Space without scales : established / outsider relations in Hérouxville

In 1965, Norbert Elias and John Scotson published a seminal study on the dynamics of established/outsider relations. Their analysis has been criticized on several grounds, including its relative inattention to space. A number of recent studies have sought to build on Elias and Scotson's model by putting greater emphasis on space. These studies represent important interventions in the development of a relational approach to local established/outsider relations. Nonetheless, such an approach would benefit from further refinement. In particular, an Eliasian approach can be especially valuable to the study of local power relations and identity constructions if it takes into account the overlapping nature of configurations, emphasizes that individuals are simultaneously embedded in a large number of configurations, recognizes that different spatial contexts are not merely external resources to be manipulated by (local) actors, and refuses to treat conflicts that happen to play out in local contexts as purely local phenomena.


Introduction
In 1965, Norbert Elias and John Scotson published a seminal study on the dynamics of established/outsider relations.Analyzing social relations in the suburban town of Winston Parva, Elias and Scotson identified a persistent conflict between two relatively clearly defined groups: the "established" residents of Winston Parva, that is, members of families that had been living in the village for several generations, and the "outsiders," members of families that had relocated to the village relatively recently.The study argued that the emergence of established/outsiders dynamics is not necessarily predicated on class, race, ethnicity, or other social structures the relevant literature tends to offer as explanatory factors.Instead, it demonstrated that established/outsiders patterns can crystallize around a variety of characteristics.In the case of Winston Parva, the relevant characteristic was length of residence in the community.
The analysis presented by Elias and Scotson has been criticized on several grounds, including its relative inattention to matters of space.In this regard, criticisms have particularly centred on the Winston Parva study's failure to account for the impact of different spatial scales on the construction of local established/outsider relations.According to Hogenstijn et al., [t]his hinders the analysis, as the interpretation of group behaviour at a certain scale is also dependent on the portraying of similar groups at higher spatial scales.The position of ethnic minorities in a local community for example is strongly dependent upon the debate on the integration of those minorities at the national level (2008, p. 149).
Recent studies of local established/outsider relations have sought to build on Elias and Scotson's model by giving more analytical room to space.David May's neighbourhood study of Dortmund Nordstadt, for example, places greater emphasis on spatial considerations and examines three overlapping established/outsider figurations (society, city and neighbourhood) (May, 2004).The above-mentioned study by Hogenstijn et al. also tackles the issue of space, trying to integrate a concept of scale with the work of Elias and Scotson.In their sensitivity to space, these studies represent important interventions in the development of a relational approach to established/outsider dynamics.Nonetheless, such an approach would benefit from further refinement.In particular, it needs to abandon the language of spatial scales, because that language suggests the existence of discrete, hierarchical fields of action and identification.Using the construction of established/outsider identities in the Canadian village of Hérouxville as a case study, this article will contend that an Eliasian approach can be especially valuable to the study of local power relations and identity constructions if, and to the extent that, it takes into account the overlapping nature of configurations; emphasizes that individuals are simultaneously embedded in a large number of configurations (potentially occupying positions in different configurations that are contradictory); recognizes that different spatial contexts are not merely external resources to be manipulated by (local) actors, but intimately involved in the very construction of those actors in the first place; and refuses to treat conflicts that play out in local contexts as purely local phenomena.
In order to support these four claims, the article will begin with a brief overview of recent developments concerning the construction of communal identity in Hérouxville.It will then discuss some of the key insights the Winston Parva study can offer in making sense of developments in Hérouxville.The article will proceed by discussing a number of intertwined configurations that bear on that construction, in particular Aboriginal/settler relations in Canada, rural/urban relations within Quebec, and the relationship between Canada's so-called "charter groups" (that is, citizens of British and French descent) and the country's ethnic minorities.Figure 1 provides an illustration of these configurations and their relationship.In examining these configurations, the article aims not only to lend support to the theoretical case outlined above, but also to shed light on the Herouxville affair and broader power relations in Canada and Quebec.

Us and Them in Hérouxville
Hérouxville is a small village with roughly 1,300 inhabitants; it is located in the administrative region of Mauricie, a predominantly agricultural region between Montreal and Quebec City.We selected Hérouxville as a case study because it is particularly well suited to illustrate the overlapping of different spatialized power relations.
