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Identity, place, power and the 'text' : Kerry's Dale and the "monster" house

University of British Columbia

Since the late 1960's, fundamental changes in Canadian immigration policy, encouraging more middle-class/professional immigration in an effort to create employment and to boost the nation's skill profile, have precipitated a shift in orientation of population and capital flows into Canada. In particular the countries of the Pacific Rim have risen in relative importance as source regions of both international finance and migrants. These trends have had an uneven impact across Canada, and Vancouver in particular has come to play a significant role as a "gateway city". This thesis considers some of the ramifications of the emerging social geography of this elite portion of the wide spectrum of immigrants entering Canada. In focusing on neighbourhood change within the upper middle-class suburb of Kerrisdale, situated on Vancouver's elite West Side, it examines the cultural politics surrounding perceived social change. It explores a contested sense of identity and place, showing how these are informed and invigorated by a diverse set of social struggles evident in conflicting landscape 'tastes' in the neighbourhood of Kerrisdale.

Text

2010-09-27

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28747

Geography

University of British Columbia

Graduate