Search results for ""university of british columbia press""

Numerous books explore the “how to” of qualitative research, but few discuss what it means to actually engage in it, particularly when researchers adopt alternative methods to shed light on the experiences of marginalized populations.In Demarginalizing Voices, scholars share personal stories about their research with marginalized populations, including Aboriginal peoples, sex workers, the dead and the dying, women and men in prison, women and men released from prison, and the homeless and the hospitalized. In the process, they answer questions of relevance to anyone engaged in qualitative research: What can scholars expect when their research requires them to establish human connections and relationships with their subjects? What role do ethics review boards and institutions play when researchers explore new, often less accepted methods? How do researchers reconcile academic life and its expectations with their activism? These powerful accounts from the cutting-edge of qualitative research not only create a space in academia that centres marginalized voices, they open up the field to new debates and discussion.

Read more less

Debating how Canada compares, both regionally and in relation to other countries, is a national pastime. This book examines how political scientists apply diverse comparative strategies to better understand Canadian political life.Using a variety of methods, the contributors use comparison to examine topics as diverse as Indigenous rights, Canadian voting behaviour, activist movements, climate policy, and immigrant retention. While the theoretical perspectives and kinds of questions asked vary greatly, as a whole they demonstrate how the “art of comparing” is an important strategy for understanding Canadian identity politics, political mobilization, political institutions, and public policy.Ultimately, this book establishes how adopting a more systematic comparative outlook is essential – not only to revitalize the study of Canadian politics but also to achieve a more nuanced understanding of Canada as a whole.

Read more less

Changes in technology and media consumption are transforming the way people communicate about politics. Are they also changing the way politicians communicate to the public? Political Communication in Canada examines the way political parties, politicians, interest groups, the media, and citizens are using new tactics, tools, and channels to disseminate information, and also investigates the implications of these changes. Drawing on recent examples, contributors review such things as the branding of the New Democratic Party, how Stephen Harper’s image is managed, and politicians’ use of Twitter. They also discuss the evolving role of political journalism, including media coverage of politics and how Canadians use the Internet for political discussions. In an era when political communication – from political marketing to citizen journalism – is of vital importance to the workings of government, this timely volume provides insight into the future of Canadian democracy.

Read more less

The islands of Haida Gwaii contain some of the last remaining tracts of intact coastal temperate rainforest in the world. Aggressive logging over the past century, however, has threatened not only the unique biodiversity and habitat values, but also the cultural values of the Haida people who have relied on these forests for millennia. Islands’ Spirit Rising examines the long-term conflict over the islands’ ancient forests and recent events that unfolded in the context of collaborative land-use planning. In response to threats posed by a century of logging, a local indigenous-environmental-community movement built enough momentum to challenge the multinational forest industry and the political structures enabling it. This book traces the evolution of this dynamic force, from the early days of Haida resistance to the modern context of alliances, legal battles, and evolving forms of governance.

Read more less

The political concept of recognition has introduced new ways of thinking about the relationship between minorities and justice in plural societies. But is a politics informed by recognition valuable to minorities today?Contributors to this volume examine the successes and failures of struggles for recognition and self-determination in relation to claims of religious groups, cultural minorities, and indigenous peoples on territories associated with Canada, the United States, Europe, Latin America, India, New Zealand, and Australia. The chapters look at cultural recognition in the context of public policy about intellectual and physical property, membership practices, and independence movements, while probing debates about toleration, democratic citizenship, and colonialism.Together the contributions point to a distinctive set of challenges posed by a politics of recognition and self-determination to peoples seeking emancipation from unjust relations.

Read more less

The Allies claimed victory at the end of the Second World War, but the United States’ invention of the atomic bomb and its replication by the Soviet Union posed new dangers for all nations. In Peace Prepared examines what Canada’s Cold War Army did to prepare for war – and why and how it did it.Although a Third World War never happened, army officers supported by a large civilian defence workforce of scientists, engineers, and designers responded aggressively to the challenges presented by the possibility of nuclear attack. Through innovation and adaptation, they developed a collaborative and systematic approach to problem solving that not only played a significant role in the evolution of Canada’s national force but also shaped how armies in the Western Alliance related to one another during the Cold War and beyond.

Read more less

In 1846, a group of women came together to form what would become one of nineteenth-century Hamilton’s most important social welfare institutions. Through the Ladies Benevolent Society and Hamilton Orphan Asylum, they managed and administered a charitable visiting society, orphan asylum, and aged women’s home.At this time, in other parts of the Western world, the public sphere and women’s exclusion from it were reshaping political and gender relations. Although charitable women in Hamilton managed essential social services in the community, and although these efforts were publicly financed, their work was still defined as “private.”In Private Women and the Public Good, Carmen J. Nielson explores the history of this pioneering charity and demonstrates that despite its notable political significance, women’s charitable work failed to challenge the staunch division of private and public spheres.