The village is ethnically relatively homogeneous; there are few non-white residents, and equally few immigrants.In fact, there is only a single immigrant (and Black) family, which has lived in the community for fifteen years.In this respect, Hérouxville is fairly typical of Mauricie, where immigrants accounted for 1.2 percent of the population in 2001.It does, however, differ significantly from the demographic composition of urban centres such as Montreal or Quebec City: in 2001, for instance, 18.4 percent of residents in the Montreal census metropolitan area were immigrants; in addition, immigrants comprised 9.9 percent of the province's overall population (Ministère des Relations avec les Citoyens et de l 'Immigration, Quebec, 2008, pp. 15, 47, and 80).
Hérouxville made national headlines in 2007 after adopting a code of conduct outlining appropriate ways of living in this municipality (Municipalité Hérouxville, 2007).The code purportedly aims at informing immigrants of societal norms that guide life in the community.Given that there are few immigrants in Hérouxville, they do so in contexts of immigration, cultural difference and ethnic diversity that reflect broader provincial, national and global realities, but not immediate local experience.In outlining the norms that supposedly inform individual and collective conduct in Hérouxville, the code assigns problematical traits to immigrants and unproblematical traits to current residents.Problematical traits include gender inequality and violence against women, violence against children, religiosity (in contrast with the resident community's supposedly secular nature), lack of knowledge about local (Christian) traditions, and unwillingness to integrate into the host society.
For example, the code emphasizes that "we consider that killing women in public beatings, or burning them alive are not part of our standards of life" (Municipalité Hérouxville, 2007, p. 2).These statements speak to widespread notions about the prevalence of violence against women and gender inequality in Islam and Hinduism.The code dedicates a fair amount of space to discussing the equality of men and women.It also emphasizes that there is no gender segregation in Hérouxville.The fact that the code underlines these issues seems to suggest a reading of immigrant communities as hostile to women and gender equality.
The code also opposes a secular Us to a religious Them.Thus, it contends that the crosses dotting the Quebec landscape should properly be seen as cultural artefacts, rather than as religious ones.Similarly, the code informs its supposed target audience that Christmas is a part of Quebec's "national heritage and not necessarily a religious holiday" (Municipalité Hérouxville, 2007, p. 2).Since the code devotes considerable space to the meaning of Christmas, this also suggests that their authors perceive the Other as non-Christian.Thus, "We" live in a society that is Christian in origin but now supposedly secularized, while the Other comes from a religious, non-Christian society.
Since there are few immigrants in Hérouxville or its wider region, the municipality's adoption of a code of conduct clearly does not represent a response to "local" circumstances.Rather, the strategy of identity production evident in the Hérouxville code of conduct must be read in the context of recent debates about national identity, multiculturalism and reasonable accommodation in Quebec.It must also be understood in the context of Canada's changing immigration policy and demographic shifts, as well as the country's nature as a European settler society.In addition, constructions of communal identity in Hérouxville are shaped by the complex relationship between Quebec's metropolitan centres (primarily Montreal, but Quebec City as well) and "the regions," a term that, within the political discourse of Quebec, refers to the rural, relatively sparsely populated parts of the province.Before turning its attention to an analysis of these relationships, the article will briefly consider some of the key insights Elias and Scotson's Winston Parva study can offer such an analysis.

From Winston Parva to Hérouxville
The Winston Parva study demonstrated, first, that stigmatization and prejudice cannot simply be reduced to the personality structure of individuals.Elias and Scotson suggested that the emergence of established/outsider relations is instead based on the interdependence of groups.Second, the stigmatization of specific groups and the social inequality experienced by their members do not result from the substantive qualities of the group itself.Rather, they are to be explained in terms of oppositional relations between different groups Third, cohesion and integration within the established group play a significant role in the production and reproduction of unequal power relations.The high degree of cohesion among Winston Parva's established residents allowed them to develop a strong group identity and facilitated the rejection of others who they did not perceive as part of that group.The higher level of cohesion and integration enjoyed by the established is largely a consequence of time (Elias and Scotson, 1994, p. xxxvii).
