Canadian countercultures and the environment / / edited by Colin M. Coates.

• Superior document: Canadian history and environment series, no. 4
• TeilnehmendeR: Coates, Colin MacMillan, 1960-
• Place / Publishing House: Calgary, Alberta : : University of Calgary Press,, [2016]; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Canadian history and environment series ; 4.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (x, 302 pages) :; illustrations (black and white); digital file(s).

In Canadian historiography, there has been an increasing attention on the 1960s. Studies have focused mainly on the radical politics of the period but tended to downplay the extent to which much of the intellectual and social ferment continued into the 1970s and 1980s. This present collection, Canadian Countercultures and the Environment, makes an important contribution to a number of fields. As most of the papers deal with the 1970s and 1980s, they will add to our knowledge of this understudied period. Furthermore, the phenomenon of the counterculture has been the subject of very little academic focus to date. Most importantly, this collection will contribute a sustained analysis of the beginning of key environment debates in the 1970s and 1980s. Papers examine a range of issues related to broad environmental concerns, topics which emerged as key concerns in the context of Cold War military investments and experiments, the oil crisis of the 1970s, debates over gendered roles, and the increasing attention to urban pollution and pesticide use. No other publication dealing with this time period covers the range of environmental topics (activism, midwifery, organic farming, recycling, urban cycling, and communal living) included in this collection. Geographically, this collection covers a range of case studies from the Yukon to Atlantic Canada--it includes two urban examples, and, not surprisingly, places a good deal of emphasis on activities in British Columbia. From the most cursory glance at the history of those who moved "back-to-the-land," it is clear that they engaged with environmental issues in ways that have had a long-term impact on Canadian society.

Table of Contents

1. Canadian countercultures and their environments, 1960s-1980s / Colin M. Coates -- section 1. Environmental activism -- 2. Back-to-the-land environmentalism and small island ecology : Denman Island, BC, 1974-1979 / Sharon Weaver -- 3. "Good ecology is good economics" : the Slocan Valley Community Forest Management Project, 1973-1979 / Nancy Janovicek -- 4. American immigration, the Canadian counterculture, and the prefigurative environmental politics of the West Kootenay Region, 1969-1989 / Kathleen Rodgers -- 5. Countercultural recycling in Toronto : the "is five foundation" and the origins of the blue box / Ryan O'Connor -- 6. "Vive la vélorution!" : le Monde à bicyclette and the origins of cycling advocacy in Montreal / Daniel Ross -- section 2. People, nature, activities -- 7. An ark for the future : science, technology, and the Canadian back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s / Henry Trim -- 8. Dollars for "deadbeats" : opportunities for youth grants and the back-to-the-land movement on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast / Matt Cavers -- 9. Building futures together : western and Aboriginal countercultures and the environment in the Yukon Territory / David Neufeld -- 10. Nature, spirit, home : back-to-the-land childbirth in BC's Kootenay Region / Megan J. Davies -- 11. Children of the hummus : growing up back-to-the-land on Prince Edward Island / Alan MacEachern with Ryan O'Connor.