Read more less

In the late 1990s, planning authorities in the Vietnamese capital ofHanoi pushed the imaginary line between city and country severalkilometres westward, engulfing dozens of rural settlements. As statepolicies forced rapid urbanization, villagers whose families had farmedthe land for generations saw rice fields levelled, irrigation canalsfilled, and large avenues flanked by residential towers, big-boxstores, and office buildings spring up. Danielle Labbé considers acentury of change to the settlement of Hoa Muc – a community thatunderwent a rapid transition from rural village to urban neighbourhood.Through extensive research in the community, Labbé studies not only thechanging lives of villagers, but also the state regulations andterritorialization projects that drove these changes on the outskirtsof Hanoi, and the early urban changes in the decades that preceded thereforms and continue to influence the area’s urbanization.Despite the new buildings, the end of farming activities, and thearrival of a large new population, the former villagers still considerHoa Muc their homeland. The compelling story of this single village isboth a portrait of a population that has endured despite drasticupheavals and a new analytical window onto Vietnam’s ongoingurban transition.

Read more less

As Julia Harrison’s first summer living in Ontario approached, she became aware of the culture of the cottage. While friends and family talked of nothing but languid afternoons on the dock and bartered for as many lakeside days as possible, Harrison marveled at the less attractive components of cottage life: the clogged highways en route and the unrelenting investment of money and labour that the idyllic escapes demanded.Curious about the rich and passionate meaning these places seemed to hold, Harrison studied cottagers in the Haliburton region over the course of seven years. Thoughtfully and engagingly written, A Timeless Place considers the cottage family as a place where memories are treasured, national identity is celebrated, spiritual balance is restored, and even a few dark secrets are kept.

Read more less

In the summer of 1993, activists set up a peace camp blocking a logging road into an extensive area of temperate rainforest in Clayoquot Sound that was slated for clear-cutting. Twenty-odd years later, Clayoquot holds a prominent place in environmental discourse, yet it is not generally associated with feminist or eco/feminist movements.The Changing Nature of Eco/Feminism argues that Clayoquot offers a potent site for examining a whole range of feminist issues. Through a careful study of eco/feminist activism against clear-cut logging practices in British Columbia, the book explores how a transnational eco/feminist practice insisted on an account of logging situated in histories of colonialism, holding the Canadian state to account for its deforestation practices. Moore demonstrates that the sheer vitality of eco/feminist politics at the Peace Camp in the summer of 1993 confounded dominant narratives of contemporary feminism and has re-imagined eco/feminist politics for new times.

Read more less

As China rose to its position of global superpower, Chinese groups in the West watched with anticipation and trepidation. For members of China’s diasporic community, the rise of China created ripples of change, influencing communities, culture, and communication, and even challenging the very concept of diaspora. Diasporic Chineseness after the Rise of China examines how artists, writers, filmmakers, and intellectuals from the Chinese diaspora responded to China’s ascendancy by representing it to global audiences with a new-found vitality and self-assurance. The chapters, often personal in nature, cover locations as varied as Australia, North America, and Tibet. And yet, the focus of each is the nexus between the political and economic rise of China and the cultural products this period produced, a place where new ideas of nation, identity, and diaspora were forged.

Read more less

In 1951, Canada sent troops to western Europe to support its NATO allies. The brigade helped Canada establish its international status. In private, however, Canadian officials and military leaders expressed grave doubts about NATO’s strategies and operational plans. Despite these reservations, they sent military families overseas and implemented personnel policies that permanently changed the distribution of the defence budget and the character of the Canadian Army.By exposing the hidden agendas that pushed NATO’s members in different directions even as they presented a united front, this original account of the evolution of the Canadian Army – from a small training cadre to a truly national force – offers a new perspective on military policy and diplomacy in the Cold War era.

Read more less

Situated within the area stretching from Georgian Bay in the north to Lake Simcoe in the east, the Wendat Confederacy flourished for two hundred years. By the mid-seventeenth century, however, Wendat society was under attack. Disease and warfare plagued the people, culminating in a series of Iroquois assaults that led to their ultimate dispersal.Yet the Wendat did not disappear, as many historians have maintained. In Dispersed but Not Destroyed, Kathryn Magee Labelle examines the creation of a Wendat diaspora in the wake of the Iroquois attacks. In the latter half of the century, Wendat leaders continued to appear at councils, trade negotiations, and diplomatic ventures, relying on established customs of accountability and consensus. Women also continued to assert their authority during this time, guiding their communities toward paths of cultural continuity and accommodation. Turning the story of Wendat conquest on its head, this book demonstrates the resiliency of the Wendat people and writes a new chapter in North American history.

