How do we make sense of the social problems that continue to plague Canadian society? Our understanding of issues such as poverty, racism, violence, homophobia, crime and pollution stems from our view of how society is structured. From the dominant neoliberal perspective, social problems arise from individuals making poor choices. From a critical perspective, however, these social troubles are caused by structural social inequalities. Disparities in economic, social and political power — t...

Understanding Development offers a comprehensive introduction to the multidimensional and evolving nature of international development in the contemporary world. This new edition has been fully revised and expanded to incorporate the key events, trends and debates that are shaping development today, such as humanitarianism and the global refugee crisis, the growing number of fragile states, and the contested nature of trade and trade deals. Building on the book's original framewor...

Since the 1980s, globalization and neoliberalism have brought about a comprehensive restructuring of everyone’s lives. People are being ‘disciplined’ by neoliberal economic agendas, ‘transformed’ by communication and information technology changes, global commodity chains and networks, and in the Global South in particular, destroyed livelihoods, debilitating impoverishment, disease pandemics, among other disastrous disruptions, are also globalization’s legacy.This collection of ge...

Group Politics and Social Movements in Canada, Second Edition updates and expands its exploration of a wide range of organized group and social movement activity in Canadian politics. Particularly distinctive is the inclusion of Quebec nationalism and Aboriginal politics. Many other areas of collective activity are also included: the Occupy movement and anti-poverty organizing, ethnocultural political mobilization, disability, lesbian and gay politics, feminism, farmers and organi...

The Companion to Development Studies contains over a hundred chapters written by leading international experts within the field to provide a concise and authoritative overview of the key theoretical and practical issues dominating contemporary development studies. Covering a wide range of disciplines the book is divided into ten sections, each prefaced by a section introduction written by the editors. The sections cover: the nature of development, theories and strategies of develo...

Canadian universities are being slowly but inexorably corporatized. Casualizing academic labour, remaking students into consumers of education, implementing corporate management models and commercializing academic research all point to the ascendance of business interests and values in Canada’s higher education system.Academia, Inc. examines the tensions that result from the merging of two fundamentally incompatible institutions — the university and the corporation. Brownl...

How do we define family? In an attempt to police incoming migrants, the Harper government adopted a strict definition of family to limit access to citizenship for certain immigrants. Even when immigrants had no intention of sponsoring family members, their familial networks affected their entry to Canada, resulting in differentiated treatment of families living within and beyond Canadian borders.Megan Gaucher analyzes the government’s assessment of sexual minority refugee claimants...

This open access Regional Reader proposes new ways of theorizing migration in Southern Africa by arguing that traditional western forms of theorizing do not adequately fit the South-South migration context. It explores the existing definitions of a ‘migrant’ with a view to conceptualise a definition which will speak to the complexities, envisioning a more inclusive Southern African region. The book investigates the various levels of migration moving from the local (rural to urban and urban...

This timely and important scholarship advances an empirical understanding of Canada’s contemporary “Indian” problem. Where the Waters Divide is one of the few book monographs that analyze how contemporary neoliberal reforms (in the manner of de-regulation, austerity measures, common sense policies, privatization, etc.) are woven through and shape contemporary racial inequality in Canadian society. Using recent controversies in drinking water contamination and solid waste and sewage polluti...

Community is an elusive yet frequently invoked concept. Terms like community health, community living, community schools, community policing, community development, and community renewal have become part of the contemporary lexicon.What has led organizations, and particularly Western governments, to take such an interest in community, and why this interest now? What has caused the increasing acceptance of community as the primary vehicle through which a wide variety of government p...

A new lens on development is changing the world of international aid. The overdue recognition that development in all sectors is an inherently political process is driving aid providers to try to learn how to think and act politically.Major donors are pursuing explicitly political goals alongside their traditional socioeconomic aims and introducing more politically informed methods throughout their work. Yet these changes face an array of external and internal obstacles, from heigh...

Geographies of Developing Areas is a thought provoking and accessible introductory text, presenting a fresh view of the Global South that challenges students' pre-conceptions and promotes lively debate. Rather than presenting the Global South as a set of problems, from rapid urbanization to poverty, this book focuses on the diversity of life in the South, and looks at the role the South plays in shaping and responding to current global change. The core contents of the book integra...