Description

The process of economic restructuring within the forestry sector has had dramatic impacts on BC's forest-dependent communities. As a result, the involvement of communities in resource extraction and processing activities has changed. As the forestry sector changed, the nature of the relationship between the resource company and the community changed. While literature on forestry sector restructuring and the resulting community impacts has grown since the 1980s, there has been little focus on community-company relationships and on resource peripheries in geographic theory. To gain a better understanding of these relationships, geographers must account for the uniqueness of resource peripheries while accounting for both global and local forces. The objective of this paper is to outline a conceptual framework for understanding forestry-dependent communities within the global economy. The framework is constructed by drawing upon contributions from locality studies and new regional geography, globalization, global-local connectivity, and institutional economics. This framework highlights the importance of place when addressing economic activity, the connectivity of global and local institutions, and the importance of both social and economic institutions in shaping the evolution of local economies and community-company relationships. This paper is part of a larger research project focusing on contemporary community-company dynamics in forestry-dependent communities in northern BC.

Document Type

Event

Start Date

8-3-2008 8:00 AM

Subject - LCSH

Forestry and community--British Columbia; Forests and forestry--Social aspects--British Columbia; Forests and forestry--Economic aspects--British Columbia; Lumber trade--British Columbia;

End Date

8-3-2008 5:00 PM

Session

Place, Community, Nature

Genre/Form

conference proceedings

Type

event

Geographic Coverage

British Columbia

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

Keywords

British Columbia, forest-dependent communities, global-local perspective, community-company relationships

Included in

Geography Commons

COinS
 
Mar 8th, 8:00 AM Mar 8th, 5:00 PM

Importance of place: addressing community-company relationships within the global economy.

The process of economic restructuring within the forestry sector has had dramatic impacts on BC's forest-dependent communities. As a result, the involvement of communities in resource extraction and processing activities has changed. As the forestry sector changed, the nature of the relationship between the resource company and the community changed. While literature on forestry sector restructuring and the resulting community impacts has grown since the 1980s, there has been little focus on community-company relationships and on resource peripheries in geographic theory. To gain a better understanding of these relationships, geographers must account for the uniqueness of resource peripheries while accounting for both global and local forces. The objective of this paper is to outline a conceptual framework for understanding forestry-dependent communities within the global economy. The framework is constructed by drawing upon contributions from locality studies and new regional geography, globalization, global-local connectivity, and institutional economics. This framework highlights the importance of place when addressing economic activity, the connectivity of global and local institutions, and the importance of both social and economic institutions in shaping the evolution of local economies and community-company relationships. This paper is part of a larger research project focusing on contemporary community-company dynamics in forestry-dependent communities in northern BC.