Paradise: Class, Commuters, and Ethnicity in Rural Ontario

Shelley Butler is a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at York University.

This ethnographic study examines social change in rural Ontario by
focusing on two periods, the 1950s and the 1980s, and addresses issues
concerning class, ethnicity, and migration in a community called
“Paradise.” The author challenges readers to rethink the notion of a
rural-urban dichotomy, as he shows how Paradise has become enmeshed with
urban capitalist class relations and cosmopolitan pluralism. He offers a
sensitive historical analysis of the intersections of social change and
class, stressing how changes that provide opportunities for some may
lead to entrapment and loss for others.

In examining racism, parochialism, and xenophobia, Barrett stresses the
heterogeneity of attitudes, behaviors, and experiences in Paradise in
the 1980s. Barrett offers a nuanced analysis of racism in rural Ontario,
which includes a consideration of how individual factors intersect with
race and class relations. To its credit, Paradise draws attention to an
important emerging phenomenon, that of white flight from multicultural
cities.

Aside from its main themes, the book briefly addresses current
theoretical and methodological issues facing anthropologists, touching
on such subjects as postmodernism, objectification, and ethical
concerns. However, as Barrett admits, he is quite conventional in his
approach. This may be disappointing to readers who expect something more
experimental from the Anthropological Horizons series.