The International Workshop on the Politics of Clayoquot Sound was held on May 9-11, 1997, at Middle Beach Lodge in Tofino, British Columbia. Participants were drawn from the local community, from universities and colleges in British Columbia and academic institutions elsewhere, and from international organizations with an interest in the region. There were a number of generous sponsors for the event. The idea was to bring activists and community members together with a group of academics from various disciplines to explore the challenges posed by struggles over Clayoquot Sound to conventional understandings of the political. Some of the academics had previous knowledge of the political disputes in the region. Others were familiar with similar disputes, or had interesting perspectives on the general issues at stake, but were relatively unfamiliar with Clayoquot as such. The organizers hoped that this would be a stimulating mix – and so it proved.

Summaries of the proceedings are provided here. As the schedule of events shows, participants from afar had an opportunity to explore different aspects of the region and its politics.

All of the participants in the Workshop were provided with the first two volumes of The Clayoquot Documents.

A Political Space is composed of essays written by some of the Workshop participants. None of the essays were presented at the Workshop. All of them are the result of subsequent reflection and research.