Gendered circuits of care in the mobility regime of Alberta’s oil sands

Abstract

This article examines the gendered circuits of care found in the fly-in fly-out arrangements of resource extraction zones. In the oil sands of northeast Alberta, Canada, tens of thousands of workers commute long distance between far-flung households and local work camps for rotations of one week or more. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted from the unique vantage point of work camps, we attend to the gendered relations and identities of care that characterize the ‘stretched out’ arrangements of care between camp and home. We especially address two forms of care: those aimed at helping people cope with camp life, and those aimed at caring for households at a distance. By considering both oil workers and camp staff, we highlight the gendering of the camp/commute regime as a particular geography of social reproduction and foreground the gendered identities – including mobile masculinities – that are reproduced and re-negotiated in the process.

Keywords:

• Care
• fly-in fly-out
• mobility
• oil sands
• social reproduction
• work camps

Acknowledgements

Marcella Cassiano gathered many interviews and fieldnotes and conducted initial coding. Chad Doerksen, Jasmine Thomas, and Arpita Mukherjee also contributed to fieldwork. Some interviews are used in cooperation with Dr Sandrine Jean. This research is part of the On the Move Partnership: Employment-Related Geographical Mobility in the Canadian Context, a project of the SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health & Safety Research at Memorial University.