Abstract

An investigation of the socio-economic impact of deindustrialization on the lived experience of Cape Bretoners, as they make sense of their changing world and attempt to improve the future of their communities, cannot be removed from its larger historical context, or from the larger political atmosphere that shapes Canadian policy. The framework within which the people of Sydney Mines and Florence conceptualize their predicament is informed by hegemonic neoliberal ideology which aims to reduce the role of the state and place more emphasis on the individual. This thesis is an ethnographic exploration of the experience of displacement, contingent work and unemployment in the lives of men and women in Sydney Mines and Florence. This is approached through a focus on three areas: labour migration, call centre employment, and finally, unemployed community members' participation in an experiment aimed at finding an alternative to the Employment Insurance (a.k.a. Pogey) system, called the Community Employment Innovation Project. This thesis demonstrates, through the contested discourses of community members around issues of workforce participation and unemployment and their implications for the future, the double bind in which community members find themselves caught. They are both encouraged to take part in community development, and condemned by the rhetoric for staying rather than migrating in search of work. This dilemma is most apparent with respect to the participants in the CEIP who are directly involved in building community capital but also bear the brunt of the stigma of unemployment.