Read more less

The global health crisis has been debated in political arenas, written about in best-selling manifestos, and exposed in Oscar-nominated documentaries. Yet, despite all the media attention, there are few studies that look seriously at its underlying cause – the rise of the industrial diet.The Industrial Diet chronicles the long-term developments that transformed food into edible commodities that far too often fail to nourish us. Tracing the industrial diet’s history from its roots in the nineteenth century through to present-day globalism, Anthony Winson looks at the role of technology, population growth, and political and economic factors in the constitution and transformation of mass dietary regimes and provides new evidence linking broad-based dietary changes with negative health effects. With its focus on the degradation of food and the emergent struggle for healthful eating, this book encourages us to reflect on the state of our food environments and create realistic and innovative strategies that can lead to a healthier future.

Read more less

As the key component in aluminum production, bauxite became one of the most important minerals of the last one hundred years. But its effects on people and economies varied broadly – for some it meant jobs, progress, or a political advantage over rival nations but for many others, it meant exploitation, pollution, or the destruction of a way of life. Aluminum Ore explores the often overlooked history of bauxite in the twentieth century, and in doing so examines the forces that shaped the time, from the mineral’s strategic development in the First World War and throughout the Cold War, to its role in the globalization of markets, as companies from the northern hemisphere vied for the resources of the south.In this wide-ranging collection, scholars from around the world consider multiple international perspectives on this history – from Guinea to Nazi Germany to Jamaica – all while examining the central place of one commodity in a time of change.

Read more less

Canada enjoys a reputation as a peaceable kingdom and a refuge frommilitarism.Yet Canadians during the Vietnam War era met American warresisters not with open arms but with political obstacles and publicresistance, and the border remained closed to what were then called“draft dodgers” and “deserters.” Between 1965 and 1973, a small but active cadre of Canadian antiwargroups and peace activists launched campaigns to open the border.Jessica Squires tells their story, often in their own words. Interviewsand government documents reveal that although these groups ultimatelymet with success – in the process shaping Canadian identity andCanada’s relationship with the United States – they had toovercome state surveillance and resistance from police, politicians,and bureaucrats. Building Sanctuary not only brings to light overlookedlinks between the anti-draft movement and Canadian immigration policy– it challenges cherished notions about Canadian identity andCanada in the 1960s.

Read more less

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, a wave of state-sponsored“national fitness” programs swept Britain and its formersettler colonies, laying the foundations for the twentiethcentury’s obsession with fitness. In Strong, Beautiful andModern, Charlotte Macdonald shows how governments encouragedcitizens to be healthier and more active and thereby reinforced thecultural ties of the Empire. Alongside these state-sponsored effortswas a growing emphasis from business, the medical establishment, andpopular culture on the importance of having “a betterbody.” At a time when government concern over public healthissues such as obesity is once again on the rise, Macdonald offersvaluable lessons as to why the first national fitness drive wasultimately a failure. Drawing on extensive research, Strong,Beautiful and Modern is a lively investigation into the way peopleand their governments think about health and well-being, and howhistorical views have shaped our modern life.

Read more less

Sporting Gender is the first book to explore the rise to fame of female athletes in China during its national crisis of 1931-45 brought on by the Japanese invasion. By re-mapping lives and careers of these athletes, administrators, and film actors within a wartime context, Gao shows how they coped with the conflicting demands of nationalist causes, unwanted male attention, and modern fame. Addressing themes of state control, media influence, fashion, and changing gender roles, she argues that the athletic female form helped to create a new ideal of modern womanhood in China at a time when women’s emancipation and national needs went hand in hand. This book brings vividly to life the histories of these athletes and demonstrates how intertwined they were with the aims of the state and the needs of society.

Read more less

Despite being dubbed “the world’s oldest profession,” prostitution has rarely been viewed as a legitimate form of labour. Instead, it is often criminalized, sensationalized, and polemicized across the socio-political spectrum by everyone from politicians to journalists to women’s groups.In Selling Sex, Emily van der Meulen, Elya M. Durisin, and Victoria Love present a more nuanced, balanced, and realistic view of the sex industry. They bring together a vast collection of voices – including researchers, feminists, academics, and advocates, as well as sex workers of differing ages, genders, and sectors – to engage in a dialogue that challenges the dominant narratives surrounding the sex industry and advances the idea that sex work is in fact work. Presenting a variety of opinions and perspectives on such diverse topics as social stigma, police violence, labour organizing, anti-prostitution feminism, human trafficking, and harm reduction, Selling Sex is an eye-opening, challenging, and necessary book.

