Faculty Research and Publications

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A succinct report on the Department of Geography Map Library
(1986) Jakunis, Frank J.
A brief summary describing the development and operation of the map library managed by the Department of Geography at the University of Lethbridge.
Economic development and industrial employment: A thousand points of light?
(Alberta Association, Canadian Institute of Planners, 1991) MacLachlan, Ian
This paper disputes some of the empirical analysis on small firm job creation and argues that small enterprises are responsible for a relatively modest share of employment and employment growth at the national, provincial, and municipal levels. While the importance of small business should not be gainsaid, the traditional large firm sector is still a vital component in municipal economic growth and decline. The shortcomings of data on small enterprises are discussed to encourage a more skeptical interpretation of research findings on employment creation. Economic development strategy should include the attraction of new large enterprises and the needs of existing large employers must be addressed if the community economic base is to be sustained.
Regional diversification policy in Alberta
(Alberta Association, Canadian Institute of Planners, 1992) MacLachlan, Ian
On August 4, 1992 Western Diversification Canada (WD) celebrated its 5th birthday. This anniversary provides an excellent opportunity to examine WD's mandate and programs and to assess the allocation of funding under its various programs. This article opens with a framework for conceptualizing regional economic development policy in terms of sectoral diversification and spatial diversification. It then considers how the Economic Council of Canada's Western Transition (1984) contributed to WD's policy orientation. The circumstances surrounding the creation of WD, limitations of its initial program structure, and the principles underlying the newly created Western Diversification Program are described. The paper concludes with an analysis of WD approved projects in Alberta to highlight some of the trends in the regional and sectoral distribution of funding.
Subcontracting in Hokkaido's resource processing sectors
(Center for Development Policy Studies, Hokkai-Gakuen University (Sapporo, Japan), 1992-02) MacLachlan, Ian
The Japanese economic miracle has inspired considerable interest in the organization of the Japanese industrial system. One of the unique aspects of industrial capitalism in Japan is the vast array of contractual linkages articulating part-time and family businesses with multinational corporations. This paper begins with a brief definition of terms related to industrial subcontracting in Japan and then considers subcontracting in Hokkaido. While less pervasive than on the mainland, industrial subcontracting is a vital component in Hokkaido's space economy and it is found in every industrial sector. To explain the relations between small and large firms two conceptual models are introduced: dualism and flexible production. Data from primary and secondary sources are used to show that the dualism model is most germane to the resource processing industries of the Hokkaido region.
Spatial patterns of income and income inequality in Mexico City
(Geografía y Desarrollo, México, 1998) MacLachlan, Ian
To explain trends in inequality in Mexico, three theoretical approaches to income inequality are outlined: Kuznets' inverted "U", Mexican crisis theory, and the informal-formal duality. Empirical data are used to construct maps of the distribution of income in the Mexico City Metropolitan Zone. Due in part to the very large size of many districts in the city, there is enormous heterogeneity in each district. High levels of inequality in every district mirror the very high variance and inequality of employment income at the national scale.
Lethbridge and the Trans-Canada Airway
(Historical Society of Alberta, 2000) MacLachlan, Ian; MacKay, Bruce
For the first nine years of transcontinental airline service, 1939-1948, Lethbridge was western Canada's principal airline hub. The city was ideally situated to fulfill this function due to its location on the southerly route of the Trans-Canada Airway and the limited operational ceiling of the unpressurized Lockeed aircraft then in use.
Glacier surge propagation by thermal evolution at the bed
(American Geophysical Union, 2000) Murray, Tavi; Stuart, Graham W.; Miller, Paul J.; Woodward, John; Smith, Andrew M.; Porter, Philip R.; Jiskoot, Hester
Bakaninbreen, southern Svalbard, began a prolonged surge during 1985. In 1986, an internal reflecting horizon on radio echo sounding data was interpreted to show that the position of the surge front coincided with a transition between areas of warm (unfrozen) and cold (frozen) bed. Ground-penetrating radar lines run in 1996 and 1998 during early quiescence show that the basal region of the glacier is characterized by a strong reflection, interpreted as the top of a thick layer of sediment-rich basal ice. Down glacier of the present surge front, features imaged beneath the basal reflection are interpreted as the bottom of the basal ice layer, the base of a permafrost layer, and local ice lenses. This indicates that this region of the bed is cold. Up glacier of the surge front, a scattering zone above the basal reflection is interpreted as warm ice. There is no evidence for this warm zone down glacier of the surge front, nor do we see basal permafrost up glacier of it. Thus, as in early surge phase, the location of the surge front is now at the transition between warm and cold ice at the glacier bed. We suggest that the propagation of the front is associated with this basal thermal transition throughout the surge. Because propagation of the front occurs rapidly and generates only limited heat, basal motion during fast flow must have been restricted to a thin layer at the bed and occurred by sliding or deformation localized at the ice-bed interface.
