Dominant and popular ideologies in the making of rural Manitobans, 1890-1925

Abstract

Thls dissertation is a study of the educational state structure that developed in Manitoba agriculture before 1925, the dominant ideologies that resided there, and the impact of those ideologies on the agrarian movement. There are six stages in our enquiry. First, the theoretical argument in chapter one establishes a conceptual framework for analysing the place of ideology in simple commodity agriculture. Second, the theoretical discussion is placed in historical context through a survey of ideologies, state structures, and agrarian movements in North America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Third, discussion moves from the general to the specific with an outline of the educational state structure in Manitoba agriculture during the period. In chapters four and five the theoretical and practical components of dominant ideology are analysed. In chapter four the theoretical categories of rural social science are discussed, while in chapter five we assess the practical language used to address Manitoba farm people in this ideology. Having established tbe institutional, theoretical, and practical components of dominant ideology, our focus shifts in chapter six to the language used in the Manitoba agrarian movement at the time. In the conclusion, we summarise how the various theoretical, historical, dominant, and popular elements interacted in the Manitoba experience.