FLEXIBLE SPECIALIZATION, UNCERTAINTY, AND THE FIRM: ENTERPRISE STRATEGIES IN THE WOOD REMANUFACTURING INDUSTRY OF THE VANCOUVER METROPOLITAN AREA, BRITISH COLUMBIA

In this paper, we articulate the relationships between strategies of flexible specialization, uncertainty, and the firm in order to emphasize the internal differentiation of flexibly specialized regions. Conceptually, the paper argues that this variability is an implication of uncertainty which has been neglected in the literature. In particular, in response to uncertainty, firms develop different types of flexibility with respect to production, technology, and employment in sometimes novel ways that do not correspond to ideal types. Empirically, the argument is demonstrated through a detailed examination of several case study firms operating in the wood remanufacturing industry of the Vancouver metropolitan area, British Columbia.
Ceffe étude montre comment s'amculent les relations entre les stratégies de spécialisation flexible, les incertitudes du marché et la firme afin de souligner les différenciations à l'intérieur des régions à spécialisation flexible. De façon conceptuelle, on discutera ici du fait que la variabilité découle de l'incertitude du marché, point sur lequel on n'a pas beaucoup écrit. Notamment, pour répondre à l'incertitude, les firmes développent des types différents de flexibilityé portant sur la production, la technologie et la main-d'oeuvre par des moyens quelquefois innovateurs qui ne correspondent pas à des critères idéals. La démonstration est faite, de façon empirique, par un examen détaillé de plusieurs cas de compagnies de I'industrie manufacturière du bois d'oeuvre de la région du Vancouver métropolitain, en Colombie-Britan-nique.
Mots-clés: Spécialisation flexible, incertitudes du marché, industrie manufacturière du bois, stratégic de I'entreprise, Vancouver.     

RECALIBRATING SOCIETY: THE POPULATION GEOGRAPHY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA IN 1881

The nominal census of British Columbia for 1881 provides the basis for this analysis of the population distribution and social structure of the province. The provincial distributions of whites, Chinese, and native peoples are mapped and discussed, as are the population geographies of three regions: the Lower Skeena/Nass, the Southwestern Plateau, and the lands around the Strait of Georgia. The essay concludes with a discussion of the social categories employed in the census and of the particular relations of society and space in late-19th-century British Columbia.
Le recensement nominal de la Colombie Britannique en 1881 est à la base de cette analyse de la distribution de la population et de la structure sociale de la province. Les distributions provinciales des blancs, des chinois, et des indigènes sont cartographiées er analysées de même que la géographie de la population de trois régions: le bas Skeena / Nass, le plâteau du sud-ouest, et les côtes du détroit de Georgie. L'essai se termine par une discussion des catégories sociales utilisées dans le recensement et des rapports société-espace en Colombie Britannique vers la fin du dix-neuviéme siékle.     

CONCAVE-BANK BENCHES IN THE FLOODPLAINS OF MUSKWA AND FORT NELSON RIVERS, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Although concave-bank benches rarely occur in freely meandering rivers, they may constitute a significant proportion of the floodplain formed by the downvalley migration of the tight channel bends of confined meanders. This study reports the results of a field survey of the floodplains of Fort Nelson and Muskwa rivers, two of many northeastern British Columbian rivers whose meandering is confined between the resistant valley sides of former glacial meltwater channels. The formation and character of contemporary concave-bank benches and the morphology and sediments of the corresponding floodplain features are described. The concave-bank benches form lateral ribbons of deposition along the valley walls and constitute about one-third of the entire floodplain.     

SOURCES FOR VALLEY-FILL ALLUVIAL SEDIMENTS: BELLA COOLA RIVER BASIN, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Changes in the grain-size distribution and the lithologi-cal I mineralogical properties of sandy-gravel sediments are used to discriminate between sources for the alluvial valley-fill of Bella Coola River, coastal British Columbia. Spatially variable bedrock sources, ranging from highly resistant quartz monzonites to easily weathered basalts, yield sediments that reflect parent rock characteristics. Local increases in the D₉₅ fraction of bulk gravel samples and the D₅₀ fraction of sand samples can be related to inputs from steeper, heavily glaciated tributaries, or those underlain by fractured basalts of the Fraser Plateau. Where there are similarities in the grain-size properties of the source and the sampled deposit, however, grain-size information alone cannot be used to discriminate between sources. The lithology of Bella Coola alluvium shows a close correspondence with the general distribution of rock types in the basin, suggesting proportional contributions from most tributary sources over the long term. However, sand samples from the floodplain have a mostly volcanic affinity, indicating the dominance of sediment derived from headwater tributaries underlain by this rock type. Admixture of plutonic source sediments is evident in lower Bella Coola River adjacent to alluvial fans, heavily glaciated tributary creeks or rock walls comprised mainly of quartz monzonite. Les changements dans la granulometrie et les proprietes lithologiques et mineralogiques des sediments de gravel sablonneux servent d differencier les sources des depéts alluviaux de la Riviere Bella Coola sur la céte de la Colombie-Britannique. La variation spatiale des sources fondamentales donnent des sediments qui refletent les caracteristiques de la roche-mbe variant des quartz rnonzonites très résistants aux basaltes superficiellement altérés par les agents atmospheriques. Les augmentations locales dans la fraction D₉₅ des echantillons de gravel et la fraction D₅₀ des echantillons de sable peuvent être reliees la contribution des tributaires aux pentes plus escarpees et fortement glaciaires ou ceux qui traversent les basaltes fractures du Plateau Fraser. Cependant, quand il y a des similitudes dans la granulometrie de la source et le dépôt-échantillon, l'information granulometrique seule ne peut pas 6tre employee pour differencier les sources. La lithologie des alluvions de Bella Coola montre une correspondance avec la distribution générale des types de roches dans le bassin, suggérant des contributions proportionnelles des sources tributaires a long terme. Cependant, les échantillons de sable des plaines sujettes à inondations ont en grande part une affinité volcanique, indiquant que la dominance du sédiment provient des tributaires qui traversent ce type de roche. Une addition de sediments de sources plutonique est evidente dans le bas de la Riviere Bella Coola adjacent aux eventails alluviaux, aux ruisseaux tributaires affect& par une forte glaciation, ou aux murs de roches qui comprennent principalement des quartz monzonites.     

