Lachlan MacKinnon

Lachlan MacKinnon, “Deindustrialization on the Periphery: An Oral History of Sydney Steel, 1945-2001”. PhD Dissertation, Concordia University, 2016.
Lachlan MacKinnon’s dissertation is an historical examination of the multi-layered processes of deindustrialization in Sydney, Nova Scotia. The history of a steel plant formerly located in the centre of the city is used as a case study through which the mechanisms of deindustrialization are fully explored. In 1967, the provincial government of Nova Scotia nationalized the Sydney Works. This marks a significant divergence from previous studies of deindustrialization, which have traditionally focused on the wave of industrial closures in the North American heartland during the 1970s and 1980s. MacKinnon’s work combines materialist analysis with oral history to get at the relationships that infuse deindustrialization, place and memory.  He also demonstrates familiarity with a wide range of literatures not just on deindustrialization and the Maritimes but also cultural theory/history, masculinity studies, oral history, political economy, labour history, etc.  The scope and depth of the research and the magnitude of the tale told makes for an impressive community study.