Policy & Society : Vol 26 No 1

Volume 26 Number 1

SPECIAL ISSUE

Towards a Post-Staples Future?
New Products and New Directions in Canada’s Resource Industries
Guest Editors: Michael Howlett and Keith Brownsey
Introduction: Towards a Post-Staples State?
Michael Howlett and Keith Brownsey

No longer tied exclusively to the original staples industries, Canada has become an advanced economy but one which remains different from the typical model of advanced manufacturing and services found in Europe, the US and Japan. The base of the Canadian economy retains its roots in early staples industries but with many new activities grafted into, and onto, those traditional sectors (Watkins 1997). This transformation of the old staples political economy has ushered in some elements of a new political and social order at the same time that it has exacerbated or worsened many elements of the old (Clarkson 2001).
Contours of the Post-Staples State: The Reconstruction of Political Economy and Social Identity in 21st Century Canada
Thomas A. Hutton

Abstract
In this essay I will be advancing an argument that the national development trajectory is in transition from a “mature staples” phase to a “post-staples” era, signifying not only a new phase of industrial restructuring, but also profound shifts in social development and the structures and operations of the state. This emergent development trajectory is shaped by a mélange of influences which includes new rounds of industrial restructuring, the repositioning of cities and settlements within the Canadian urban hierarchy and (more decisively) international networks, and influential social movements (including multiculturalism and environmentalism). My notion of a “post-staples” state – is not intended as an “absolute”, as even episodes of quite fundamental and far-teaching industrial and socioeconomic change necessarily encompass a sublation of conditions, both contemporary and historical, rather than a complete and totalising break with the past. Rather, these concepts represent ventures in capturing important new phases of economic change, together with the complex social, cultural, spatial and political causalities and outcomes that comprise basic shifts in development mode.
The New Agriculture: Genetically-Engineered Food in Canada
Elizabeth Moore

Abstract
Agriculture in Canada is a mature staples industry. However it also contains some elements of a post-staples sector notably in trends towards an increasingly high technological component of basic foodstuffs. This is evident in the increasing mechanisation of farm production, the increasing sophistication of food inspection processes and other developments of industrial farming, but reaches its apogee in the use of sophisticated gene-splicing to produce genetically-engineered crops and livestock. The application of genetic engineering to agriculture remains controversial in the early years of the 21st century, however, rendering problematic any possible transition of agriculture from a staples to a post-staples industry.
Caught in a Staples Vise: The Political Economy of Canadian Aquaculture
Jeremy Rayner and Michael Howlett

Abstract
Aquaculture in Canada is a small, rapidly-growing high-technology resource sector “caught in a staples vise”. On the one hand it is an archetypal case of a new “post staples” resource industry: combining high capital intensity and sophisticated technology to produce a new, post-staples, version of a classic staple resource – food fish. On the other, it perpetuates many of the same social and economic problems and issues that plagued traditional staples political economies: namely a hinterland location and heavy export reliance. And, as is the case with most intensively farmed technologically- intensive foodstuffs its rise and rivalry with the wild fishery is intense and conflictridden, with much distrust and debate a feature of contemporary aquacultural expansion. This article assesses these contradictory and sometimes conflicting developments in a resource industry for the most part situated in a very uneven transition towards a post staples political economy.
The Future of Non-State Authority on Canadian Staples Industries: Assessing the Emergence of Forest Certification
Benjamin Cashore, Graeme Auld, James Lawson, and
Deanna Newsom

Abstract
Virtually all of the literature on Canada as a “staples state” has focused on two related topics: the impact of a historically staples-based economy on the development of the Canadian state’s structure, function and policy outcomes; and, given these historical influences, the ability and capacity state officials might have to veer Canada off this “hinterland” pathway by facilitating a more diversified Canadian economy less dependent on the US “metropole”. While these foci are important, the dramatic arrival in the 1990s of Non-State Market Driven (NSMD) governance systems that focus largely on regulating staples extracting sectors such as forestry, fisheries, and mining, has raised important new questions for students of the staples state.
A New Staples Industry? Complexity, Governance and Canada’s Diamond Mines
Patricia J. Fitzpatrick

Abstract
The discovery of indicator minerals in the Slave geological province began a staking and development rush that, in a little over a decade, saw Canada becoming one of the world’s largest producers of diamonds. An examination of the institutions surrounding the development of the first two diamond mines illustrates the complexities associated with mineral development. An emerging picture of a new approach to the northern staples-based economy reveals efforts to promote responsible economic development within a sound environmental framework. Furthermore, this approach necessarily involves the incorporation of a group of policy actors with agendas, needs, and requirements qualitatively different from those of traditional resource developers and producers. Thus the new diamond projects are proceeding in a way that is qualitatively different from historical practices that have governed staples based development in the mineral sector.