Elias and Scotson's perspective ultimately derived from an ontology that was neither individualist nor holistic, but relational.From this perspective, [i]ndividuals always come in configurations and configurations of individuals are irreducible. . . .To say that individuals come in configurations means that the starting point for every sociological enquiry is a plurality of individuals who in one or the other way are interdependent.To say that configurations are irreducible means they can neither be explained in terms which imply that they exist in some ways independently of individuals, nor in terms which imply that individuals exist in some way independently of them (Elias and Scotson, 1994, p. 170).
Following these observations, a relational analysis of identity construction in Hérouxville must take into account a number of key issues.First, the construction of Self and Other is an ongoing, contested process that is shaped by a multitude of intertwined relationships, issues and identities.
Second, individuals located in different configurations have to deal with various contradictory positions.In that sense, the ethnicized definition of outsiders in Hérouxville can be read as an attempt on the part of established members of the community to reinforce their cohesion and integration in the context of wider figurations that define them as outsiders.
Finally, conflicts over the definition of established and outsiders that play out at the local level are not purely local in nature.Thus, the problematization of an imagined category of immigrants in Hérouxville does not exclusively involve local actors or circumstances.Rather, the local instantiation of an exclusionary discourse invokes other figurations that are embedded in provincial and federal contexts.

Aboriginal/Settler Relations
Aboriginal/settler relations are one of the power figurations in which Hérouxville is located.In that respect, it is worth noting that the Hérouxville code of conduct effectively erases the presence of Aboriginal peoples in the territory of what is today Canada.The values it purports to defend are those of late modern, European (and European-derived) liberal democracies.Many of the traditions and practices the code upholds are legacies of Christianity.Questions about the colonial processes that led to the emergence of the Canadian state, Quebec society, and the municipality of Hérouxville do not arise, nor does the code concern itself with the displacement of groups that inhabited the territory prior to European colonization.In effect, the predominantly European settler society of Hérouxville is portrayed as an entirely unproblematical Self that enjoys uncontested ownership of a given territory, exercises unquestioned control over access to its space, and has the right to determine what sort of behaviour is considered appropriate within the boundaries of that space.This move is fairly typical of European settler societies (Razack, 2002, pp. 1-2).
According to the 2006 census, no individuals self-identified as Aboriginal live in the municipality of Hérouxville.However, the region of Mauricie is home to three reserves inhabited by the Atikamekw nation (Wemotaci, Manawan, and Opitciwan).This Nation has not signed any land claim settlements or self-governance treaty with the Crown and is currently negotiating these matters with both the federal and provincial governments (Atikamekw Sipi, 2011).It is also worth emphasizing that Atikamekw identity is intimately linked to its territory, "Atikamekw Nehirowisiw" (Société d'histoire Atikamekw & Laurent Jérôme, 2009: 24).Closer to Hérouxville, but located in another administrative region, there are two Abenaki communities (Odanaka and Wolinak).The Abenaki played a very important role in the process of French colonization (Dickason 1996: 109).As with the Atikamekw, territory is a key element in Abenaki identity (Lajoie et al., 2005: 756).Despite this rich history, there is no one single mention of these Nations in the Hérouxville code.
The erasure of Aboriginal peoples from the sort of identity narrative constructed in the Hérouxville code is, of course, highly problematical.For instance, individuals who self-identify as Aboriginal represent a significant (and rapidly growing) share of Canada's population.According to the 2006 census, Aboriginal peoples accounted for 3.8 percent of Canada's population; compared to the 1996 census, the size of the Aboriginal community had increased by roughly 20 percent, now approaching 1.2 million.In the same period, the Aboriginal community in the province of Quebec grew by almost 40 percent to roughly 110,000 individuals, accounting for 1.5 percent of the province's overall population (Statistics Canada, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c).
In addition, there have been a series of highly visible conflicts between Aboriginal groups and the Canadian settler state over the last two decades.These conflicts occurred both at the provincial and the federal level.Quebec, for instance, experienced a severe crisis in Aboriginal-provincial relations during the Oka crisis in 1990.The crisis revolved around plans of the municipality of Oka for developing a golf course on a piece of lands that held great cultural significance for the Mohawk community at Kanesatake: the land in question not only contained an ancient Mohawk burial ground, but also comprised other sites that were considered sacred in Mohawk tradition.In addition, the Mohawk nation had filed a land claim to the area.Relations between the town and the Mohawk community deteriorated to the point where the mayor of Oka requested assistance from the provincial police.Police intervention initially resulted in violent clashes with the Mohawk, which quickly gave way to a protracted, armed stand-off between the police and militant members of the Mohawk community.When the provincial police failed to resolve the crisis, Quebec requested military assistance from the federal government--a request the federal government was legally bound to honour.Roughly a month after armed forces had been deployed to the area, the Mohawk ended the stand-off (York and Pindera, 1991;Alfred, 1995).