Read more less

In China, both opium and alcohol were used for centuries in the pursuit of health and leisure while simultaneously linked to personal and social decline. The impact of these substances is undeniable, and the role they have played in Chinese social, cultural, and economic history is extremely complex.In Intoxicating Manchuria, Norman Smith reveals how warlord rule, Japanese occupation, and political conflict affected local intoxicant industries. These industries flourished throughout the early twentieth century, even as a vigorous anti-intoxicant movement raged. Through the lens of popular Chinese media depictions of alcohol and opium, Smith analyzes how intoxicants and addiction were understood in this society, the role the Japanese occupation of Manchuria played in their portrayal, and the efforts made to reduce opium and alcohol consumption. This is the first English-language book-length study to focus on alcohol use in modern China and the first dealing with intoxicant restrictions in the region.

Read more less

On 2 May 2011, Canadians watched as the Stephen Harper Conservatives won their first majority government. Jack Layton led the NDP to its best performance in history, and Michael Ignatieff and the federal Liberals had their worst showing to date. For most casual observers, this election marked a major shift in Canadian politics. In reality, the country’s political landscape and national party system had been changing for quite some time.Parties, Elections, and the Future of Canadian Politics offers the first comprehensive account of political change in Canada over the past two decades. It explores developments in the political landscape from both historical and contemporary perspectives and speculates on the future of the national party system. By documenting how parties and voters responded to new challenges between 1993 and 2011, this volume enhances our understanding of one of the most tumultuous periods in Canadian political history.

Read more less

On 2 May 2011, Canadians watched as the Stephen Harper Conservatives won their first majority government. Jack Layton led the NDP to its best performance in history, and Michael Ignatieff and the federal Liberals had their worst showing to date. For most casual observers, this election marked a major shift in Canadian politics. In reality, the country’s political landscape and national party system had been changing for quite some time.Parties, Elections, and the Future of Canadian Politics offers the first comprehensive account of political change in Canada over the past two decades. It explores developments in the political landscape from both historical and contemporary perspectives and speculates on the future of the national party system. By documenting how parties and voters responded to new challenges between 1993 and 2011, this volume enhances our understanding of one of the most tumultuous periods in Canadian political history.

Read more less

First signed in 1886, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is still the cornerstone of international copyright law. At the centre of The Struggle for Canadian Copyright is Canada’s experience with the Berne Convention. Set against the backdrop of Canada’s development from a British colony into a so-called middle power, this book reveals the deep roots of conflict in the international copyright system that continue to divide “developed” and developing countries. Canada’s signing of the convention can be viewed in the context of a former British colony’s efforts to find a place on the world stage. Throughout the past century, Canada’s copyright policy has been used to project an image of the country as a good global citizen. In this groundbreaking book, Sara Bannerman examines Canada’s struggle for copyright sovereignty and explores some of the problems rooted in imperial and international copyright that affect Canadians to this day.

Read more less

The rapidly changing nature of life in Canadian rural communities is more than a simple response to economic conditions. People living in rural places are part of a new social agenda characterized by transformation of livelihoods, landscapes, and social relations – these profound changes invite us to reconsider the meanings of community, culture, and citizenship.Social Transformation in Rural Canada presents the work of researchers from a variety of fields who explore the dynamics of social transformation in rural settlements across several regions and sectors of the Canadian landscape. This volume provides a nuanced portrait of how local forms of action, adaptation, identity, and imagination are reshaping aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities in rural Canada. Unlike many previous studies, this work looks at rural communities not simply as places affected by external forces, but as incubators of change and social units with agency and purpose, many of which provide exemplary models for other communities facing challenges of transition.

Read more less

Once viewed as an inevitable if unpleasant part of growing up, bullying is now recognized as a serious safety issue – particularly in light of recent teen suicides linked with homophobia in schools.In “Don’t Be So Gay!” Queers, Bullying, and Making Schools Safe, Donn Short considers the effectiveness of anti-harassment policies and safe school legislation. After spending several months interviewing queer youth and their allies in the Toronto area, Short concludes that current legislation and its approach to school safety and homophobia has generally been more responsive than proactive. He suggests that while effective legislation is vital to establishing a safe space for queer students, other influences – including religion, family beliefs, and peer pressure – may be more powerful. Drawing on students’ own experiences and exploring how their understandings and definitions of safety might be translated into policy reform, this book offers a fresh perspective on a hotly debated issue.

Read more less

For decades, government, industry, and the mainstream media have extolled the virtues of biotechnology, downplaying its negative side effects and claiming that it can improve everything from our health and diet to our environment and economy.Focusing on agricultural biotechnology, Resistance Is Fertile challenges this dominant rhetoric by offering a critical analysis of the role of capital and the state in the development of this technoscience. Wilhelm Peekhaus analyzes the major issues around which opponents of agricultural biotechnology in Canada are mobilizing resistance – namely, the enclosure of the biological commons and the knowledge commons, which together form the BioCommons. What emerges is an empirically and theoretically informed analysis of topics such as Canada’s regulatory regime, the corporate control of seeds, the intellectual property system, and attempts to construct and control public discussions about agricultural biotechnology.

