Abstract
Cape Breton Development Corporation (DEVCO) – a federal Crown corporation created in 1967 – was charged with stimulating employment to compensate for the decline of island coal mining. Following the failure of industrial promotion, DEVCO adopted a participatory regional development practice between 1972 and 1982. With specific reference to sheep producers, this article argues that DEVCO focused on imparting entrepreneurship, boosting production, and selling a particular kind of Cape Breton. However, DEVCO objectives were undermined by the very capitalist processes they sought to amend. The Cape Breton sheep story provides a way into the broader history of regional development in these years.Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the author(s), with Acadiensis being granted a non-exclusive licence to each and every right in the work throughout the world. After publication of the work, the author(s) shall have the right to self-archive the work and to reprint the work in whole or in part in books authored by or edited by the author(s) without the payment of any fee. In these other formats, however, the author or authors are required to acknowledge the original publication of the work in the pages of the journal. In the case of any requests to reprint the work, Acadiensis will require a standard permission fee -- to be divided equally between the journal and the author. In the event that such requests are received by the author(s), the author(s) shall direct such requests to the journal.