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Seeing Ourselves, 5th Edition

Seeing Ourselves, 5th Edition

Exploring Race, Ethnicity, and Culture

Fifth edition of a multi-perspective analysis of the meaning of ethnic diversity in Canada.

About the book

Seeing Ourselves examines the meanings of ethnicity, race, and culture, exploring how these concepts are understood by individuals and embedded within Canadian society. Offering a distinctly Canadian perspective on debates that resonate globally, the book interrogates the realities behind Canada’s self-definition as a multicultural society.

Now in its fifth edition, Seeing Ourselves has been updated to address major social and political developments since its first publication in 1989, including the rapid growth of immigration, particularly from Asia; the increasing prominence of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples; the Black Lives Matter movement; Quebec’s secularism legislation; the Trump-era backlash in the United States and its reverberations in Canada; and the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the book retains the core explanatory frameworks, theoretical discussions, student essays, excerpts, and references to media reports that have long distinguished it as a foundational text in the study of race and ethnicity in Canada.

Class Inequality Cultural Studies Race & Anti-Racism Social Work Sociology

Author

Carl E. James

Carl E. James holds the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community & Diaspora at York University, where he teaches in the Faculty of Education and in the Graduate Program in Sociology. For many years, he taught annually in the Teacher Training Department at Upsala University, Sweden. With an interdisciplinary lens, he explores how race intersects with other identity markers – like ethnicity, gender, class, generational status, etc. – to shape individuals’ experiences and life trajectories. A Distinguished Research Professor and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, he also holds the 2022 Killam Prize in Social Sciences, the Outstanding Contribution Award (Canadian Sociological Association), and honorary doctorates. With the belief that that longitudinal studies provide significant, in-depth and valuable insights into people’s lived realities, Carl often conducts follow-up studies with research participants — one of which is represented in the short NFB film Making It. In his work, he highlights the significant ways in which economic, social, and cultural conditions structure institutional policies, programs, and practices which mediate the educational, employment, and career opportunities and achievements of Canadian youth. He seeks to move us beyond the essentialist and homogenizing discourses that are used in the representation of racialized.

Chapter 1: Introduction: Culture and Cultural Relations
Chapter 2: Are You Canadian? Identity, Privilege, and Difference
Chapter 3: Immigration: Becoming the Diverse Society of Today
Chapter 4: The Policy of Multiculturalism: Accommodating Difference
Chapter 5: Features of Inequity: Race, Racialization, and Racism
Chapter 6: Equity Programs and Fair Treatment: Myths, Paradoxes, and Possibilities
Chapter 7: Conclusion: Understanding Ourselves, Others, and Our Society