Read more less

Over the course of a century, until the late 1700s, the British Crown, the Iroquois, and other Aboriginal groups of eastern North America developed an alliance and treaty system that came to be known as the Covenant Chain.In An Ethic of Mutual Respect, Bruce Morito offers a philosophical interrogation of the predominant reading of the historical record, overturning assumptions and demonstrating the relevance of the Covenant Chain to the current First Nations--Crown relationship. By examining the forms of expression contained in colonial documents, the Record of Indian Affairs, and related materials, Morito locates the values and moral commitments that underpinned the parties’ strategies for negotiation and reconciliation. What becomes apparent is that these interactions developed an ethic of mutually recognized respect that was coherent and neither culturally nor historically bound. This ethic, Morito argues, remains relevant to current debates over Aboriginal and treaty rights as they pertain to the British Crown tradition. Real change is possible if the focus can be shifted from piecemeal legal and political disputes to the development of an intercultural ethic based on trust, respect, and solidarity.

Read more less

When legal scholars or judges approach the subject of sexuality, they are often constrained by existing theoretical frameworks. For instance, queer theorists typically focus on sexual liberty but tend not to consider issues such as sexual violence. Feminist theories focus on violence but often don’t give recognition to the joy of sexuality.To assess the possibility of devising a legal theory of sexuality that can ensure equality without assimilation, diversity without exclusion, and liberty without suffering, Elaine Craig examines the Supreme Court of Canada’s approach to sexuality in cases that range from sexual violence to discrimination based on orientation. Although the Court continues to hold an essentialist understanding of sexuality that renders certain harms invisible, its feminist-inspired approach to sexual violence recognizes the socially constructed nature of sexuality and produces legal reasoning that promotes sexual integrity as a common interest.Blending feminist theory with the inclusiveness of queer theory, Craig advances an iconoclastic approach to law and sexuality that has the power to transform both theory and practice.

Read more less

In the early 1900s, the Qing dynasty implemented a nationwide schoolsystem as part of a series of institutional reforms to shore up itspower. A School in Every Village recounts how villagersand local state officials in Haicheng County enacted orders toestablish rural primary schools from 1904 to 1931. Although theCommunists, contemporary observers, and more recent scholarship haveall depicted rural society as feudal and backward and the educationalreforms of the early twentieth century a failure, Elizabeth VanderVendraws on untapped archival materials to reveal that villagers capablyintegrated foreign ideas and models into a system that was at oncetraditional and modern, Chinese and Western. Her portrait of educationreform not only challenges received notions about themodernity-tradition binary in Chinese history, it also addresses topicscentral to scholarly debates on modern China, including state making,gender, and the impact of global ideas on local society.

Read more less

Despite the popular assumption that wildlife conservation is a recent phenomenon, it emerged over a century and a half ago in an era more closely associated with wildlife depletion than preservation. In Wildlife, Conservation, and Conflict in Quebec, Darcy Ingram explores the combination of NGOs, fish and game clubs, and state-administered leases that formed the basis of a unique system of wildlife conservation in North America. However, these early strategies were not as forward-focused as they appear. Ingram traces the emergence of a lease-based regulatory system that blended elite forms of sport and conservation. Applied first to British North America’s prized salmon rivers, this system came to encompass the bulk of Quebec’s hunting and fishing territories. Inspired by a longstanding belief in progress, improvement, and social order based on European as well as North American models, this system effectively privatized Quebec’s fish and game resources, often to the detriment of commercial and subsistence hunters and fishers.

Read more less

The exploitation of Latino workers in many industries, fromagriculture and meat packing to textile manufacturing and janitorialservices, is well known. By contrast, pineros -- itinerant workers whoform the backbone of the forest management labour force on federal land-- toil largely in obscurity. Drawing on government papers, media accounts, and interviews withfederal employees and Latino forest workers in Oregon’s RogueValley, Brinda Sarathy investigates how the federal government came tobe one of the single largest employers of Latino labour in the PacificNorthwest. She documents pinero wages, working conditions, and benefitsin comparison to those of white loggers and tree planters, exposingexploitation that, she argues, is the product of an ongoing history ofinstitutionalized racism, fragmented policy, and intra-ethnicexploitation in the West. To overcome this legacy, Sarathy offers anumber of proposals to improve the visibility and working conditions ofpineros and to provide them with a stronger voice in immigration andforestry policy-making.

