, and Globalization in Northern British Columbia / Ken Coates and John F. Young
4 Globalization and the Transformation of Aboriginal Society: The Tsimshian Encounter / Jim McDonald
5 Globalization and Multilevel Governance in Northern British Columbia: Opportunities and Challenges / Tracy Summerville and Gary N. Wilson
6 Development and Reconciliation: A New Relationship or Benevolent Colonialism? / Jim McDonald
7 Neoliberalism’s Traction: An Analysis of Local Economic Development Officers’ Views in Northern British Columbia / Paul Bowles
8 China and the Northern British Columbia Forest Products’ Sector: Whose Saviour? / Paul Bowles and Fiona MacPhail
9 Mining and Energy in Northern British Columbia: Employment, Community, and Inclusion / Fiona MacPhail and Paul Bowles
10 Pipelines and Protest: Enbridge and After / Paul Bowles and Henry Veltmeyer
Conclusion: Which Direction for Northern British Columbia? / Paul Bowles and Gary N. Wilson
Index
Investing in Place
Economic Renewal in Northern British Columbia
By Sean Markey, Greg Halseth, and Don Manson
