Research Methods and Data Analysis

University of Alberta Moving Through Uncertain Times: A Morphogenetic Approach to Understanding People’s Response to Crisis in Two Forest Community Contexts in Rural British Columbia by Wayne Crosby A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Rural Sociology Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology ©Wayne Crosby Fall 2013 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission Abstract The degree to which individuals have agency to respond during crisis, and the degree to which social structure and culture influence their course of action, present compelling questions for understanding social change. The tradition of examining the interplay between agency and social structure, and to a lesser extent, culture, is central to sociology and forms the basis for social theory. I employ Margaret Archer’s morphogenetic approach because it offers the analytical means to examine the interplay between agency, structure, and culture over time and space whereby no single component is conflated into the other two components. Analytical attention is given to the conditional and generative mechanisms operating between agency, culture, and structure. The interplay is examined through a mediatory process of reflexivity whereby people interact with social structure and culture and negotiate constraining/enabling factors as they choose their course of action. Data was gathered through 49 semi-structured interviews conducted during fieldwork between July – December 2010 in two forest-dependent community settings of Mackenzie and McBride, British Columbia, Canada. Research participants faced a number of nationally and internationally sourced political and economic forces that manifest as immediate and direct socio- economic impacts related to mill closures, job loss, and the threat of community decline. I explore whether people have the capacity to move forward despite the threat of decline/collapse of their community and the factors that constrained/enabled their chosen courses of action. Particular attention is given to the expectation that people would engage in collective action as a means for moving through the crisis. I argue that people appear to have the capacity to sustain their own well-being and that of other community members through crisis, but appear limited in their capacity to pursue political and/or economic outcomes. Examination of the process of reflexivity reveals that the majority of research participants appear to employ a communicative mode, which suggests that the prevailing social system limits collective action. Findings reveal that morphostasis of structural and cultural conditions is reproduced to enable the well-being of the community members, and that there is a reproduction of factors constraining political and/or economic outcomes. Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful to my supervisory committee, Drs. John Parkins, Debra Davidson, and Ken Caine for your guidance and help in producing this dissertation. I am especially thankful for your support and encouragement to develop my own ideas and figure out my own path with this research. I also express my sincere thanks to my examining committee, Drs. David Tindall and John Spence for your thoughtful and constructive feedback on my dissertation. I gratefully acknowledge the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for providing the financial support for this research. Along this journey, a number of friends, family, and colleagues have supported me and kept me grounded in more ways than I can mention here. There are too many names to list, but I wish to thank my Mom, Carole Fraser, in particular for your unconditional support and encouragement to pursue my passions and to always grow as a person. This degree enabled me to accomplish both. Last but certainly not least I wish to thank the many research participants and residents in the communities of Mackenzie and McBride, British Columbia. I am grateful to you all for sharing your stories and for making this dissertation even possible. Your warm hospitality and remarkable communities will forever remain a positive memory in my life. Table of Contents Abstract Acknowledgements Table of Contents List of Tables List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................... 1 Significance of Research ............................................................................................... 2 Research Settings ......................................................................................................... 9 Impacts of Mill Closures ............................................................................................ 20 Organization of Thesis ................................................................................................ 31 Chapter 2: Research Methods and Data Analysis ........................................... 34 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 34 Research Methods ........................................................................................................ 35 Data Sources .............................................................................................................. 39 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................. 41 Limitations and Ethical Considerations ..................................................................... 44 Chapter 3: Literature Review and Metatheory ............................................... 50 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 50 Limitations in the Sociology of Community Sustainability ..................................... 50 Agency, Social Structure, and Culture ...................................................................... 55 Agency ....................................................................................................................... 56 Social Structure .......................................................................................................... 57 Culture ........................................................................................................................ 59 Critical Realism ........................................................................................................... 65 The Morphogenetic Approach ................................................................................... 74 Analytical Dualism: A Non-conflationary Analytical Approach .............................. 76 Stratified Model of Agency (People) ......................................................................... 79 Stratified Model of Social Structure (Parts) ............................................................... 86 Stratified Model of Culture (Parts) ............................................................................ 88 The Morphogenetic Approach in Practice ................................................................ 92 Reflexivity and the Mediation of Agency, Structure, and Culture ............................ 98 Collective Action ........................................................................................................ 104 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 109 Chapter 4: Structural and Cultural Conditions of Crisis ............................. 115 British Columbia Forest Industry ............................................................................ 116 Structural Conditions ................................................................................................ 117 Cultural Conditions ................................................................................................... 131 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 134 Chapter 5: Individual Response to Crisis ....................................................... 137 Individually-oriented Responses to Crisis ............................................................... 138 Socio-cultural Interaction in the Reflexive Process ................................................ 145 Social Structural Factors Enabling/Constraining Responses ................................... 146 Cultural Factors Enabling/Constraining Responses ................................................. 161 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 178 Chapter 6: Collective Action and Response to Crisis .................................... 181 Collectively-oriented

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