About Canada: Disability Rights

Deborah Stienstra

Through a close examination of employment, education, transportation, telecommunications and health care, About Canada: Disability Rights explores the landscape of disability rights in Canada and finds that, while important advances have been made, Canadians with disabilities still experience significant barriers in obtaining their human rights. Using the stories and voices of people with disabilities, Deborah Stienstra argues that disability is not about “faulty” bodies that need… (more information)

Asian Immigrants in “Two Canadas”

Racialization, Marginalization and Deregulated Work

Habiba Zaman

Canada is experiencing a major demographic shift, with two-thirds of the population in major cities predicted to belong to racialized groups, particularly Asian newcomers, by 2031. But how are these immigrants faring in this new Canada? Employing the International Labour Organization’s concept of “basic security” and the voices of immigrants themselves, Asian Immigrants in “Two Canadas” demonstrates that their security — such as work, job, employment, and… (more information)

Canadian Studies

Past, Present, Praxis

Edited by Jane Koustas, Christl Verduyn

Canadian Studies: Past, Present, Praxis provides an overview of the development and evolution of Canadian Studies as a field of research and teaching, from the landmark Symons Report in 1975 to current reflections on directions, relevance and challenges of the field. The collection includes key historical documents — which remain forward-looking and consequential and whose aims and challenges are reflected in present-day considerations of and commentaries on Canadian Studies — as well… (more information)

Disability Politics and Theory

A.J. Withers

An accessible introduction to disability studies, Disability Politics and Theory provides a concise survey of disability history, exploring the concept of disability as it has been conceived from the late 19th century to the present. Further, A.J. Withers examines when, how and why new categories of disability are created and describes how capitalism benefits from and enforces disabled people’s oppression. Critiquing the model that currently dominates the discipline, the social model of… (more information)

Dynamics and Trajectories

Canada and North America

Edited by Michael Fox, Andrew Nurse

Canada, the United States and Mexico are involved in a complex relationship governed by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but given the diversity between and within these societies, it is difficult to determine which interactions are beneficial to entire countries. Through a multidisciplinary perspective, Dynamics and Trajectories provides case studies into the diverse factors that affect political, economic, cultural and foreign policy decisions as well as the social and human dynamics… (more information)

How Societies Work

Class, Power, and Change

Joanne Naiman

In 2011, protesters around the world — including Canada — called for changes to the societies in which they live. Many observers were asking: “What do they want?” Some answers to this question can be found in How Societies Work, a unique and accessible introductory sociology textbook that introduces students to the structure of contemporary societies and the power relationships within them. In contrast to most introductory textbooks, How Societies Work explores a broad range… (more information)

Jose Marti

Mentor of the Cuban Revolution

John M. Kirk

In 1953, Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro stated that the “intellectual author” of his revolution was the nineteenth-century writer and revolutionary José Martí. An advocate of social justice, economic democracy and anti-imperialism, Martí wrote extensively about the future of a “Cuba libre,” freed from Spain’s rule, and is celebrated as one of Latin America’s most important thinkers. Based on a detailed analysis of the twenty-five volumes… (more information)

Keeping the Land

Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, Reconciliation and Canadian Law

Rachel Ariss

When the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug’s traditional territory was threatened by mining explora- tion in 2006, they followed their traditional duty to protect the land and asked the mining exploration company, Platinex, to leave. Platinex left — and then sued the remote First Nation for $10 billion. The ensuing legal dispute lasted two years and eventually resulted in the jailing of community lead- ers. Ariss argues that though this jailing was extraordinarily punitive and is indicative… (more information)

Lester Pearson’s Peacekeeping

The Truth May Hurt

Yves Engler

Lester Pearson is one of Canada’s most important political figures. A Nobel Peace laureate, he is considered a great peacekeeper and ‘honest broker.’ But in this critical examination of his work, Pearson is exposed as an ardent cold warrior who backed colonialism and apartheid in Africa, Zionism, coups in Guatemala, Iran and Brazil and the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic. A beneficiary of U.S. intervention in Canadian political affairs, he also provided important support… (more information)

Life at the Intersection

Community, Class and Schooling

Carl E. James

The intersection of Jane and Finch in Toronto’s north end has long been portrayed as one of Canada’s most troubled neighbourhoods, with images of social dysfunction, shootings and “at risk” youth dominating media accounts. Setting out to discover what it means — and what it takes — to grow up in this economically disadvantaged and racially and ethnically diverse neighbourhood, Life at the Intersection engages young people, parents and educators to explore… (more information)

Oppression

A Social Determinant of Health

Edited by Elizabeth McGibbon

Oppression and health are intricately connected. A recent emphasis on the social determinants of health has focused attention on the “causes of the causes” of ill health, including systemic forces such as capitalism, globalization, imperialism, medicalization, neo-colonialism and neoliberalism. If we are to change the oppressive practices that cause ill health our analysis must consistently and explicitly integrate these systemic forces and thus reframe growing health inequities within… (more information)

Paved with Good Intentions

Canada’s Development NGOs on the Road from Idealism to Imperialism

Nik Barry-Shaw, Dru Oja Jay

“NGOs are as Canadian as hockey,” declared a 1988 Parliamentary report. Few institutions epitomize the foundational Canadian myth of international benevolence like the non-governmental organization devoted to development abroad. This book raises important questions about these organizations and their development projects: Just how “non-governmental” are organizations that get most of their funding from government agencies? What impact do these funding ties have on NGOs… (more information)

