IT\u27S NOT RAINBOWS AND UNICORNS : REGULATED COMMODITY AND WASTE PRODUCTION IN THE ALBERTA OILSANDS

This dissertation examines the regulated oilsands mining industry of Alberta, Canada, widely considered the world’s largest surface mining project. The industrial processes of oilsands mining produce well over one million barrels of petroleum commodities daily, plus even larger quantities of airborne and semisolid waste. The project argues for a critical account of production concretized in the co-constitutional relations of obdurate materiality and labor activity within a framework of regulated petro-capitalism. This pursuit requires multiple methods that combine archives, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews to understand workers’ shift-to-shift relations inside the “black box” of regulated oilsands mining production where materiality co-constitutes the processes and outcomes of resource development and waste-intensive production. Here, the central contradiction pits the industry’s colossal environmental impact and its regulated environmental relations, which – despite chronic exceedances – are held under some control by provincial and federal environmental agents, further attenuated by firms’ selective voluntary compliance with global quality standards as well as whistleblowers and otherwise “troublesome” employees. ‘It’s not rainbows and unicorns,’ explains one informant, distilling workers’ views of the safety and environmental hazards they simultaneously produce and endure as wage laborers despite pervasive regulation. In addition to buttressing geographical conceptualizations of socionatural resource production, contributions arise in the sympathetic engagement with workers, which may hold useful insights for activism against the industry’s environmental outcomes

The Streetscape Demonstration

During the summer of 1994, a small stretch of West Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill was transformed. Gone are uneven cracked pavement and mud. Instead, the sidewalk is freshly paved with smooth concrete and bordered with attractive Carolina red brick. Sturdy new benches invite passers-by to relax under shady trees, which are offset in brick planters. New streetlights improve the sense of security during evening hours, and unsightly power lines have been buried in underground vaults. Bicycle racks relieve the pressure on unintended alternative parking spots such as parking meters, signs, and small trees. "We love it," said Sharon Powell, manager of a local business. "It really brightens up the place. I think it's really helping get people out to see what's happening on West Franklin Street." Public Works Director Bruce Heflin agrees, "All the feedback we've gotten has been positive." The improvements demonstrate the elements of Streetscape, an ambitious downtown improvement component of Chapel Hill's comprehensive plan. Proponents never doubted the benefits of Streetscape and the pilot project was supported by target-area merchants from the start—or so it seemed. Between the initial budgeting of $28,000 for a pilot project and its completion eighteen months later, the expected consensus broke down into an acrimonious battle pitting merchant against merchant and merchant against town. Some of the wounds remain raw. Although the Streetscape concept had been in discussion for five years, in this analysis we intend to assess what went wrong in those eighteen months. Ultimately, we hope to establish a framework by which similar "surprise" disputes, whether directly related to Streetscape or otherwise, can be avoided in the future