Scales of Change: What lived experiences of deindustrialization in Cape Breton can teach us about "just" energy transitions

Abstract

As Canada’s energy systems move away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy source, anchor industries are closing in some places and emerging in others. These dynamics are reshaping the economies and social fabrics of communities built around industry towns. As this process unfolds, policy makers and scholars contemplate approaches to a “just transition” so that no one is left behind through these periods of sociotechnical change. Despite consensus among governments and civil society that these periods of transition should unfold in a way that is “just”, approaches diverge. Some emphasize concentrated economic supports and job creation while others call for broader economic and political restructuring away from extractive development models that externalize social and place-based costs. Historical cases of deindustrialization provide a window into the stakes involved in these different transition approaches. With this relationship between deindustrialization and “just transition” in view, we draw on eight oral history style interviews documenting community responses to deindustrialization in Cape Breton from 1967 to the present day. Participants detailed embodied impacts of the closures of central industries (coal extraction and steelmaking), affecting sense of place, health, family structures, and identity. When describing self-organizing to support their own needs during periods of transition, participants also recalled the failure of government employment-oriented initiatives to prioritize community members’ overall well-being, all while blaming them for their circumstances. These findings highlight the limits of treating transition as a technical labour-market problem - approaching transition in this way does not capture the lived realities of deindustrialization. On this basis, approaches that pursue broader transformations that internalize the social and place-based costs of sociotechnical change are more likely to address the full range of impacts experienced by communities facing the loss or significant downsizing of major industries.