"Living on the edge" implies insecurity. On the surface, the people of the Great Northern Peninsula must be marginal Canadians for they live in an isolated area where incomes are low and unemployment high. So why do people stay? How do they cope with life on the margins of an advanced industrial society? The editors and the contributing anthropologists and sociologists try to answer these questions by looking at key attitudes and aspects of the social structure. In addition to analysis of the area's economic base in the fishery, this book deals with the informal economy, the division of labour in households, women's local political action, youth unemployment, and the complex and enduring strategies through which residents not only survive in this harsh environment, but create a relatively satisfying lifestyle.

Lawrence Felt is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Memorial University. He earned a doctorate in Sociology and Health Policy from Northwestern University. During this career he has researched issues of development and change in rural Newfoundland, Iceland, and other North Atlantic Societies. Along with Dr. Barbara Neis he has completed a study of fishery workers' ecological knowledge and its relationship to fisheries science (funded by the Tri-Council and SSHRC). 

Lawrence Felt's profile page

Peter R. Sinclair is a Research Professor in the Department of Sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He contributed in the Tri-Council ecosystem project on "Sustainability in a Changing Cold-Ocean Coastal Environment" and the project "Just Fish: Ethics in Canadian Marine Fisheries." He has published widely on social power, environmental issues, and resource-dependent regions.

Peter R. Sinclair's profile page

"This book is essential for an understanding of contemporary life in the area."

Melvin Firestone, Newfoundland and Labrador Studies