Extraction: The Community Impacts of Mobile Work in Canada's Natural Resources Sector

Extraction: The Community Impacts of Mobile Work in Canada’s Natural Resources Sector explores how employment-related geographical mobility (E-RGM), including long-distance commuting and fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) work, impacts every aspect of life for workers, their families, and their communities, including the communities where they live, work, and travel through.

Focusing on the oil and gas, mining, and mineral processing sectors (extractive industries), this collection traces the shift from traditional “resource towns” to more mobile, camp-based work since the 1980s. The authors draw on findings from the seven-year, SSHRC-funded project, On the Move Partnership, to examine the socio-economic benefits and costs of mobile work for source, host, and hub communities, as well as its effects on identity, belonging, and place attachment. This volume is organized around three key themes: first, mobile work and economic development, analysing how mobile work impacts local and regional economies; second, mobile work and sense of place, investigating how mobility affects families and community connections; and finally, planning for mobile work, addressing the implications for planning, governance, infrastructure, and service delivery.

By integrating research from geography, sociology, planning, and regional development, this book provides a timely analysis of how Canada’s reliance on mobile labour in the natural resources sector is reshaping local economies, social relationships, and community life.