Read more less

Politics on the Canadian Prairies are puzzling. The provinces share a common landscape and history, but they have nurtured three distinct political cultures – Alberta is Canada’s bastion of conservatism, Saskatchewan its cradle of social democracy, and Manitoba its progressive centre. The roots of these cultures run deep, yet their persistence over a century has yet to be explained. Drawing on over eight hundred pieces of campaign literature, Jared Wesley reveals that dominant political parties have used one key device – rhetoric – to foster and carry forward their province’s cultural values or political code. Social Credit and Progressive Conservative leaders in Alberta emphasized freedom, whereas New Democrats in Saskatchewan stressed security. Successful politicians in Manitoba, by contrast, underscored the importance of moderation. Although the content of their campaigns differed, leaders from William Aberhart to Tommy Douglas to Gary Doer have employed distinct codes to ensure their parties’ success and shape their provinces’ political landscapes.

Read more less

Creative Subversions explores how whiteness and Indigeneity are articulated through images of Canadian identity -- and the contradictory and contested meanings they evoke. These benign, even kitschy, images, she argues, are haunted by ideas about race, masculinity, and sexuality that circulated during the formative years of Anglo-Canadian nationhood.In this richly illustrated book, Margot Francis shows how national symbols such as the beaver, the railway, the wilderness of Banff National Park, and ideas about “Indianness” evoke nostalgic versions of a past that cannot be expelled or assimilated. Juxtaposing historical images with material by contemporary artists, she investigates how artists are giving these taken-for-granted symbols new and suggestive meanings.

Read more less

The rodeo cowboy is one of the most evocative images of the Wild West. The master of the frontier, he is renowned for his masculinity, toughness, and skill. A Wilder West returns to rodeo's small-town roots to explore how rodeo simultaneously embodies and subverts our traditional understandings of power relations between man and nature, women and men, settlers and Aboriginal peoples.An important contact zone – a chaotic and unpredictable place of encounter – rodeo has challenged expected social hierarchies, bringing people together across racial and gender divides to create friendships, rivalries, and unexpected intimacies. At the rodeo, Aboriginal riders became local heroes, and rodeo queens spoke their minds.A Wilder West complicates the idea of western Canada as a “white man's country” and shows how rural rodeos have been communities in which different rules applied. Lavishly illustrated, this creative history will change the way we see the West's most controversial sport.

Read more less

In a world of flux and globalization, when old territories are dissolving and new nations and political unions are coming together, who controls ideas, information, and creativity? Who patrols the new frontiers? This volume opens a window to the dark side of globalization and the struggles for autonomy it has generated. The chapters focus on property regimes in crisis as sites where globalization, autonomy, and the political economy of international capitalism intersect. Sites of friction – indigenous land claims, BC forest disputes, conflicts between farmers and the patent owners of genetically modified seeds – demonstrate not only how property laws and intellectual property rights are supporting the expansion of private property regimes but also how local activists are using a politics of place to resist these forces. The work of Palestinian poets, whose attachment to the land is explored in a powerful Coda at the end of the book, shows that a politics of place can help local actors build new bases of autonomy to withstand the forces of globalization.

Read more less

“This text seeks to provide an introduction to issues of land use and the economic tools that are used to resolve land-use conflicts. In particular, tools of economic analysis are used to address allocation of land among alternative uses in such a way that the welfare of society is enhanced. Thus, the focus is on what is best for society and not what is best for an individual, a particular group of individuals, or a particular constituency. What this text seeks to provide is a balanced and just approach to decision-making concerning allocation of land.” – from the IntroductionLand Resource Economics and Sustainable Development has already been tested, in a slightly different format, on over 400 students in a number of upper-level undergraduate and lower-level graduate courses. It presents a pragmatic approach to the issues of land use and sustainable development, and breaks away from the narrow focus of most economics texts on resources as it takes into account current political and ecological concerns while at the same time providing readers with the essential economic tools for a rational discussion of land use conflicts.Land Resource Economics and Sustainable Development addresses a wide range of issues not covered in other economics texts. These include: soil erosion; wetlands preservation; global climatic change; urban/rural conflict; urban land use; range management; forest management; and public land management. The broad scope and practical perspective make Land Resource Economics and Sustainable Development useful to students, interdisciplinary researchers, and professional economists and managers working in the fields of economic development, the environment, agriculture, and forestry.Both U.S. and Canadian data are used throughout the text to illustrate the issues discussed in the book.

