Whose Heartland?: The politics of place in a rural–urban interface

Abstract

This article advances a conceptualization of the rural–urban interface that is centred on a historically and spatially informed politics of place situated within local–global connections. The research is a case study of an inter-municipal development plan called Alberta's Industrial Heartland. Located near the City of Edmonton, in Alberta, Canada, the study area has been characterized by tremendous social, cultural, and economic shifts over the past century, from agriculture, to country residential in-migration, to intensive industrial development in response to the increasing importance of Alberta on the global energy market. A series of interviews conducted with residents, political officials, and other stakeholders documents how parallel, yet contested definitions of the ‘Heartland’ underpinned a ‘politics of place’ over land use change at the rural–urban interface.