Green gold is the lush softwood forest that dominates the coastline and blankets the flat interior of British Columbia. For over a century the entire province prospered from the harvest of these forests. Suddenly in the 1980s the industry succumbed to a depression brought on by soaring interest rates and a decline in markets but aggravated by longer-term problems. As the industry "went down", so did the provincial economy which depended on it. In the first part of this work Marchak deals with the nature of a staples economy and its inherent weaknesses. She explores the history of the British Columbia forestry industry, government legislation, and reaction to this legislation by companies, unions, the media and community groups. In a detailed study of workers in resource towns she finds that this labour force cannot be described in terms of "human capital" theories. The relationship between employment and markets and industrial technology is examined along with the situation of women in single-industry towns. Two resource communities are compared: one, a new "instant" town; the other, an old logging town - both sensitive to market changes and locked into the export of a single staple. While this book is not an expose of government or company policies, it builds up a case that together capital and the provincial state created a vulnerable hinterland economy on the base of a rich but limited resource. In summarizing the data and theory contained in the book, Marchak considers what alternatives exist for regions such as British Columbia within the North American capitalist economy. Based on data obtained from governmental and non-government documents and reports and on interviews with industry officials and workers, "Green gold" makes a contribution to our knowledge of single-industry towns, the sociology of work, and the sociology of women in Canada. It offers material on the forestry industry of British Columbia which can be adapted to similar regions and other resource-based industries.
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Review
A remarkably comprehensive analysis of the social, political, and economic role of forests as one of the principal single-staple industries in British Columbia. ... deals particularly with the susceptibility of the forest industry in the Pacific Northwest to external economic conditions and export markets. ... [It should appeal to a broad audience of political scientists, economists, sociologists, natural resource specialists, and regional planners. - Choice
About the Author
Patricia Marchak , a professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia, is the author of Ideological Perspectives on Canada and In Whose Interests.
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