Environments of Mobility in Canadian History

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The environment has played a profound role in shaping the movement of people, objects, and ideas in Canadian history. In turn, mobility (travel, transport, and traffic) has had significant impacts on the environment, both in materially tangible ways and in terms of how people have perceived and experienced Canada’s varied landscapes.

Canadian scholars have a long tradition of examining mobility and the environment in the context of moving hinterland resources to metropolitan markets. However, there are many other aspects of the complex relationship between environments and mobility that deserve closer scrutiny. This is a timely moment to broaden and build on the existing Canadian literature in this area, for in addition to environmental history’s emergence as a field of study in this country, recent international developments in sociology, geography, and technology studies have argued that mobility should be brought to the foreground of the humanities and social sciences.

A workshop will be held at York University’s Glendon College in Toronto on May 13-14 2011 to discuss the work of junior and senior scholars who are researching the intersections of environment and mobility in Canadian history. Starting in January 2011, this workshop webpage will begin to host images and short analyses related to the workshop papers.

The following list of papers illustrates that the workshop promises to be an engaging and productive event.

I. Introduction
Colin M. Coates, Ben Bradley, and Jay Young, “Environment and Mobility: Reconsidering Time and Space in Canadian History”

II. Production: Supplies and Pathways

III. Consumption: Recreation and Landscape

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