Traditional places and modernist spaces : regional geography and northwestern landscapes of power in Canada, 1850-1990

Abstract

Regions are the manifestation of ideology and power in the landscape. This study maintains that changes in the allocation and exercise of state power are reflected in Western Canada's regional geography at different time periods and that the ideology(ies) supporting this power is (are) actively advanced by the creation, maintenance, and continued existence of those regions. Traditional approaches to historical geography neglect this socio-political aspect of region. To that end, alternate, contemporary approaches are applied. Aspects of critical social theory will illuminate the roles of both ideology and power and their crucial place in forming the human-built environment. Different places in different time periods will be analysed. These include: the territories of the Canadian North-West 'circa' 1885; Alberta and Saskatchewan to provincehood, 1905; and the Inuvialuit Settlement Area, 1990.