Aggressive masculinity on display in Fort McMurray concerns Sociologist

WHITEHORSE – Dr. Shawkat Shareef is worried about Fort McMurray. The city of over 60,000 people in northern Alberta draws workers for its lucrative oil and gas projects from all over the world. It is a multi-cultural city, yet efforts by local government and resource companies to advocate a more inclusive and socially sustainable community could be undermined by the sheer number of single, wealthy, transient young men who live and work there.

Shareef is a developmental sociologist who has moved to Whitehorse with his family to teach at Yukon College after 12 years at the University of Alberta. In 2012, he spent 10 months living and working in Fort McMurray, and is alarmed by what he saw in what has been described as Canada’s manliest city.

“There is an unabated flow of cash. An open display of wealth by the young men of this city breeds a kind of arrogant, hostile masculinity, because they don’t have to depend on anyone else for anything,” said Shareef.

While there, he saw resource companies and the Wood Buffalo Regional Municipality launch a variety of community programs, but he questions their ability to address the preconditions for social and cultural sustainability.

“Social sustainability, building a community, requires some kind of generosity of spirit and empathy towards society and each other. Due to the nature of their work, their long stints in camp, these men are living fragmented, compartmentalized lives that lead them to act out aggressively towards society, towards other people.”

According to Shareef, aggressive masculinity is not necessarily expressed as violence. It can take many hostile forms, such as shunning, belittling, or racially-insensitive jokes. He got to know men from different cultural groups while conducting his research and says expressions of aggressive masculinity are similar regardless of the men’s cultural heritage.

He found that while resource companies have stringent rules in place at the worksite governing acceptable behavior, especially in regards to racism, this is just masking the problem.

“These men don’t want to lose their lucrative jobs, so if they have issues with a co-worker, whether practical or cultural, they will keep quiet. They will not talk to one another. The men are isolated and their frustrations boil away under the surface, which can lead to a very harmful co-existence between groups of people living in and around Fort McMurray.”

Shareef is hoping his initial research will provoke further study and debate in this rather contemporary area of how we create socially sustainable communities.

Dr. Shareef will present his research and share personal stories from his time in the city in his talk, Money, Masculinity, and Sustainability: Some thoughts and worries for Fort McMurray which will take place on Wednesday October 16, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. in room A2103 at Ayamdigut Campus. This free talk is part of the Yukon College Brown Bag Lunch Speaker Series.

For more information please visit www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/hub/brownbag/dr._shawkat_shareef/.