Late Cenozoic geology, Ancient Pacific Margin Natmap Project, report 4: paleomagnetic and geomorphic evidence for Brunhes-age volcanism, Fort Selkirk and Rosebud Creek area, Yukon Territory
(Geological Survey of Canada, 2001) Huscroft, Crystal A.; Barendregt, René W.; Jackson, Lionel E.
Normally magnetized, valley-filling basalt flows extend more than 10 km down the Yukon River valley from the Fort Selkirk area. These flows are locally overlain by gravel and terminate at the level of the contemporary Yukon River flood plain, suggesting a middle to late Pleistocene age for this previously unrecognized eruptive event. Unlike other valley-filling phases of the Selkirk Volcanic Group, this eruption postdates the Pliocene to early Pleistocene pre-Reid glaciations. Normal magnetism was also determined for basalt flows underlying terraces in the area of the Rosebud Creek-Grand Valley Creek confluence, 60 km to the northwest of the Fort Selkirk area. Based on their unique geomorphic and stratigraphic settings, the Rosebud basalt flows may represent yet another period of Pleistocene volcanism which predates one of the pre-Reid glaciations in the central Yukon Territory.
Kill and Chill: Restructuring Canada’s Beef Commodity Chain
(University of Toronto Press, 2001) MacLachlan, Ian
Comprehensive in its treatment of the whole system surrounding the Canadian beef industry, Kill and Chill offers a history of the structural changes in Canada's cattle and beef commodity chain, beginning with calf production and cattle feeding on farms and feedlots. It goes on to describe the changes in cattle marketing, the historical development of meatpacking-in particular the emergence of Canada's 'Big Three' meatpacking firms-and the rise of meatpacking unionism. Carrying the story almost to the present with the takeover of Maple Leaf by the McCain family in the mid-1990s, the work concludes with a discussion of current trends in retail beef marketing.
Late surge glacial conditions on Bakaninbreen, Svalbard, and implications for surge termination
(American Geophysical Union, 2002) Smith, A. M.; Murray, Tavi; Davison, B. M.; Clough, A. F.; Woodward, J.; Jiskoot, Hester
Bakaninbreen is a polythermal glacier in southern Spitsbergen, Svalbard, that last surged between 1985 and 1995. Seismic reflection data were acquired during early quiescence in spring 1998, just upstream of the surge front. The results were combined with complementary ground-penetrating radar data to investigate the glacial structure and basal conditions. We find no difference between the ice thickness values determined from the seismic and radar methods, suggesting that any layer of basal ice cannot be greater than 5 m thick. Interpretation of the amplitude of the seismic reflections indicates the presence of permafrost close to the glacier base. A thin layer of thawed deforming sediment separates the glacier from this underlying permafrost. In an area just upstream of the surge front the permafrost becomes discontinuous and may even be absent, the ice being underlain by 10–15 m of thawed sediments overlying deeper bedrock. Highpressure water is believed to have been required to maintain the propagation of the surge, and this area of thawed sediment is interpreted as a route for that water to escape from the basal system. When the surge front passed over this thawed bed, the escaping water reduced the pressure in the subglacial hydraulic system, initiating the termination of the surge. Surge termination was therefore primarily controlled by the presurge permafrost distribution beneath the glacier, rather than any feature of the surge itself. This termination mechanism is probably limited to surges in polythermal glaciers, but the techniques used may have wider glaciological applications.
Situational Factors and Urban Growth: The Case of Lethbridge and Alberta’s Metropolitan Centres
(International Geographical Union, Commission on Monitoring Cities of Tomorrow, 2002-12) MacLachlan, Ian
The concept of situation, or the relative location of a place, includes two subsidiary components: intermediacy and centrality. Urban boosterism, the promotion of growth in a local centre in competition with other places was typically founded upon intermediacy in an effort to create centrality. Lethbridge, Alberta is presented as a case study to illustrate these different situational factors and show the difficulty of translating a situational advantage into the foundation for sustained growth. In 1938, Lethbridge became one of the key hubs in Western Canada’s embryonic airline transportation system and a critical junction in Trans Canada Airlines’ route system. This new technology seemed to confer an enormous situational advantage, perhaps allowing Lethbridge to challenge the metropolitan dominance of Calgary and Edmonton. Twelve years later the city became host to a federally regulated stockyard which was held to be the key to industrial growth based on the livestock industry. These developments from private and public sector investment were intended to exploit the situational intermediacy of Lethbridge and create situational centrality for the city. Unabashed urban boosterism sought to build on these two apparently unlimited opportunities for the city to modernize, to compete with larger centres, and to take its rightful place on the urban map of twentieth century Canada. In the event, these situational factors proved insufficient for the city to take a more prominent place in Alberta’s urban system.