Offshore Petroleum Politics: A Changing Frontier in a Global System
Peter Clancy

Abstract
Off-shore oil and gas development is often thought of as a classic mature staple sector, where hydrocarbons are extracted from a remote and physically challenging hinterland, by highly capitalised enterprise, to realise profit from sale and consumption in distant markets. There are, however, reasons to look more closely at this political economy of the offshore domain, particularly from the perspective of Hutton’s post-staples hypothesis. To begin, offshore oil and gas is a relative late-arrival to the staple trade. This means that its regulatory regimes have been infused with social policy concerns that were not present in the formative eras of terrestrial petroleum. Other features arise from the “offshore” location, where a thrust toward integrated oceans policy has emerged in recent decades and threatens to erode the sectoral autonomy of the petroleum domain. Offshore oil and gas developments are one of the new “unconventional” energy sources which have emerged in Canada over the last two decades as oil prices have risen and conventional domestic sources declined.
From Black Gold to Blue Gold: Lessons from the Petroleum Trade Regime for an Emerging Water Trade and Investment Regime
John McDougall

Abstract
Water resources in Canada are “potential” or “quasi-staples”. That is, the exploitation of water resources has featured many of the aspects of a staples industry such as their large-scale, technologically influenced, rural-based, bulk-commodity characteristics, but lack others, especially a traditional staples export orientation. However, this situation is changing. In the electricity case, deregulation in both Canada and the US markets has resulted in the emergence of a new production regime in Canada, one that is approaching a typical “mature” staples industry, albeit with the new environmental regulations and conditions for participation of a much broader spectrum of “stakeholders” which bears some resemblance to a “post-staples” model. The same is true of water resources as a whole where, for almost two decades, one of the most controversial concerns raised by Canadian opponents of free trade with the United States was that it would lead to the large scale export of water from Canada. Should this come to pass, this commodity would become a “staple” and the water industry which would emerge in Canada would move from “potential” to “actual”.