While the Oka crisis was a somewhat extreme case, it was not an isolated incident.It therefore served as a poignant reminder of the fundamentally problematical relationship between Aboriginal nations and the Canadian settler state.That relationship involves several critical issues, ranging from unresolved Aboriginal land and self-government claims, the persistent quasi-colonial relationship between Canada and many Aboriginal nations, disputes over the fulfilment or nonfulfilment of obligations the Canadian state has incurred as a result of historical treaties it concluded with several Aboriginal nations, the legacy of abuse many members of Aboriginal communities experienced at the hands of state authorities, to severe social and economic disadvantages experienced by many members of Aboriginal communities (for an overview, see Wotherspoon and Satzewich, 2000;Hedican, 2008).
There have been some efforts to redress Aboriginal grievances in recent years.The federal government's recognition of, and restitution for, the abuse experienced by many members of Aboriginal communities in Canada's residential school system is a prominent example (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 2008).However, the settlement of Aboriginal grievances is complicated by a number of factors.First, Aboriginal peoples do not constitute a homogeneous category (of course, neither do the Canadian settler state or Canadian society).Among other factors, differences revolve around the distinction between status and non-status Indians (that is, individuals who are formally recognized as 'Indian' under the terms of Canadian law as opposed to those who are not), First Nations, Inuit and Métis, urban and rural dwellers, differential stipulations of historical treaties between Aboriginal nations and the Canadian state, differential access to social and economic resources, and differential degrees of self-government for Aboriginal nations.
In addition, accommodation of Aboriginal demands for self-government raises fundamental questions about the nature of political community in Canada (for the following, see Resnick, 1994;Kymlicka, 1998;McRoberts, 2001).Outside Quebec, most Canadian citizens regard Canada as a single nation.This view militates against recognition of the fact that different groups were incorporated into Canada under different terms and with different rights and obligations.Within the province of Quebec, most residents (Francophones in particular) regard Canada as a compact between two founding nations, the British and the French.This view is also difficult to reconcile with a recognition of Aboriginal nations.
The 1995 secession referendum in Quebec highlighted some of the potential contradictions between Quebec and Aboriginal nationalisms.During the referendum campaign, the leaders of some Aboriginal nations located in Quebec emphasized that their nations enjoyed a right to selfdetermination similar to that of Quebec (see Grand Council of the Crees, 1995).They insisted that they would exercise that right by ensuring that their national territories would remain part of Canada if Quebec were to secede.This would have led to the partition of Quebec, an outcome that was vehemently opposed by many Quebec nationalists.Since then, the provincial government has made some efforts at recognizing Aboriginal claims to nationhood and self-government (Palmer and Tehan, 2006).

Charter Group and Third Force Canadians
Canada's specificity relies not only on the Aboriginal/colonizer configuration, but also on the existence of complex power relations within the colonizer segment.This concerns, on one hand, the Charter groups (that is, British and French Canadians as the two founding peoples of the Canadian Confederation) and on the other hand, non-British, non-French and non-Aboriginal immigrants, sometimes referred to as "third force Canadians." It needs no pointing out that Canada is a country of immigration.For much of Canadian history, immigration policy was driven by a combination of economic and racial considerations.Since the late 1960s, Canada's immigration policy has eliminated explicit racial criteria.This has resulted in significant changes to the ethnic, racial and cultural composition of Canada's immigrant population, and of Canadian society.Similar to Canada as a whole, the face of immigration to Quebec has changed considerably since the 1970s.In the past three decades, immigrants have not necessarily been white or Catholic (Ministère de l'Immigration et des Communautés Culturelles, Quebec, 2007a).Many of them were, however, French speakers.In this context, it should be noted that the province of Quebec has exercised a lot of influence over the selection of its immigrants for the past fifteen years.In exercising this power, Quebec has given priority to immigration from the Maghreb in order to favour French speakers.Today, roughly 20 percent of immigrants to Quebec arrive from the Maghreb (Ministère de l'Immigration et des Communautés Culturelles, Quebec, 2007b).
