The Biophysical Dimension of Community Economic Addiction: Examining the Emergence of Biomass Energy in a Northern Forest Community

This article examines economic redevelopment in a small city once dependent on the pulp and paper industry. In the wake of the industry's demise, biomass energy has emerged as the primary new forest-based industry there. I combine Freudenburg's “addictive economies” framework with a focus on place character to explore the relationship between historical patterns of resource control, contemporary forest conditions, and the shape of redevelopment in the study community. I demonstrate the continued applicability of Freudenburg and colleagues’ work on resource-dependent communities for understanding patterns of local change in the early 21st century, and extend his framework to show how addiction can involve not only dependence on a given resource-based industry, but also the changing characteristics of the resource base itself in a historical process of environmental degradation that can leave communities addicted to resources of particular, industrially produced types and conditions.