Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: July 1, 2021 at 11:19:41 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Environment]: Bérubé on Little, 'At the Wilderness > Edge: The Rise of the Antidevelopment Movement on Canada's West Coast' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > J. I. Little. At the Wilderness Edge: The Rise of the > Antidevelopment Movement on Canada's West Coast. Rural, Wildland, > and Resource Studies Series. Montreal McGill-Queen's University > Press, 2019. Illustrations, maps. 216 pp. $29.95 (paper), ISBN > 978-0-7735-5640-9; $110.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-7735-5630-0. > > Reviewed by Harold Bérubé (Université de Sherbrooke) > Published on H-Environment (July, 2021) > Commissioned by Daniella McCahey > > In the early 1970s, Franco-Ontarian businessman Robert Campeau > launched the Port-Saint-Raphaël Project, which provided for the > construction of 7 distinct neighborhoods, 17 primary schools, 3 high > schools, 4 community centers, and 15,000 residences on Bizard Island, > at the periphery of Montreal's archipelago. The project would have > radically transformed the still mostly rural island, starting with > its demography. In 1976, it had 4,101 inhabitants. The Campeau > Corporation anticipated that this number could reach 100,000 by 2005. > But the project never saw the light of day. In the following decade, > a coalition of local actors--farmers, well-off and not so well-off > cottage owners, and middle-class suburbanites--with the complicity of > Quebec's provincial government, managed to thwart Campeau's > ambitions. I am bringing this case up because it suggests that the > antidevelopment movements studied by J. I. Little in his latest book, > _At the Wilderness Edge_, are only a part of a wider Canadian and > perhaps North American story. It also suggests that the book will be > of great interest even for those, like me, who knew relatively little > of the geography and recent history of southern British Columbia. > > In a brisk 130 pages, the author explores in great detail five > different cases where various types of development projects were > thwarted by or with the help of local antidevelopment movements. > Thus, the first chapter explores the struggles that led to the > creation of Devonian Harbour Park in the early 1980s. Located at the > very doorstep of Stanley Park, the disputed piece of real estate was > highly coveted by various developers. It took the efforts, over > almost two decades, of a coalition of local citizens' groups, labor > unions, and radical militants to block hotel and apartment building > projects and transform the site into an extension of the neighboring > park. The second chapter takes us out of Vancouver and at the > "wilderness edge" as Little turns his attention to the fight > surrounding the defense of Hollyburn Ridge first against logging > companies and then against promoters trying to transform it into a > vast commercial ski resort. In this case, recreationists of various > strips came together to preserve the ridge as an accessible > playground. The third and fifth chapters explore the cases of Bowen > and Gambier Islands, both located in Howe Sound. In the 1970s and > 1980s, they became the targets of two different development projects: > in the first case, various efforts to transform a quiet insular > community into another suburb of Vancouver; in the second, plans to > exploit a vast open-pit copper mine on a significant part of the > island. Finally, the fourth chapter takes us to the Squamish Estuary > and the mobilization against the construction of a deep-sea terminal > that could have had catastrophic environmental consequences for the > whole region. In this particular case, what is interesting is the > initially pro-development stance of the local population. They only > mobilized against the project once they realized that the pollution > generated by the terminal would threaten their health. In each case, > Little makes good use of the archives of many of the individuals and > groups involved in these different forms of resistance to > development, but he also pays attention to the maneuvers and actions > of various other actors, especially of the provincial government, who > often play a decisive role in the success or failure of > antidevelopment efforts. > > Through these case studies, Little argues convincingly that, beyond > more radical and antiestablishment environmental movements taking > shape in the 1960s and 1970s, there were other forms of > antidevelopment coalitions appearing within and at the periphery of > urban centers--in this case, Vancouver. These coalitions were much > more localized and diverse, and much less radical in their demands, > but as Little argues, it also made them much more effective and > enduring in their efforts to criticize and limit the logics of free > enterprise and economic growth at all costs. In doing so, they did > not so much try to bring down capitalism but rather to place limits > on its deployment in the name of a certain idea of the common good. > In fact, an interesting aspect of those coalitions is their tenuous > or inexistent links to wider ecological movements, whether through > their discourses and ideas or through their practices and membership. > Another interesting characteristic of these antidevelopment movements > is the central role played by women in many of them, either as > individual participants or as members of women's groups and > associations, such as the Canadian Daughter's League Assembly. > > All in all, _At the Wilderness Edge_ is an interesting and useful > contribution to the history of these fragmented and understudied > groups and actors that seem to form a much larger tapestry not only > on the West Coast but also, probably, throughout North America from > the 1970s on. The only angle that, in my opinion, deserved a little > more attention is the delicate question of whether some of these > antidevelopment movements are, in the end, efforts of the local > inhabitants to protect their own little playgrounds from outside > interference or a way to preserve them for day-trippers or weekenders > of different origins and means (or sometimes a bit of both?). It is a > question that is addressed here and there, but it could have been > more fully explored throughout the book. > > Citation: Harold Bérubé. Review of Little, J. I., _At the > Wilderness Edge: The Rise of the Antidevelopment Movement on Canada's > West Coast_. H-Environment, H-Net Reviews. July, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55640 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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