These numbers point to some of the complexities inherent in current negotiations about Quebec's national identity.On one hand, language serves as cement for a common identity.However, its importance as a boundary marker between Us and Them depends on its interaction with other circumstances.Thus, anti-Muslim prejudice has been sharpened in Quebec (as in other parts of the West) in the post-9/11 era.Muslims have, in many ways, been singled out as the prototypical Other; this includes French-speaking Muslims.
These exclusionary tendencies tie in with broader misgivings about the ways Quebec and Canada have dealt with diversity over the last few decades.Specifically, they resonate with current debates about reasonable accommodation, which in turn tie in with criticisms of Canada's multiculturalism policy.As a state policy, Canadian multiculturalism can be traced to developments surrounding the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (B&B Commission), established in 1963.The Commission's mandate was to examine the relationship between British and French Canadians; it was thus predicated on a view of Canada that saw British-French dualism as a central and enduring characteristic of Canadian society and politics.
This dualist view of Canadian society was at odds with the vision of Canada espoused by Pierre Trudeau, who became Canada's Prime Minister in 1968.Trudeau's vision of Canadian society emphasized individual liberty and equality; it left little room for the accommodation of collectivities in the public realm.The Commission's dualist view of Canadian society was also sharply criticized by some third force Canadians, who at that time accounted for roughly one third of Canada's population (McRoberts 1997, 122;Abu-Laban and Gabriel 2002, 107-108).
Announced on 8 October 1971, Canada's multiculturalism policy challenged the dualist view that informed the work of the B&B Commission; it dovetailed with the Official Languages Act of 1969 to create a policy of "multiculturalism in a bilingual framework."In essence, "members of ethnic groups would be expected to conform to Canada's official languages in public institutions, but would be encouraged to pursue an ethnic culture and lifestyle of their choice in their private life" (Li, 1999, p. 151).
Multiculturalism has been described as part of a national unity strategy that aimed at containing the threat of Quebec separation.As Kenneth McRoberts has pointed out, multiculturalism was important to this strategy not so much because of what it was, but rather because of what it was not; in particular, official multiculturalism negated the possibility of official biculturalism (McRoberts, 1997, p. 127).As such, it presented a serious challenge to the bi-national vision of Canada that prevails in Quebec.
In sum, then, established/outsider figurations in Hérouxville must be apprehended in the larger context of ongoing contests over the nature of Canada and Quebec.They must also be understood in the context of other key figurations, including the so-called urban/rural divide.The article will turn its attention to this divide in the following section.

Urban/Rural Contexts
In recent years, there has been a wide-ranging debate over the accommodation of cultural diversity within Quebec.André Drouin, one of Hérouxville's city councillors and main author of the village's code of conduct, stated that "my source of inspiration was what is called reasonable accommodation" (cited in Cristea and Mini-Mini, 2007, p. 15;our translation).More generally, the city councillors presented the publication of the code as a way to open a real debate on reasonable accommodation.
This debate is arguably rooted in the unsettlement of traditional discourses of French Canadian identity during the 1950s and 1960s.During the earlier part of the twentieth century, French Canadian identity had been linked to ethnicity and religion.French Canada extended throughout the territory of Canada and, in many ways, was predominantly conceived in rural terms.In the middle of the century, Quebec society underwent a profound rupture: the province turned to secularism and embraced modernization.A new national identity emerged that was defined territorially and linguistically, and focused specifically on Quebec.That national identity has been built around the idea of an inclusive and open identity.
Incidents such as the publication of the Hérouxville Standards suggest that this new discourse of national identity has at best achieved incomplete hegemony.Nationalism in Quebec (as elsewhere) remains heavily contested.In Eliasian terms, what we have seen in Quebec in the last few years is a re-assertion of the old, ethnic and exclusionary national habitus.According to many observers, this reassertion process highlights fundamental differences between the province's metropolitan and rural areas.When Hérouxville passed its code of conduct, political elites based primarily in Montreal and Québec City were quick to dismiss this as an unfortunate exception.They suggested that the attitudes underpinning the code were not shared by the majority of Quebec's society.
