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Unbuilt Environments

Tracing Postwar Development in Northwest British Columbia
  • Jonathan Peyton
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2017
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About this book

In the latter half of the twentieth century, legions of industrial pioneers came to northwestern British Columbia with grand plans for mines, dams, and energy-development schemes. Yet many of their projects failed to materialize or were abandoned midstream. Unbuilt Environments reveals that these lapsed resource projects had lasting effects on the natural and human environment. Drawing on a range of case studies to analyze the social and environmental impacts of unfinished projects, Jonathan Peyton considers development failure a productive concept for northwestern Canada. He looks at a closed asbestos mine, an abandoned rail grade, an imagined series of hydroelectric installations, a failed LNG export facility, and a transmission line – and finds that these unrealized developments continue to shape contemporary resource conflicts.

Author / Editor information

Jonathan Peyton is an assistant professor in the Department of Environment and Geography at the University of Manitoba. His work has appeared in Geoforum, Antipode, the Journal of Historical Geography, and Environment and History.

Reviews

Jonathan Peyton by bringing to light the history of these spasmodic industrial developments in the north has done an immense public service. His research is comprehensive, his analysis precise, his tone moderate and dispassionate. Indeed, there are moments when the reader, overwhelmed by Peyton’s revelations, the scale of the corruption, the extent of the folly, the aggregate waste of tax payers’ wealth, almost wishes for a more emotional reaction from the author. Yet the great strength of the book is its restraint, for the facts and history alone provide sufficient indictment. --- Unbuilt Environments provides an even-handed discussion of development in a region that remains relatively aloof from capital investment and integration into the global economy. ---

Unbuilt Environments is an enthralling book … [and] a great contribution to the emerging interdisciplinary narrative on resource development conflicts in northwest British Columbia, a region that is currently the site of intense mining exploration and controversy over energy projects. Drawing on fieldwork throughout northwest British Columbia and on research which is both eloquent and honest, Unbuilt Environments is a practical, accessible, and reliable resource from a respected emerging researcher. I strongly recommend this book for the expert and non-expert.

Topics

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    Front Matter

    i
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    Contents

    v
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    Tables and Figures

    vii
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    Foreword

    ix
    Graeme Wynn
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    Acknowledgments

    xxiv
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    The Stikine Watershed and the Unbuilt Environment

    3
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    Cassiar, Asbestos: How to Know a Place

    24
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    Liberating Stranded Resources: The Dease Lake Extension as the Railway to Nowhere

    62
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    Corporate Ecology: BC Hydro, Failure, and the Stikine-Iskut Project

    89
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    “Industry for the future”: Dome Petroleum and the Afterlives of “Aggressive” Development

    113
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    Transmission: Contesting Energy, Enterprise, and Extraction in the New Northwest Gold Rush

    136
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    The Tumbling Geography

    164
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    Notes

    176
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    Bibliography

    206
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    Index

    228
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
August 3, 2023
eBook ISBN:
9780774833066
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
276
https://doi.org/10.59962/9780774833066
eBook ISBN: 9780774833066
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
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