Social and Economic Papers – serie

At Memorial University an interdisciplinary team of social, natural, health, and education scientists studied the sustainability of cold-ocean coastal communities, centering on Newfoundland's Bonavista Peninsula and the Isthmus of the Avalon Peninsula. Research began in 1994 to uncover what had precipitated the collapse of the groundfish stocks in the northwest Atlantic. An exploration of the past failures and strengths of rural Newfoundland communities, in terms of both human capital and natural resources, pointed to what future?The Resilient Outport contains the main findings of the team in a series of connected interdisciplinary chapters that present both the methodology of working in large interdisciplinary teams and an account of the roots of environmental crisis, from archaeological time to the present.

Today in Canada, the fish stocks of both the east and west coasts are in serious trouble. The once-great cod stocks have collapsed; the Fraser River salmon stocks seem to have done likewise. Coastal communities are in crisis. The majority of the great world fisheries are seriously over-exploited, and some bodies of water are effectively dead. The problem has to lie with the manner in which we run our fisheries. The issue is ethical as well as social and environmental. A team of humanists, natural scientists, and social scientists came together to examine the question of justice in the Canadian fisheries and to seek an ethical foundation upon which to base guidelines for fisheries policies and decision-making in the future. Just Fish, the result of their work, argues that Canada could - and must - become a world leader in developing fisheries management institutions that can protect the legitimate interests of both fish and the fishers who depend upon them.

This is a book about power in small places, its perceptions and realities; where these conflict and where they come together. Based on research conducted on Canada's Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the chapters analyze the interaction of people and environment in coastal settings, the way power operates now, and how it has operated in the past. The book covers a wide range of natural resource issues and people's responses to change. It insists on a holistic perspective that recognizes the vital importance of social and ecological interconnectedness. This work breaks old disciplinary constraints and mirrors the ways in which people, the places in which they live, and the culture that sustains them are a seamless whole. This book is part of "Coasts Under Stress," a research project concerned with the impact of social and environmental restructuring on environmental and human health. The project is an initiative between Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of Victoria, funded by SSHRC and NSERC.

How does one transform small size and relative isolation into a powerful combination for sustainable growth and prosperity? Some islands and rural regions have already done so. Winning tools and strategies deployed by these middle-level governance structures include: 'scaling up' of municipal units; developing tourist and computer-driven industries; engaging strategically with their diaspora; branding niche products and services; facilitating 'boutique', small-scale manufacturing; limiting local firm rivalry; and, overall, deploying a creative 'resourcefulness of jurisdiction'. The papers in this collection flesh out these tools and strategies. They do so by unpacking and challenging received wisdom; charting out the parameters of effective government; teasing in the critical role of empowered local communities and the engagement of civil society with the multiple levels of decision-making of the state. The book's message emphasizes a proactive, creative, and assertive approach to governance; one that aims to instill a sense of efficacy to achieve remote control.

This collection includes a variety of forms - art, photography, personal narrative, translation and cross disciplinary scholarly essay - to discuss many levels and kinds of loss: cultural assimilation and change, environmental devastation, language loss, personal and collective losses, community tragedies, and a loss of continuity and sense of home and place. The book as a whole considers the impact of these losses and their relationship to culture, memory, and identity. As part of this consideration, Despite This Loss celebrates and supports new and established lines of inquiry into the structures of feeling that constitute place and belonging. The collection includes work by a new generation of cultural workers whose claims to and dreams for this place hold promise and provide a vibrant and provocative array of perspectives on cultural loss.

Migration between Newfoundland and Alberta is transforming the social and cultural landscape of Canada. Newfoundlanders involved in this migration overcome the many challenges it entails with countless acts of altruism; ranging from supplying a place to live and help in finding a job, to providing a familiar meal or a ride home for Christmas. Although such kindness is a familiar part of human behavior, social scientists have struggled to explain it because they adhere to the assumption that all human behavior is driven by hedonistic self-interest. As a result, most social scientists only succeed in explaining human kindness away by arguing that what appears to be altruistic is really only an investment that will lead to future selfish gains.This book provides an alternative explanation of the kindness exhibited by Newfoundlanders as they overcome the obstacles inherent in migration. This new explanation incorporates cultural traditions into existing evolutionary explanations of altruism. This explanation, referred to as the descendant-leaving strategy hypothesis, explains human kindness as the result of our ancestors passing on cultural traditions encouraging each following generation of descendants to value the well-being of their kin as much as they value themselves. This hypothesis is supported by descriptions of how traditions of kindness, passed down through generations of Newfoundlanders, continue to influence the behavior of Newfoundlanders as they face the social and physical challenge of migrating to Alberta.

From the early 1800s on, we encounter the first French writers to become interested in life in Newfoundland. This anthology provides an image of Newfoundland that was shaped over many years of writings by countless French voyagers—sailors and naval officers, diplomats, scientists, journalists, artists, and other visitors—who described this region and its people for their readers back in France. This collection of their accounts attempts to capture the perception held by French visitors of Newfoundland's transformation from colony to country, of Newfoundlanders and their lifestyle, and of the development of Newfoundland's own political institutions and the changes brought about as France relinquished its historical rights to the English.