The spatial differentiation between rural and urban contexts has been a key element of political logic in Quebec.During the period of French colonial rule in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, there was no development of any major cities in Quebec.Until the Quiet Revolution of the 1950s, Quebec's national identity was conceived primarily in rural, agricultural terms and partly based on a strong relation to land.In the national imagination of the time, the prototypical French Canadian was white, Catholic and of peasant stock.This national imagination increasingly came into conflict with actual demographic developments.While most of Quebec's population indeed resided in rural areas until the early twentieth century, the urban/rural balance steadily shifted in favour of urban centres throughout the twentieth and late nineteenth centuries: in 1851, roughly 84 percent of Quebec's population lived in rural areas; that percentage had dropped to 60 percent by 1901, and to 44 percent by 1921.By 1961, urban areas accounted for 74 percent of the province's population (Statistics Canada, 2005).
As noted above, the Quiet Revolution created the conditions for the emergence of a new, inclusive national identity based on the French language.For present purposes, it is important to note that the Quiet Revolution was largely an urban phenomenon.Its intellectual foundations were largely provided by intellectual and political elites located in Montreal and Quebec City.Further, the statebuilding agenda of successive provincial governments since the Quiet Revolution fostered the emergence of a class of civil servants that is mainly located in the major cities.Finally, the regional development policies adopted as part of the province's state-building efforts led to the expansion of second tier cities like Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivières (Joyal, 2002).
Given the rapidity and profundity of these transformations, it is perhaps not surprising that contemporary Quebec is characterized by a deep urban/rural divide.This divide has attracted significant attention from the media; numerous articles underline the widening social, economic and political gap between the province's metropolitan areas and 'the regions' (see Delisle, 2006;Bouchard, 2007;Chartrand, 2007).
In recent years, the question of immigration has been one factor contributing to a widening of this gap.Most immigrants settle in urban rather than rural areas.Metropolitan Montreal alone welcomes close to 80 percent of immigrants to the province.This is comparable to trends in the rest of Canada.Moreover, immigrants settling in rural areas are disproportionately from European extraction (Yorn and Ouellet, 2007, p. 106).While the provincial government of Quebec adopted a policy aiming at the regionalization of immigration in the early 1990s, these efforts seem to have met with partial success at best.

Conclusion
The publication of the Hérouxville code of conduct reflects re-emerging tensions surrounding the definition of a Quebec We-identity.During the so-called Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, Quebec underwent a process of rapid modernization that resulted in fundamental social changes, including secularization, increased state intervention in the economy, the emergence of a new Francophone middle class, and the demise of a primarily rural, religious, agricultural sense of national identity.The new national habitus that emerged during the Quiet Revolution was based on language and centred on the province of Quebec.Arguably, this new habitus has not been internalized by people living in some regions, especially where inhabitants did not really benefit from the development of the provincial welfare state to the same extent as they did in big cities like Montreal and Quebec City.The debate about Hérouxville can be read as a re-activation of the contest between an older and a more recent national habitus.
Needless to say, this contest is far from having been settled.For instance, following the outcry and public debate after the Hérouxville affair and other incidents around ethnic diversity, Quebec's provincial government established a consultative commission on "reasonable accommodation."The commission was chaired by two prominent scholars, Gérard Bouchard and Charles Taylor.The Bouchard-Taylor Commission submitted its report in 2008.While a discussion of the Commission is beyond the scope of this article, it should be mentioned that its proceedings highlighted the existence of competing national narratives in Quebec; its report re-affirmed a vision of Quebec that embraces cultural diversity.This debate must, in any event, be understood in the context of several competing established/outsider relationships that mark political reality in Canada and Quebec.This includes the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and Canada's settler society, charter groups and ethnic minorities, and urban versus rural areas in Quebec.The case of Hérouxville thus proves particularly helpful for illustrating the two central arguments of this article--first, that a relational perspective on the construction of local established/outsider relations can be fruitfully expanded by paying greater attention to matters of space; and second, that such a spatial perspective must recognize that different configurations overlap, that individuals are simultaneously embedded in a large number of configurations, that different spatial contexts are not merely external resources to be manipulated by (local) actors, and that conflicts playing out in a local arena should not be treated as purely local in nature.