Power from the North: Territory, Identity, and the Culture of Hydroelectricity in Quebec - Brossura

Desbiens, Caroline

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0774824174 ISBN 13: 9780774824170

Casa editrice: Univ of British Columbia Pr, 2014

Riassunto

In the 1970s, Hydro-Quebec declared in a publicity campaign "We Are Hydro-Quebecois." The slogan symbolized the intimate ties that had emerged between hydroelectric development in Northern Quebec and French Canadian national aspirations. Caroline Desbiens focuses on the first phase of the James Bay hydroelectric project to explore how this culture of hydroelectricity marginalized Aboriginal territories through the manipulation of Northern Quebec's material landscape. She concludes that truly sustainable resource development will depend on all actors bringing an awareness of their cultural histories and visions of nature, North, and nation to the negotiating table.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Caroline Desbiens is a professor of geography at Laval University. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Historical Geography of the North.

Product Description:

In the 1970s, Hydro-Quebec declared in a publicity campaign "We Are Hydro-Quebecois." The slogan symbolised the extent to which hydroelectric development in the North had come to both reflect and fuel French Canada's aspirations in the South. The slogan helped southerners relate to the province's northern territory and to accept the exploitation of its resources. In Power from the North, Caroline Desbiens explores how this culture of hydroelectricity helped shape the material landscape during the first phase of the James Bay hydroelectric project. She analyses the cultural forces that contributed to the transformation of the La Grande River into a hydroelectric complex. Policy makers and Quebecers did not, she argues, view those who built the dams as mere workers - they saw them as pioneers in a previously uninhabited landscape now inscribed with the codes of culture and spectacle. This dynamic book reveals that drawing power from the North involves not only the cultural erasure of Aboriginal homelands but also rewriting the region's history in the language of identity and territoriality. To reverse this trend, Desbiens calls for a truly sustainable resource management, one in which all actors bring an awareness of their own cultural histories and visions of nature, North, and nation to the negotiating table.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Univ of British Columbia Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0774824174
• ISBN 13: 9780774824170
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 281