Writing Off the Rural West: Globalization, Governments, and the Transformation of Rural Communities

Michael Payne is head of the Research and Publications Program at the
Historic Sites and Archives Service, Alberta Community Development, and
the co-author of A Narrative History of Fort Dunvegan.

This collection of essays is based on the proceedings of a 1997
conference on globalization and rural communities in Western and
Northern Canada held by the Parkland Institute. As the Parkland
Institute represents the antithesis of the pro-free market, pro-free
trade Fraser Institute, it is not surprising that the essays in this
book take a distinctly critical view of the presumed benefits of
globalization, most current government agricultural policies, and the
startling transformations in rural communities over the past few
decades. Most of the essays are written by academics, but there is
little sense of scholarly detachment in the writing. The authors are
passionately engaged by the topics they are researching, and most manage
to keep their arguments grounded in the concerns of the people from
Bell’s Hill, Brooks, Brandon, and Punnichy, whose lives are being
transformed whether they like it or not.

The introductory essay by Roger Epp and Dave Whitson sets out the
context for the book with great clarity: rural depopulation, the rise of
agribusiness, complex environmental issues, transportation and
infrastructure problems, and social and political concerns associated
with structural demographic and economic changes. The other articles in
the book cover a range of issues, from debates over the economic
benefits and environmental costs of corporate hog farms and feedlot
operations to the social tensions created in communities by proposed
developments.

These are big issues and this book covers a lot of contested terrain,
from white–Native relations to recreational land developments and the
plight of seniors in declining communities. As a result, essays will
either intrigue or infuriate different readers, but all raise issues
that deserve more public debate. The book suggests that it is possible
to fashion a different future for the rural west than one implied by
current economic policies and political considerations. It also suggests
that ultimately these are not just rural issues. Eventually, what
happens to all that land and the people who live on it between Edmonton
and Winnipeg will have consequences for urban Canadians, if only when
they sit down to dinner.