Read more less

In the past few decades, gays and lesbians, along with theirfamilies, have become more visible members of Canadian society,enjoying increasing levels of legal recognition. In the area of legalparenthood, however, significant questions remain unanswered. InTransforming Law's Family, Fiona Kelly explores thecomplex issues encountered by planned lesbian families as they work todefine their parental rights, roles, and family structures within thetenets of family law. While Canadian courts recognize lesbian parenthood in somecircumstances, a number of issues that are largely unique to plannedlesbian families – such as the legal status of known spermdonors and non-biological mothers – persist. Drawing oninterviews with lesbian mothers, this groundbreaking book illuminatesthe changing definitions of family and suggests a model for law reformthat would enable the legal recognition of alternative forms ofparentage. The first empirical study in Canada to address the legal dimensions ofplanned lesbian families, this book makes an important contribution tofamily law, queer studies, and law reform literature.

Read more less

In Wife to Widow, award-winning historian Bettina Bradbury explores the little-studied phenomenon of the transition from wife to widowhood to offer new insights into the law, politics, demography, religion, and domestic life of early nineteenth-century Montreal.Bradbury's unique history spans the lives of two generations of Montreal women who married either before or after the Patriote rebellions of 1837-38 to reveal a picture of a city and its inhabitants across a period of profound change. Bradbury draws on a wealth of primary sources, weaving together biographies of individual women against a backdrop of the collective genealogies of over 500 , to show how women – Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish, wealthy and working-class – interacted with and shaped the city's culture, customs, and institutions, even as they laboured under the shifting conditions of patriarchy.A truly monumental study, Wife to Widow is an immensely readable, rigorous, and compelling examination of the significance of marriage and widowhood at a key moment in history.

Read more less

The award-winning Canadian Democratic Audit represents one of the most ambitious examinations of Canadian democracy in recent political scholarship. Authored by a team of Canada’s leading political scientists in response to perceived voter discontent, the Audit evaluates the performance of our central democratic institutions, including elections, parliament, the executive, federalism, political parties, and interest groups.Auditing Canadian Democracy marks the culmination of this landmark project. Using the Audit’s uniquely Canadian benchmarks of participation, responsiveness, and inclusiveness, the contributors synthesize and update their findings from the original volumes. A concluding chapter presents a synopsis of the various reform proposals put forth in the series.Lively and accessible, this volume offers a succinct and thoughtful examination of existing practices and reforms. As Canadians continue to vote in ever lower numbers, this book’s timely analysis should be of interest to all citizens concerned with the health of our democracy.

Read more less

In 2004, Jean Chrétien’s Liberals banned unions andcorporations from contributing financially to political parties. In2008, opposition leaders were prepared to defeat the Conservativegovernment over its proposal to eliminate public subsidies toparties. In Money, Politics, and Democracy, Lisa Young and HaroldJansen lead a distinguished group of political scientists in exploringthe issues that led to the showdown. Are publicly funded partiescompatible with democracy? What effect have campaign finance reformshad on the balance of power between parties and donors, on therelationship between national parties and local organizations, onelectoral competition? This timely volume reveals that the financialcentre of gravity for political parties is shifting between nationaland local organizations as individual donors replace unions andcorporations. To survive financially, parties must now maximize theirseats and votes. Contributors show that campaign finance reforms haveshaped party organization and electoral competition, contributing tosuccessive minority governments.

Read more less

Since 9/11 and the onset of the “war on terror,” the principal challenge confronting liberal democracies has been to balance freedom with security and individual with collective rights. In Defence of Principles sheds new light on the evolution of human rights norms in liberal democracies by charting the activism of four Canadian NGOs on issues of refugee rights, hate speech, and the death penalty, including their use of difficult, often controversial legal cases as platforms to assert human rights principles and shape judicial policy-making.Although human rights principles are often spoken of in absolute terms, this book reminds us that they are never certain – even in countries that have a vibrant civil society, a long tradition of rule of law, and a judiciary that possesses the constitutional authority to engage in judicial review. The struggles of these NGOs reveal not only the fragility but also the resilience of ideas about rights in liberal democracies.

Read more less

British traders and Ojibwe hunters. Cree women and their metis daughters. Explorers and anthropologists and Aboriginal guides and informants. These people, their relationships, and their complex identities were not featured in histories until the 1970s, when scholars from multiple disciplines brought new perspectives and approaches to bear on the past.Gathering Places presents some of the most innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to metis, fur trade, and First Nations history being practised today. Whether they are discussing dietary practices on the Plateau, the meanings of totemic signatures, or issues of representation in public history, the authors present novel explorations of evidence that extend beyond earlier histories centred on the archive. By drawing on archaeological, material, oral, and ethnographic evidence and by exploring personal approaches to history and scholarship, these essays mark a significant departure from the old paradigm of history writing and will serve as models for recovering Aboriginal and cross-cultural experiences and perspectives.

