Point Saint-Charles, a historically white working-class neighbourhood
with a strong Irish and French presence, and Little Burgundy, a
multiracial neighbourhood that is home to the city's English-speaking
Black community, face each other across Montreal's Lachine Canal, once
an artery around which work and industry in Montreal were clustered and
by which these two communities were formed and divided.Deindustrializing
Montreal challenges the deepening divergence of class and race analysis
by recognizing the intimate relationship between capitalism, class
struggles, and racial inequality. Fundamentally, deindustrialization is
a process of physical and social ruination as well as part of a wider
political project that leaves working-class communities impoverished and
demoralized. The structural violence of capitalism occurs gradually and
out of sight, but it doesn't play out the same for everyone. Point
Saint-Charles was left to rot until it was revalorized by
gentrification, whereas Little Burgundy was torn apart by urban renewal
and highway construction. This historical divergence had profound
consequences in how urban change has been experienced, understood, and
remembered. Drawing extensive interviews, a massive and varied archive
of imagery, and original photography by David Lewis into a complex
chorus, Steven High brings these communities to life, tracing their
history from their earliest years to their decline and their current
reality. He extends the analysis of deindustrialization, often focused
on single-industry towns, to cities that have seemingly made the
post-industrial transition.The urban neighbourhood has never been a
settled concept, and its apparent innocence masks considerable
contestation, divergence, and change over time. Deindustrializing
Montreal thinks critically about locality, revealing how heritage
becomes an agent of gentrification, investigating how places like Little
Burgundy and the Point acquire race and class identities, and
questioning what is preserved and for whom.
