Slash romance: an ethnography and occupational folklife study of an Ontario treeplanting camp

Bodner, John M. (1998) Slash romance: an ethnography and occupational folklife study of an Ontario treeplanting camp. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This thesis is an ethnography and occupational folklife study of a treeplanting camp in northwestern Ontario. Two main areas of inquiry are pursued. Robert McCarl's concept of ''technique" is used to understand the culture and social relations of treeplanting as products of the work process. Liminal space/time is investigated as both a structuring principle of treeplanting and a product of the lived relations of planters. The position of liminality in relation to complex society and work culture is investigated and a study of liminality in praxis is proposed as a ntethodology for approaching treeplanting. Finally, issues of personal and occupational identity construction are examined in relation to both technique and liminality. Throughout this thesis the contexts of youth and wage work. and issues surrotmding gender~ sexuality, class and age are integrated into various aspects of the occupation. Two broad conclusions can be extrapolated from my research: piecework and liminal space/time are the two main structures affecting the lives of treeplanters~ and the use of the occupation as an instrumental site of experimentation affects both the labourer and occupation's identity. These conclusions remain provisional because a lack of data makes a comparative study of other treeplanting camps impossible at this tlme.

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