Marjorie Griffin Cohen

Simon Fraser University

Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Professor, has written extensively in the areas of public policy and political economy with special emphasis on issues concerning international trade agreements, the Canadian economy, electricity deregulation, women, and labour. She is the author of Free Trade and the Future of Women’s work; Women’s Work, Markets and Economic Development; and a two volume series on Canadian Women’s Issues: Bold Visions and Strong women. Among her edited collections are Sexual Economics (Atlantis), Training the Excluded for Work, Global Turbulence, and Governing Under Stress.

Professor Cohen is currently a director of NewGrade Energy (Sask) and has served on several boards and commissions in British Columbia including the B.C. Industrial Inquiry Commission on the Fisheries; Board of Directors of B.C. Hydro; Board of Directors of B.C. Power Exchange. She was also instrumental in establishing the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in B.C., was its first Chair, and is on its Board of Directors. She has also been active in feminist issues, serving for many years on the executive board of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. She is past Chair of Women’s Studies at SFU and heads the Economic Security Project.

\
  • Governing Under Stress

    Middle Powers and the Challenge of Globalization

    Edited by Stephen Clarkson and Marjorie Griffin Cohen     January 2004

    Certain countries are characterized by the distinctive structural condition of semi-peripherality. Whether defined in social, cultural, economic or simply spatial terms, semi-peripheral countries share a consciousness of subordination to the centre–specifically the United States–as well as a means to resist. This differentiates them from both the countries at the centre that lack any such consciousness and poor and powerless countries on the periphery. The contributors focus on Canada, Mexico, Norway and Australia. They examine the international institutions, including NAFTA, the WTO and the EU, forming the framework of globalization. They detail the restraints facing these countries and the possibilities for pursuing their own independent policies. They discuss the new economics, political and social issues of governance that are emerging and the possibilities for the future.