Organizing a Rural Transformation: Contrasting Examples from the Industrialization of Tree Harvesting in North America

Abstract

The transformation of work and the technological innovation that makes it possible usually doesn’t “just happen”. The greater the difficulty and cost of the tasks of innovation, the more likely successful innovation requires that innovation be deliberately organized and sustained. Few cases can be more illustrative of this than the industrialization of tree harvesting in North America after WWII. In this article we examine the processes by which the harvesting of pulpwood in two contrasting regions of North America, both highly dependent on the pulp and paper industry, were transformed in the post WWII era. We establish that Eastern Canada was a leading region in the mechanization of woods work and the American Southeast a laggard. We delineate what it took to create and lead in a sustained industrial revolution in the woods in Eastern Canada, and that this did not happen in the American Southeast. We then suggest why the powerful business interests in Canadian forestry took strong measures to promote innovation, and why the same interests in the United States were able to avoid strong involvement in the transformation of woods work

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