History and Renewal of Labrador's Inuit-Métis is a collection of twelve essays presenting new research on the archaeology, history, and contemporary challenges and perspectives of Inuit-Métis of central and southeastern Labrador from Lake Melville south to Chateau Bay. It reports on results from "Understanding the Past to Build the Future," a Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) in partnership with the southern Labrador communities represented by the NunatuKavut Community Council. Contributing authors include veteran Labrador Studies specialists as well as emerging scholars. Many of their findings challenge longstanding assumptions about Labrador's Aboriginal history.

Place Peripheral examines community and regional development in rural, island, and remote locales from a place-based approach. This is a timely edited collection, addressing themes that are receiving considerable attention in Canada and internationally as local communities, scholars, researchers and public policy analysts strive to better understand and apply place-based strategies in rural and remote regions. The volume and its contributors examine place-based economic development strategies, recognizing the broader and deeper significance, meanings, and attachments often associated with place and also interrogating such relationships as may exist between sense of place, cultural and social development, and environmental stewardship.

Over the centuries, people living in Newfoundland and Labrador have demonstrated remarkable resourcefulness in order to reap the bounty of both sea and land. However, despite renewed interest in traditional Newfoundland and Labrador cuisine, the reality is that many cannot attain healthy and affordable food. Food Futures contributes to the Canadian food studies literature by exploring the origins, present day complexities, and future of the Newfoundland and Labrador food system. This interdisciplinary collection draws from the research of 24 scholars in disciplines ranging from anthropology to biology. Collectively, the authors offer a vision for a sustainable food system that meets the dual goals of achieving food security and food sovereignty for all.

Resettlement is a global phenomenon once again at the forefront of political debate in Newfoundland and Labrador. This collection, edited by political scientist Isabelle Côté and geographer Yolande Pottie-Sherman, presents an assembly of interdisciplinary voices situating Newfoundland and Labrador resettlement (past, present, and future) in conversation with relocation debates in other places such Quebec and Northern Canada, Greenland, and Ireland. Contributors consider common themes of contemporary resettlement programs including resistance, collective-decision-making, power, place, and identity. Newfoundland Studies scholars have underscored the significance of Smallwood-era resettlement programs (1954–1977), but have not yet adequately addressed the second, ongoing phase of resettlement (1977–present), carried out at the request of communities and implemented to mitigate the fiscal mismatch between shrinking populations and infrastructure costs. In these pages, scholars examine a process that begins before and continues long after communities or individuals move, and places the Newfoundland and Labrador experience in conversation with other global contemporary resettlement projects.

This book presents a broad range of perspectives and voices — Inuit and non-Inuit, youth and Elders, academics and community members — united in their commitment to understanding what Inuit leadership is, has been, and will be. Premised on the understanding that new ways of blending traditional knowledge with scientific epistemologies must be forged, this volume represents a continuum of voices and styles. It also deploys a diversity of formats, ranging from traditional storytelling to structured critical discourse. Always considering past, present, and future, Voices of Inuit Leadership and Self-Determination in Canada examines not only the political aspects of leadership, but also, cultural narratives, community practices, and research agendas.Across the pages, a portrait of Inuit leadership for the twenty-first century emerges. It is visionary and consensual, brutally honest about the past and optimistic for the future. It is rooted in ancient cultural traditions, yet focused on a future that will define its political and cultural autonomy on the very principles that underscore that culture. It is determined in its will toward self-determination and resolute in its desire to assume control for the creation of knowledge about itself and its people.

For more than a decade now, the $13 billion Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project has been generating a never-ending assemblage of crises in the public life of Newfoundland and Labrador. The dam's promise of clean hydro power has been accompanied by menacing risks of methylmercury poisoning and catastrophic flooding that threaten people who live near the dam in Labrador. Meanwhile, the dismantling of public regulatory bodies, dubious investment finance, and the suppression of alternative energy sources have resulted in unmanageable public debt and a future of unaffordable heat and electricity.Muskrat Falls: How a Mega Dam Became a Predatory Formation offers a multi-dimensional analysis of the social, political, and environmental problems generated by the hydro project. The volume covers Indigenous resistance to the dam, the role of journalism and social media, and the science and politics of methylmercury and geophysical stability. It contains scholarly essays, interviews, original artwork, photographs, and a short story impelled by Muskrat Falls.

Employment-related geographical mobility is widespread and increasing within Canada and around the world. Prolonged daily commutes, working away for extended periods, and being employed in mobile workplaces can affect work and family lives along with creating personal risk and compromising well-being.Families, Mobility, and Work allows readers to experience and explore many of the challenges, opportunities and effects of diverse forms of work-related mobility through a family-centred lens. Assembling findings from substantial research, rooted primarily in the Canadian context, this expansive collection explores intersections between family lives and diverse types of mobility across multiple populations of workers, regions, and sectors. Authors consider a wide range of work-related geographical mobility patterns and their implications including intimate adult relationships, parenting, gender roles, commuting, perspectives on disability, youth as sources of support in families, communities with migrant workers, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canada's mobile labour force.Families, Mobility, and Work is a rich, engaging, and broadly accessible volume, comprising research-based articles, personal stories, songs, poetry, and a photographic essay. These collected perspectives aim to remind us that while families may be the most adaptable institutions in our society, we require evidence-based workplace practices, community and social supports, public policies, and programs if families are to thrive as they endeavour to harmonize their work and mobility rhythms with their broader lives.