Power and Resistance

Critical Thinking about Canadian Social Issues

Edited by Wayne Antony, Les Samuelson

How do we make sense of the social problems such as poverty, economic collapse, violence, homophobia and pollution that continue to plague Canadian society? From the neoliberal perspective all of these issues come down to individual choice and action, but from the critical perspective social issues emerge from inequalities — disparities in access to housing, education, healthcare and wealth, for example — and inequalities emerge from relations of power. Some groups of people have… (more information)

Racialized Policing

Aboriginal People’s Encounters with the Police

Elizabeth Comack

“This book delves deep into the psyche of society’s attitudes towards racism, towards the racialization of issues, of social structures, and, importantly, of the police. It exposes the human element of justice, the attitudes and subconscious generalizations that culminate in differential justice, differential treatment, and the imbalance of socio-economic and criminal circumstances between peoples of Canada. Whether the abuse is racism, sexism, or discrimination on any other abhorrent… (more information)

Reconsidering Knowledge

Feminism and the Academy

Edited by Meg Luxton, Mary Jane Mossman

How has feminist thinking shaped what we know? Emerging from the lecture series “Feminist Knowledge Reconsidered: Feminism and the Academy,” held at York University in 2009, Reconsidering Knowledge examines current ideas about feminism in relation to knowledge, education and society, and the future potential for feminist research and teaching in the university context. Connecting early stories of women who defied their exclusion from knowledge creation to contemporary challenges… (more information)

Rethinking the Politics of Labour in Canada

Edited by Stephanie Ross, Larry Savage

Though the Canadian labour movement’s postwar political, economic and social achievements may have seemed like irrevocable contributions to human progress, they have proven to be anything but. Since the mid-1970s, labour’s political influence and capacity to defend, let alone extend, these gains has been seriously undermined by the strategies of both capitalist interests and the neoliberal state. Electoral de-alignment and the decline of class-based voting, bursts of unsustained… (more information)

The Ancient Mariner Speaks

Examining Regimes of Truth in ADHD

Marion Stordy

The number of children labelled ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) has been on the increase since the term entered common medical parlance thirty years ago. Through a deeply personal narrative and an analysis of Michel Foucault’s theories on truth, power and knowledge, The Ancient Mariner Speaks argues that the ADHD label has contributed to the pathologizing of children’s, particularly boys’, behaviour and the further marginalization and exclusion, rather than inclusion… (more information)

The Crisis and The Left

Socialist Register 2012

Edited by Greg Albo, Vivek Chibber, Leo Panitch

As the crisis continues to bite deeper into the lives of people around the world, The Socialist Register 2012: The Crisis and the Left considers how the Left has responded and asks if it can offer a viable alternative. Examining the crisis in a variety of geographic areas including Africa, Latin America, Europe and China, contributors explore many themes of crisis from finance to climate, oil and auto to poverty and over-accumulation. (more information)

The Intrigues of Archbishop John T. McNally and the Rise of Saint Mary’s University

Peter McGuigan

Archbishop John T. McNally never let a little opposition get in the way of what he believed was a good idea. An educator and a builder, he fought for years to transform Saint Mary’s College into a respected university, despite steadfast opposition from within the church and the Halifax community. This book traces the rise of Saint Mary’s College and McNally’s ironed-will commitment to the generation of students that walk the Halifax campus today (more information)

The Ocean Ranger

Remaking the Promise of Oil

Susan Dodd

On February 15, 1982, the oil rig Ocean Ranger sank off the coast of Newfoundland taking the entire crew of eighty-four men — including the author’s brother — down with it. It was the worst sea disaster in Canada since the Second World War, but the memory of this event gradually faded into a sad story about a bad storm — relegated to the “Extreme Weather” section of the CBC archives. Susan Dodd resurrects this disaster from the realm of “history” and… (more information)

The Year We Became Us

A Novel About the Saskatchewan Doctors Strike

Gary Engler

The Year We Became Us is a novel about the 1962 Saskatchewan doctors’ strike as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl. Roy, the son of a union activist, is a committed socialist and the best Little League pitcher in the entire province. Katherine, the daughter of a surgeon, has fallen in love with two novels by Ayn Rand and aspires to be just like her. Both are forced to write letters to President Kennedy as punishment for always arguing politics in their Grade… (more information)

Theorizing Africentricity in Action

Who We Are Is What We See

Edited by Delvina E. Bernard, Susan M. Brigham

Education is a primary site of social change for people of African descent in Nova Scotia, which is why centuries of systemic neglect and racial inequities in the public school system have failed to suppress the creativity, resilience and resourcefulness of African Nova Scotian learners and their desire to succeed. This collection of articles by African Nova Scotian educators brings together new and enlightening research and analyses that go beyond education alone. Each chapter offers personal critical… (more information)

Thinking About Justice

A Book of Readings

Edited by Kelly Gorkoff, Richard Jochelson

How do we think about justice? Is it an act? An ideology? A philosophy? We are divided in our understandings of justice between those who seek fundamental social change versus those who seek incremental change and between those who argue that justice exists versus those who think it is a ruse — between internal and external perspectives. However, a promising axis of scholarship aimed at bridging these divides is emerging. Thinking about Justice introduces readers to these three ways of… (more information)