About us : Past Issues : Submissions : Subscribe


	Volume 26 Number 1
		SPECIAL ISSUE Towards a Post-Staples Future? New Products and New Directions in Canada’s Resource Industries Guest Editors: Michael Howlett and Keith Brownsey Introduction: Towards a Post-Staples State? Michael Howlett and Keith Brownsey No longer tied exclusively to the original staples industries, Canada has become an advanced economy but one which remains different from the typical model of advanced manufacturing and services found in Europe, the US and Japan. The base of the Canadian economy retains its roots in early staples industries but with many new activities grafted into, and onto, those traditional sectors (Watkins 1997). This transformation of the old staples political economy has ushered in some elements of a new political and social order at the same time that it has exacerbated or worsened many elements of the old (Clarkson 2001). Contours of the Post-Staples State: The Reconstruction of Political Economy and Social Identity in 21st Century Canada Thomas A. Hutton Abstract In this essay I will be advancing an argument that the national development trajectory is in transition from a “mature staples” phase to a “post-staples” era, signifying not only a new phase of industrial restructuring, but also profound shifts in social development and the structures and operations of the state. This emergent development trajectory is shaped by a mélange of influences which includes new rounds of industrial restructuring, the repositioning of cities and settlements within the Canadian urban hierarchy and (more decisively) international networks, and influential social movements (including multiculturalism and environmentalism). My notion of a “post-staples” state – is not intended as an “absolute”, as even episodes of quite fundamental and far-teaching industrial and socioeconomic change necessarily encompass a sublation of conditions, both contemporary and historical, rather than a complete and totalising break with the past. Rather, these concepts represent ventures in capturing important new phases of economic change, together with the complex social, cultural, spatial and political causalities and outcomes that comprise basic shifts in development mode. The New Agriculture: Genetically-Engineered Food in Canada Elizabeth Moore Abstract Agriculture in Canada is a mature staples industry. However it also contains some elements of a post-staples sector notably in trends towards an increasingly high technological component of basic foodstuffs. This is evident in the increasing mechanisation of farm production, the increasing sophistication of food inspection processes and other developments of industrial farming, but reaches its apogee in the use of sophisticated gene-splicing to produce genetically-engineered crops and livestock. The application of genetic engineering to agriculture remains controversial in the early years of the 21st century, however, rendering problematic any possible transition of agriculture from a staples to a post-staples industry. Caught in a Staples Vise: The Political Economy of Canadian Aquaculture Jeremy Rayner and Michael Howlett Abstract Aquaculture in Canada is a small, rapidly-growing high-technology resource sector “caught in a staples vise”. On the one hand it is an archetypal case of a new “post staples” resource industry: combining high capital intensity and sophisticated technology to produce a new, post-staples, version of a classic staple resource – food fish. On the other, it perpetuates many of the same social and economic problems and issues that plagued traditional staples political economies: namely a hinterland location and heavy export reliance. And, as is the case with most intensively farmed technologically- intensive foodstuffs its rise and rivalry with the wild fishery is intense and conflictridden, with much distrust and debate a feature of contemporary aquacultural expansion. This article assesses these contradictory and sometimes conflicting developments in a resource industry for the most part situated in a very uneven transition towards a post staples political economy. The Future of Non-State Authority on Canadian Staples Industries: Assessing the Emergence of Forest Certification Benjamin Cashore, Graeme Auld, James Lawson, and Deanna Newsom Abstract Virtually all of the literature on Canada as a “staples state” has focused on two related topics: the impact of a historically staples-based economy on the development of the Canadian state’s structure, function and policy outcomes; and, given these historical influences, the ability and capacity state officials might have to veer Canada off this “hinterland” pathway by facilitating a more diversified Canadian economy less dependent on the US “metropole”. While these foci are important, the dramatic arrival in the 1990s of Non-State Market Driven (NSMD) governance systems that focus largely on regulating staples extracting sectors such as forestry, fisheries, and mining, has raised important new questions for students of the staples state. A New Staples Industry? Complexity, Governance and Canada’s Diamond Mines Patricia J. Fitzpatrick Abstract The discovery of indicator minerals in the Slave geological province began a staking and development rush that, in a little over a decade, saw Canada becoming one of the world’s largest producers of diamonds. An examination of the institutions surrounding the development of the first two diamond mines illustrates the complexities associated with mineral development. An emerging picture of a new approach to the northern staples-based economy reveals efforts to promote responsible economic development within a sound environmental framework. Furthermore, this approach necessarily involves the incorporation of a group of policy actors with agendas, needs, and requirements qualitatively different from those of traditional resource developers and producers. Thus the new diamond projects are proceeding in a way that is qualitatively different from historical practices that have governed staples based development in the mineral sector. Offshore Petroleum Politics: A Changing Frontier in a Global System Peter Clancy Abstract Off-shore oil and gas development is often thought of as a classic mature staple sector, where hydrocarbons are extracted from a remote and physically challenging hinterland, by highly capitalised enterprise, to realise profit from sale and consumption in distant markets. There are, however, reasons to look more closely at this political economy of the offshore domain, particularly from the perspective of Hutton’s post-staples hypothesis. To begin, offshore oil and gas is a relative late-arrival to the staple trade. This means that its regulatory regimes have been infused with social policy concerns that were not present in the formative eras of terrestrial petroleum. Other features arise from the “offshore” location, where a thrust toward integrated oceans policy has emerged in recent decades and threatens to erode the sectoral autonomy of the petroleum domain. Offshore oil and gas developments are one of the new “unconventional” energy sources which have emerged in Canada over the last two decades as oil prices have risen and conventional domestic sources declined. From Black Gold to Blue Gold: Lessons from the Petroleum Trade Regime for an Emerging Water Trade and Investment Regime John McDougall Abstract Water resources in Canada are “potential” or “quasi-staples”. That is, the exploitation of water resources has featured many of the aspects of a staples industry such as their large-scale, technologically influenced, rural-based, bulk-commodity characteristics, but lack others, especially a traditional staples export orientation. However, this situation is changing. In the electricity case, deregulation in both Canada and the US markets has resulted in the emergence of a new production regime in Canada, one that is approaching a typical “mature” staples industry, albeit with the new environmental regulations and conditions for participation of a much broader spectrum of “stakeholders” which bears some resemblance to a “post-staples” model. The same is true of water resources as a whole where, for almost two decades, one of the most controversial concerns raised by Canadian opponents of free trade with the United States was that it would lead to the large scale export of water from Canada. Should this come to pass, this commodity would become a “staple” and the water industry which would emerge in Canada would move from “potential” to “actual”.

	About us : Past Issues : Submissions : Subscribe
	Copyright © 2007. Policy & Society. All Rights Reserved