Life among the Ruins: Deindustrialization in Historiographical Perspective

Abstract

I live in a depleted city (Sydney), in a deindustrialized region (Cape Breton Regional Municipality), on a marginal island (Cape Breton), in a have-not province (Nova Scotia). As recently as the mid-1960s, the city, region, and island were supported economically by coal mining, steel making, and fish processing; thousands were employed directly in these areas, while thousands upon thousands more provided supportive goods and services. Things have changed dramatically since then. No one on the island goes underground for coal anymore, nor does anyone here smelt iron ore. Fish plant workers remain, but they are few in number and endangered. Within the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, which used to be called “industrial Cape Breton” because the island’s steel industry and nearly all of its coal mines fell within its boundaries, the impact of this protracted economic decline has been dramatic and seemingly irreversible. Between 1961 and 2011, the municipality’s population has contracted from 131,507 to 97,398, a drop of nearly 26 per cent; immigration to the region is non-existent. The average family income is 40 per cent less than in the rest of Canada; 24 per cent of children under the age of six live in low-income houses, a rate above the provincial and national average; most of those households are led by single women. Levels of arthritis, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, substance abuse, and cancer are either among the highest or (in the case of cancer) are the highest in the country. Derelict houses and buildings line many streets, and arson is all too common. The municipal government is practically bankrupt, while property taxes are the highest in the province.1 The (official) unemployment rate for the island as a whole hovers

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