THE FUTURE'S PAST: POLITICS OF TIME AND TERRITORY AMONG DAKELH FIRST NATIONS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

ABSTRACT. This article examines contemporary political movements among Dakelh First Nations in British Columbia that have challenged Western modernity's fixation with a future achieved through industrial progress. Aboriginal people have been especially assertive in politicizing the connections between time and place through the display and performance of memory in forms as diverse as life history narratives, the cultural landscape, media and grass-roots development projects. Such constructions suggest that future developments in traditional lands must come through an engagement with the past - its meanings, practices, and significance in the particular places of cultural and economic production. I explore how Dakelh territories serve as sites for imagining and enacting alternative political and development agendas. I argue that these territories have increasingly become spaces forged in the margins of modernity's binary oppositions of self-other, nature-culture and future-past. This finding is not meant to marginalize indigenous territories conceptually or politically, but rather to recognize their centrality to contemporary provincial politics where margins - both geographic and discursive - have become central locations for pursuing sovereignty over land and nation.     

EMPLOYMENT CHANGE DURING RECESSION: THE EXPERIENCE OF FOREST PRODUCT MANUFACTURING PLANTS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, 1981–1985

This paper, on the basis of primary data obtained at the level of the individual plant, examines the nature and extent of employment change in the forest product manufacturing industries of British Columbia between 1981 and 1985 -that is, during and following extremely severe recessionary conditions. Conceptually, the discussion emphasizes the employment implications of enterprise strategies in recessions; empirically, selected characteristics of employment change are related to plant-level rationalizations, investment and technological changes, and market performance and plans. The overall size of the workforce employed by forest product firms in 1981 was significantly lower in 1985. Females were more vunerable to loss of employment than males. In occupational terms, however, male-dominated administrative workers experienced the greatest proportionate losses. The production, marketing and regional context of job loss varied. Trends in general towards value-added activities and geographically more diverse markets occurred largely within the coastal region. Ce rapport examine, sur la base des premiéres données obtenues au niveau d'uneusine, la nature et I'extension des modifications de I'emploi dans les industries de transformation deproduits forestiers en Colombie-Britan-nique entre 1981 et 1985, c'est-à-dire pendant et juste après une période de récession extrêmement sévère. La discussion fait ressortir essentiellement les implications sur le marché de I'emploi des stratégies des entreprises en période de récession. De manière empirique, les caractéristiques de modifications de I'emploi sont liées directement aux raisons attachées au niveau de I'usine proprement dite, aux changements apparus dans les investissements et la technologie, de même qu'aux performances et aux plans à terme du marché. Dans son ensemble, la taille de la main d'oeuvre employée par les entreprises traitant les produits forestiers en 1981 a considérablement diminue en 1985. Les femrnes ont été plus touchées que les hommes. Cependant, en termes de catégorie d'emplois, les employés administratifs, en rnajorité masculins, ont sub; la plus grande proportion de perte d'emploi. De plus, le marché et le contexte régional de perte d'emploi se sont modifiés. D'une manière générale on a noté des tendances vers des activités plus valorisantes et des marchés géographiquement plus diversifiés au sein de la région côtière.     

THE USE OF TEXTURAL PARAMETERS IN THE ANALYSIS OF CAVE SEDIMENTS

This paper considers the presentation of the results of the mechanical analysis of cave sediments, suggesting that the use of grain size parameter scatter diagrams is preferable to the older method of cumulative percentage frequency graphs. A sequence of samples was taken from an ideally-situated cave, the Badger Hole at Wookey, and first subjected to the standard soil analytical tests, followed by a detailed mechanical analysis. It is hoped that this preliminary work will encourage a more quantitative approach to granulometric analysis for archaeological purposes, leading eventually to the extraction of more precise environmental data from cave sediments.     

TOWARDS SHARED OWNERSHIP: PROPERTY,GEOGRAPHY, AND TREATY MAKING IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

In British Columbia, Canada's westernmost province, unresolved Aboriginal claims to land remain highly contentious. Since the early 1990s, a unique treaty negotiation process has sought to resolve questions about land ownership and establish a new relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the Crown. After almost two decades, the limitations of this treaty process are increasingly evident and answers to the land question remain elusive. This article examines this treaty‐making process through a property lens, focusing on how particular models of property are privileged by and produced through this approach to treaty. I argue that the treaty process, as currently structured, works to entrench dominant Western forms of property across Aboriginal territories in a highly separate and unequal manner, and as such, serves to reinscribe asymmetrical relations of power between Aboriginal peoples and the Crown. To a considerable extent, this asymmetrical approach to property making explains the lack of progress towards treaties. The final part of the article explores alternative approaches to treaty proposed by Aboriginal groups. I argue that these proposals, which reflect Aboriginal understandings of property, offer a new and more promising direction for treaty making. In particular, the emphasis on sharing lands and resources, as well as the wealth generated from these, provides a path to reconcile competing property interests and to build a new and more respectful relationship between the Crown and Aboriginal peoples. I suggest that the difficulties of treaty making in British Columbia reflect broader challenges associated with land restitution and reconciliation in settler colonies.