Full bibliography

The purpose of the thesis is essentially to elaborate, and to a lesser extent to test the relevance of a theoretical framework focussing simultaneously on the spheres of industry, work and community in staple-specific contexts, explicitly in Canadian forestry and mining single-industry towns (SITS). The framework builds two ideal types of these towns by drawing from the main approaches that have addressed the topic in political economy, labour and community studies. The core underlying argument is that a reconsideration of some neglected staple insights constitutes a legitimate endeavour. The framework stresses that forestry SITs have more: of an elite model of power structure, separate work and community social arrangements, individualistic income strategies, as well as lower class consciousness and numerous contradictory class locations; while mining SITs have more: of a class model of power structure, overlapping work and community arrangements, income strategies framed in secondary relations terms, as well as a higher class consciousness and fewer contradictory class locations. After a brief introductory chapter, the second, third and fourth ones extensively review and interpret the literature, gathering empirical material and theoretical considerations useful to the comparative theoretical framework. The latter is detailed and its claim circumscribed in Chapter five; its relevance is tested in the two last chapters by using it as a backdrop to explain staple specific patternings regarding the organization of work in the main resource sector and women's experience in the family.