1 A COLLECTION OF diverse and often historically detailed case studies, Power and Restructuring: Canada’s Coastal Society and Environment offers a unique picture of the challenges facing communities located in Canada’s furthest Western and Eastern coasts. A Coasts Under Stress project, editors Peter Sinclair and Rosemary Ommer present an examination of coastal communities experiencing economic, social and health care restructuring. This collection aims to identify themes in the challenges faced by coastal communities and aspires to begin building strategies for solving the problems that result from fluctuating ecology and shifting social policy. The book uses an integrated approach, focusing on the inseparable relations between humans and nature. More specifically, the volume aims to contribute towards sound policy development and the empowerment of communities.

2 These eleven case studies present distinct stories of individuals facing challenges arising from power inequities, authoritarian structures, top-down management and external factors that restrain local people’s access to power. The chapters also speak to the resistance and resilience of these rural coastal populations, the strong effective social institutions they build and the local knowledge they develop in response to diverse challenges. The various essays explore the struggles of Aboriginal communities, forest harvesters, mining-company town residents, health care providers, fishers and youth. The themes central to all the studies include the importance of building strong social-ecological networks of power within communities and developing shared internal and external objectives. The text concludes with an examination of potential theoretical approaches and perspectives that might be used to build the framework necessary for obtaining these goals.

3 The case studies are sincere and compelling. Often insightful, they offer historical and contemporary perspectives on Canadians who depend on harvesting natural resources. The authors outline the crucial impacts the perpetual metamorphic state of resource access, legislation and management has had on individuals, families and communities; this is a perspective often overlooked in the public policy equation. Specific examples of power and restructuring impacts in Newfoundland and Labrador are illustrated in chapters such as Sean Cadigan’s “Restructuring the Woods: Timber Rights, Power and Agency in White Bay, Newfoundland, 1897-1959.” Focusing on class and restructuring, Cadigan builds on Sinclair and Jane-Hodder’s 2004 actor network theory. The chapter outlines how access to timber rights has gradually shifted from a community resource to private property and the effect this loss has had on occupational plurality. Seasonal fish harvester communities, at the mercy of the logging industry to supplement their incomes, have been forced to accept increasing legislative changes favouring industry over community. Cadigan details how this evolution has resulted from class influence and a loss of community agency.

4 John Kennedy’s work on the cod moratorium, “Disempowerment: The Cod Moratorium, Fisheries, Restructuring and the Decline of Power among Labrador Fishers,” presents a similar story of the loss of power. Fishing industry restructuring has not only had an impact on fish species but has also changed the capacity of fishers’ control over their livelihoods. Comparing northern and southeastern Labrador fishing communities, Kennedy explores the loss of power over a thirty-year period. Legislative responses, such as quota application to natural resource depletion, has meant these once nomadic seasonal working communities have lost not only access to resources but their way of life. Kennedy discusses the effect this has had on individual well-being and the local capacity for decision-making.

5 Chapter 9, “Making a Living: The Struggle to Stay” by Martha MacDonald, Barbara Neis and Brenda Grzetic, looks into the lives of work-age Newfoundland and Labrador men and women. This work specifically uses Foucault’s definitions of power and resistance as a starting point when focusing on the health, as in the resilience, of communities. Three communities (Labrador Straits, Hawke’s Bay-Port au-Choix and White Bay South) and three industry sectors (fisheries, forestry and tourism) are examined. The authors present strategies used, and often accepted without choice, to protect individual and community well-being. This gives pause for thought. This chapter is a particularly compelling presentation of how power is manipulated through space and time and cemented through the establishment of both formal and informal social institutions.

6 Other chapters extrapolate on the effects and outcomes of power and restructuring within the province. What is missing, however, is a consistent theoretical application of the main themes of power, resistance and restructuring. The theoretical links to the case studies presented are not always clear. It is also unfortunate that such a geographical and industry-specific text does not include an index. Where the volume succeeds is in presenting the capacity of Canada’s coastal communities to build resilience and move forward as they face environmental and social-economic uncertainty. Theorists and practitioners concerned about rural restructuring in coastal communities will gain greater understanding of these important issues and will find much use in this volume.