Quality of life in a northern city : a social geography of Yellowknife, N. W. T. ...

• Main Author: Ostergaard, Peter
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2010
• Subjects: Yellowknife
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0100147; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0100147

If urbanization in the North is to emerge beyond the "instant town" or the "frontier town" models, an integrated understanding of what constitutes quality of life in northern settlements is required. In less than ten years Yellowknife has been transformed from a frontier mining town with an uncertain future to a small city whose permanency is not only assured, but which is experiencing rapid population growth and economic diversification. This transformation was spurred by the naming of Yellowknife as the territorial capital, and compounded by developments in global markets for gold and petroleum. To gain this integrated understanding of quality of life, Yellow-knife's disparate social groups and social areas are analyzed. Discrete neighbourhoods are identified by examining housing types and compiling occupational data and house assessments. Less tangible notions of social space, as defined by perceived neighbourhood, social contacts, and place awareness patterns suggest that the town is differentiated ...