Read more less

From Guantánamo Bay to the war in Iraq, post-9/11 security measures have sparked fears that the West is violating the very civil rights and freedoms it claims to protect. This debate is focused on the United States, but how have the politics of security influenced the commitment to freedom in other liberal democracies?Colleen Bell argues that Canada’s counter-terrorism practices should not be framed as a departure from liberal governance in which freedom is traded for security but rather as a restructuring of modalities of governance through the framework of security. Addressing issues such as security certificates, the war in Afghanistan, and the detainment and torture of Abdullah Almalki in Syria, Bell demonstrates that security measures are not simply eroding civil liberties, they are also fundamentally reshaping ideas and practices of freedom. This trenchant examination of Canada’s “War on Terror” exposes how the logic and practices of security are increasingly coming to define our rights and freedoms.

Read more less

Aquaculture – the farming of aquatic organisms – is one of the most promising but controversial new industries in Canada. Advocates believe aquaculture has the potential to solve environmental and food supply problems resulting from global overfishing. Critics argue that industrial-scale aquaculture poses unacceptable threats to human health, local communities, and the environment.The Aquaculture Controversy in Canada is not about methods of aquaculture but rather an exploration of why the practice has been the centre of intense debate in Canada. Nathan Young and Ralph Matthews present the controversy as rooted in local and global conflicts over risk, development, rights, and knowledge. The inability of the industry to address the controversy’s complexities, they argue, has only fuelled the debate. Comprehensive and balanced, this book will appeal to anyone who wants a deeper understanding of one of the most contentious public policy and environmental issues facing the world today.

Read more less

Aquaculture – the farming of aquatic organisms – is one of the most promising but controversial new industries in Canada. Advocates believe aquaculture has the potential to solve environmental and food supply problems resulting from global overfishing. Critics argue that industrial-scale aquaculture poses unacceptable threats to human health, local communities, and the environment.The Aquaculture Controversy in Canada is not about methods of aquaculture but rather an exploration of why the practice has been the centre of intense debate in Canada. Nathan Young and Ralph Matthews present the controversy as rooted in local and global conflicts over risk, development, rights, and knowledge. The inability of the industry to address the controversy’s complexities, they argue, has only fuelled the debate. Comprehensive and balanced, this book will appeal to anyone who wants a deeper understanding of one of the most contentious public policy and environmental issues facing the world today.

Read more less

Scholars of social movements tend to overlook the achievements and political significance of women’s movements. Through theoretical discussions and empirical examples, Solidarities Beyond Borders demonstrates the creativity and dynamism of transnational women’s movements around the world.These timely case studies from North America, Latin America, and Southeast Asia introduce feminists, activists, and scholars to the benefits and challenges of building relationships, dialogues, and perspectives that extend beyond the boundaries of nation-states and disciplines. The contributors open a dialogue between feminist theorists and scholars of social movements in other disciplines in order to foster mutual recognition of common interests and identities. Although feminists and women’s groups face challenges as they build solidarities beyond borders, this book makes the case that these links can be extended to embrace other progressive movements and their goals.

Read more less

The volumes in the Birds of Ontario series summarize life history requirements of bird species that are normally part of the ecology of Ontario. This is the second volume in the series and completes the treatment of the nonpasserine bird species occurring in Ontario on a regular basis. Information on habitat, limiting factors, and status is summarized for 83 species in this volume. These topics are covered for the three primary avian seasons: breeding, migration, and winter. Habitat, nest sites, territoriality, site fidelity, annual reproductive effort, habitat loss and degradation, environmental contaminants, and a variety of other topics are covered in the species accounts. Maps depicting breeding and wintering range are presented for most species along with drawings by Ross James.Birds of Ontario is an essential reference source for wildlife biologists, environmental consultants, and planners preparing or reviewing environmental impact statements and environmental assessments. Serious birders will find the volumes of interest as well. Although the books focus on Ontario birds, the information is highly relevant to adjacent provinces and states.

Read more less

Since the mid-1950s, successive Canadian governments have grappled with the issue of Canada’s role in US ballistic missile defence programs. Until Paul Martin’s government finally said no, policy-makers responded to US initiatives with fear and uncertainty as they endlessly debated the implications – at home and abroad – of participation. However, whether this is the end of the story remains to be seen.Drawing on previously classified government documents and interviews with senior officials, James Fergusson examines Canada’s policy deliberations during five major US initiatives. He reveals that a combination of factors such as weak leadership and a tendency to place uncertain and ill-defined notions of international peace and security before national defence resulted in indecision on what role Canada would play in ballistic missile defence. In effect, policy-makers have failed to transform debates about the issue into an opportunity to define Canada’s strategic interests at home and on the world stage. Canada and Ballistic Missile Defense is the first comprehensive account of Canada’s response and indecision regarding US ballistic missile defence initiatives, and the implications of this inaction.

Read more less