The reimaging of a Canadian resource town: postproductivism in a North American context

Abstract

In this article we examine the process of community reimaging in a Canadian resource town that has been traditionally dependent on forest industries and is now seeking to establish its tourism economy. The discussion is framed within a conceptualization of postproductivism and the nature of contested transitions in rural areas. We draw on this debate, which has its origins in a British agricultural setting, to consider aspects of rural transition in a nonagricultural North American setting. The transitional process is examined through a case study of Squamish, British Columbia, Canada. First, we examine the results of a community survey and identify attitudinal differences between newer residents (of 5 years or less residency) and longer-term residents. Analysis reveals that the differences are predominantly a matter of degree rather than of an opposing nature. Differences between these two resident groups are further explored by examining the process of reimaging undertaken by a Citizen's Tourism Advisory Committee as they seek to develop a community vision statement to guide future tourism development. Membership of the Committee was weighted in favor of newer residents, and clear differences of opinion between the two groups emerged as they sought consensus on the vision statement. The past landscape of production was relegated to the category of heritage as a means of integrating it into the new landscape of consumption. The new image reflected attempts to integrate residents' amenity desires for a rural idyll with those of the emergent tourism economy. Although the findings reflect the distinctiveness of the geographic context, underlying commonalities with British rural transitions are evident. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.