1. Fuel as a Factor in Canadian Transport: Energy Capital and Communication Theory.
- Author
-
Greaves, Matthew
- Subjects
- *
COMMUNICATION , *TRANSPORTATION , *COAL mining , *COAL industry , *ENERGY consumption , *CANADIAN history - Abstract
Background Established in 1849, the Fort Rupert coal settlement represented a departure in the Hudson's Bay Company's mode of colonial wealth accumulation on Vancouver Island. Company officials failed, however, to appreciate basic differences in the new mode of accumulation, including the importance of transportation to capitalist mineral extraction. Analysis This article accomplishes three things: it retrieves foundational theories of transportation and commodity circulation once popular in communication studies, provides a documentary account of coal mining and the coal trade in the mid-nineteenth-century eastern Pacific, and articulates a theory of capitalist energy consumption. Conclusion and implications The culminating theory of energy capital positions the extraction and circulation of fuel within Canadian communication studies through a transportation- focused approach to communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF