“Steeped in Oil”: The Socio-Psychological Factors and Processes That Influence Community Members’ Attitudes toward Economic Diversification in an Oil and Gas-Producing Community

Oil and gas-producing communities are threatened by a precarious oil market global commitments to transition greener economy. Economic diversification has been proposed as potential strategy for supporting the resilience of these amidst such challenges. We sought explore community members’ attitudes toward future their small Canadian understand socio-psychological factors processes that influence support economic those which reinforce path dependency. This qualitative study involved interviews with 37 adults in community, subset 16 participants engaged transect walks further emerging themes. While recent prolonged downturn prompted some participants’ willingness diversify, deeply ingrained culture identity an gas town, ‘golden handcuffs’ industry, optimism another boom, acted