Is there a single surge mechanism? Contrasts in dynamics between glacier surges in Svalbard and other regions
(American Geophysical Union, 2003) Murray, Tavi; Strozzi, Tazio; Luckman, Adrian; Jiskoot, Hester; Christakos, Panos
During the 1990s, Monacobreen, a 40-km-long tidewater glacier in Svalbard, underwent a major surge. We mapped the surge dynamics using ERS synthetic aperture radar images, differential dual-azimuth interferometry and intensity correlation tracking. A series of 11 three-dimensional (3-D) velocity maps covering the period 1991–1997 show a months-long initiation and years-long termination to the surge, with no indication of a surge front travelling downglacier. During the surge, the front of the glacier advanced 2 km, the velocity and derived strain rate increased by more than an order of magnitude, and maximum ice flow rates measured during 1994 were 5md 1. The spatial pattern of both velocity and strain rate was remarkably consistent and must therefore be controlled by spatially fixed processes operating at the glacier bed. We combine these results with those published in the literature to construct a typical Svalbard glacier surge cycle and compare this to surge dynamics of glaciers from other cluster regions, especially those of Variegated Glacier in Alaska. The strong contrast in dynamics suggests that there exist at least two distinct surge mechanisms.
Integrated Dis-Integration: Employment Structure of First Nations Communities on the Prairies Relative to their Local Regions
(Canadian Indian/Native Studies Association, 2004) Townshend, Ivan; MacLachlan, Ian; O'Donoghue, Dan
An exploratory study of the employment specialization/diversity of Prairie First Nations Communities (FNCs) in relation to the employment structure of five comparative settlement system base profiles that are found within their local regions. The FNCs are classified according to levels of settlement system integration. Findings reveal considerable differences in the employment structures at all levels of settlement system integration; a problem that is summarized as the paradox of integrated disintegration.
Stockyards Districts as Industrial Clusters in Two Western Canadian Cities
(Western Division, Canadian Association of Geographers, 2004) MacLachlan, Ian; Townshend, Ivan
The stockyard was the nucleus of the livestock and meat processing agroindustry, one of the key propulsive forces in the rapid growth of western Canada at the turn of the century. In metropolitan centres such as Calgary and in smaller cities such as Lethbridge, stockyards functioned as transhipment points for livestock in transit and as markets for meat-packing plants. The activities typically drawn together by stockyards created a distinctly western Canadian industrial complex which benefited from agglomeration economies and industrial inertia. Nevertheless, public stockyards are now a relict urban land use and have all but disappeared from the urban landscape. The factors contributing to the waning role of stockyards are identified, with implications for the application of the theory of agglomeration economies and industrial clusters to resource-based industries.
Betting the Farm: Food Safety, Risk Society, and the Canadian Cattle and Beef Commodity Chain
(House of Anansi Press, 2004) MacLachlan, Ian
Industrial Development of Lethbridge: A Geographer's Interpretation
(2004-01) MacLachlan, Ian
This unpublished manuscript provides an account of industrial development in the City of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada from a geographical and historical perspective.
Cultivating a New Cattle Culture: Beef Production and Grassland Management in Alberta
(Springer, 2005) MacLachlan, Ian; Bateman, Nancy G.; Johnston, Thomas R. R.
This chapter illustrates how views about pasture land management have developed in Canada.
‘The greatest and most offensive nuisance that ever disgraced the capital of a kingdom’: The slaughterhouses and shambles of modern Edinburgh
(University of Edinburgh, 2005) MacLachlan, Ian
The slaughter of domesticated animals and their butchering for food has been an important component of urban economic activity since the Neolithic revolution. But since the dawn of the modern period, butchery has been cast in a pejorative light, and the slaughterhouse has been gradually excluded from urban life either by forcing its relocation to the margins of settlement or concealing it from the public gaze. Livestock slaughter is among the earliest examples of a common nuisance and strictures on the location of animal slaughter are among the earliest examples of urban land use regulation in Britain. In medieval cities, the marketing and slaughter of livestock was often proscribed within the walls of the city, forcing livestock markets to locate outside the gates. The enforced removal of slaughterhouses to the margins of the city became a recurring problem as cities grew out and around what had been the urban periphery. Yet meat was a perishable product and in the pre-industrial era, butchers needed to slaughter close to the marketplace to avoid decomposition. To avert enforced suburban banishment, the butchers of Edinburgh had only one option: to conceal their activities and minimize the nuisance caused by uncontrolled livestock slaughter which accounts for five distinct regimes in the location and spatial organisation of slaughterhouses in Edinburgh from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. This paper describes the locational dynamics and material culture of Edinburgh's Fleshers and their urban livestock processing industry. By providing an empirical account of the national and municipal regulation of animal slaughter, this primary research may inspire further study into the place of the Fleshers in the development of the urban crafts and of health conditions in Scotland's capital city.
Feedlot Growth in Southern Alberta: A Neo-Fordist Interpretation
(CABI Publishing, 2005) MacLachlan, Ian
Following a discussion of fundamentally neo-Fordist character of cattle feedlots, this chapter describes the factors accounting for the recent surge in feedlot production in southern Alberta.
Heroes, mummies, and treasure: Near Eastern archaeology in the movies
(American Schools of Oriental Research, 2006) McGeough, Kevin
By studying the representations of archaeology in film, it should be possible for archaeologists better to understand the public's perception of their work and to communicate archaeological knowledge more effectively to popular audiences.