Redefining the public interest in rural Alberta: Health, environment, and economics in the heartland of the oil and gas industry

Rural residents in Alberta face many difficulties when they attempt to resolve disputes arising from the practices of oil and gas companies. These difficulties emerge from the common notion that the petroleum industry is a main contributor to the public interest in the province. Building on conceptions of prairie populism formulated in Canadian political economy, this study argues that the form of populism advocated by politically conservative governments in Alberta has served to protect the interests of the petroleum industry. By drawing on conceptions of resource dependency and citizen activism developed by resource and medical sociologists, rural residents' efforts to address the health and environmental effects of oil and gas production are analyzed. An application of sociological theories of resource dependency and citizen appropriation of expert knowledge exposes how recent efforts by rural activists to address the impacts of petroleum production are contributing to redefinitions of public interest and populism in rural Alberta.