Point Saint-Charles, a historically white working-class neighbourhood
with a strong Irish and French presence, and Little Burgundy, a
multiracial neighbourhood that is home to the city’s
English-speaking Black community, face each other across Montreal’s
Lachine Canal, once an artery around which work and industry in
Montreal were clustered and by which these two communities were formed
and divided. Deindustrializing Montreal challenges the deepening
divergence of class and race analysis by recognizing the intimate
relationship between capitalism, class struggles, and racial
inequality. Fundamentally, deindustrialization is a process of
physical and social ruination as well as part of a wider political
project that leaves working-class communities impoverished and
demoralized. The structural violence of capitalism occurs gradually
and out of sight, but it doesn’t play out the same for everyone.
Point Saint-Charles was left to rot until it was revalorized by
gentrification, whereas Little Burgundy was torn apart by urban
renewal and highway construction. This historical divergence had
profound consequences in how urban change has been experienced,
understood, and remembered. Drawing extensive interviews, a massive
and varied archive of imagery, and original photography by David Lewis
into a complex chorus, Steven High brings these communities to life,
tracing their history from their earliest years to their decline and
their current reality. He extends the analysis of deindustrialization,
often focused on single-industry towns, to cities that have seemingly
made the post-industrial transition. The urban neighbourhood has never
been a settled concept, and its apparent innocence masks considerable
contestation, divergence, and change over time. Deindustrializing
Montreal thinks critically about locality, revealing how heritage
becomes an agent of gentrification, investigating how places like
Little Burgundy and the Point acquire race and class identities, and
questioning what is preserved and for whom.
Les mer
Entangled Histories of Race, Residence, and Class
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780228012313
Publisert
2022
Utgiver
ACP - McGill Queen's University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter