John C. Lehr

Bio: John C. Lehr is an academic researcher from University of Winnipeg. The author has contributed to research in topics: Population & Ukrainian. The author has an hindex of 7, co-authored 25 publications receiving 140 citations.

‘texas (when i die)’: national identity and images of place in canadian country music broadcasts

Abstract: As a nation linguistically and regionally fragmented, Canada faces unique problems of national unity and identity. The truth of Northrop Frye's observation that ‘Canada has passed from a pre-national to a post-national phase without ever having become a nation’ is illustrated by the trauma of partially sloughing the trappings of colonial status in 1982, 115 years after attaining de facto independence in 1867. National identity in Canada rests precariously on the shoulders of its peoples, for the fabric of national consciousness spun from myths and images is still being woven by its literati, bureaucrats, and politicians. Not only does Canada have a small population and, as Mackenzie King put it, ‘too much geography,’ but the country is bordered by a culturally aggressive and dynamic English-speaking nation outnumbering it by more than ten to one. If English Canadians are to formulate a distinctive cultural identity, to create their own images and myths of place, to come imaginatively into contact with the country, and to answer the fundamental question of ‘Where is Here?,’ they must do so on their own terms, not in a cultural vacuum but in a milieu protected in some measure from the onrush of values, attitudes, and beliefs emanating from beyond the borders of Canada.

Crown, corporation and church: the role of institutions in the stability of pioneer settlements in the Canadian West, 1870–1914

Abstract: The agricultural settlement of western Canada took place within the framework of a complex socio-economic system produced by Canadian national institutions: the Crown, corporations and churches. The interaction of these Canadian institutions with institutions introduced to western Canada by immigrants played an important role in determining the long-term stability of immigrant rural communities. Whether an immigrant group achieved long-term stability or suffered social disintegration depended on the degree to which immigrant and host institutions were congruent or dissonant . The interaction of social and economic institutions is examined through the settlement experiences of five diverse groups that settled in western Canada before 1914: the Mennonites, Doukhobors, Jews, Mormons and Ukrainians.

Kinship and society in the ukrainian pioneer settlement of the canadian west

Abstract: The geography and internal structure of Ukrainian block settlements in western Canada illustrate the strength of social ties transferred from the homeland. Settlements were structured according to kinship, village, district, provincial, and national loyalties. In this respect the internal geography of Ukrainian block settlements in Canada replicated that of the western Ukraine in microcosm. Although Settlement within a familiar social- cultural milieu offered many advantages for the immigrant, the ultimate result was not always beneficial, since a determination to pursue social advantage in settlement led to the occupation of much agriculturally marginal land. La geographie et la structure interne des implantations en masse des Ukrainiens dans l' ouest du Canada montrent la force des liens sociaux transmis du pays ? origine. Ces implantations furent structurees en fonction d'affinityes provenant de liens soit de parente ou de loyaute qui existaient a des niveaux diffgrents, tel que dans le village, ou dans le quartier, au meme en province ou dans des coins lointains du pays. A cet egard, la geographie interne de ce type d'implantation au Canada fut la replique en microcosme de celle de l' ouest de l' Ukraine. Bien que l' implantation au sein d'un milieu socio-culturel connu ait offert beaucoup d'avantages a l' immigrant, le resultat final n'a pas toujours etea son avantage, surtout lorsque la determination de maintenir ces liens sociaux mena a l' occupation de nombreuses terres qui etaient faibles en rendements agricoles.

The Ukrainian Sacred Landscape: A Metaphor of Survival and Acculturation

Abstract: Data from Manitoba and elsewhere on the Prairies show that the Ukrainian sacred landscape, composed of churches and cemetery markers, constitutes a metaphor for cultural change and an index to the nature and rate of acculturation. Resume Des donnees recueillies au Manitoba et ailleurs dans les Prairies demontrent que le paysage sacre des Ukrainiens, compose d'eglises et de steles funeraires, est une metaphore du changement culturel et un indice de la nature et de la rapidite de l'acculturation.

Nature, race, and parks: past research and future directions for geographic research

Abstract: Geographic research on parks has been wide-ranging but has seldom examined how and why people use parks, leaving these questions to leisure science, which privileges socio-demographic variables over urban socio-spatial explanations (eg, historical, political-economic, and location factors). This article examines recent geographic perspectives on park use, drawing upon environmental justice, cultural landscape, and political ecology paradigms to redirect our attention from park users to a more critical appreciation of the historical, socio-ecological, and political-economic processes that operate through, and in turn shape, park spaces and park-going behaviors. We challenge partial, user-orientated approaches and suggest new directions for geographic research on parks.

Popular music in geographical analyses

Abstract: As an area of geographical inquiry, popular music has not been explored to any large extent. Where writings exist, they have been somewhat divorced from recent theoretical and methodological questions that have rejuvenated social and cultural geography (see, for example, Cosgrove and Jackson, 1987; Jackson, 1989; Cosgrove, 1989; 1990; Anderson and Gale, 1992; Bames and Duncan, 1992). In this article I will focus on the interface between geography and popular music, focusing specifically on the contributions of such exploration towards cultural and social understanding. In what follows, I will first discuss the reasons for geographers’ relative neglect of popular music and why this disregard should not persist. Secondly, I will provide a brief review of trends in existing geographical research on popular music. Finally, I will explore how existing lines of inquiry might be expanded, using retheorized perspectives in cultural geographical scholarship as springboards for discussion. Particularly in this final section, the divisions between geographers and nongeographers should not be overemphasized at the expense of furthering our understanding of popular music, culture and society. Indeed, I draw heavily on the works of sociologists and cultural theorists for both their theoretical insights and empirical analyses.

The Art of Doing (Geographies of) Music

Abstract: Like every other work of art, music has become the stuff of social research: it has been interrogated for its economy, its politics, and its role in elaborating human life. Music has its geographie...

Geography and History: Bridging the Divide

Abstract: Geography and History is the first book for more than a century to examine comprehensively the interdependence of the two disciplines. Alan Baker, an internationally honoured historical geographer, focuses upon the work of North American, British and French historians and geographers but takes a global and interdisciplinary perspective upon the theory and practice of historical geography and geographical history. He analyses the views of historians on the relationship of their discipline to geography, and geographers on the relationship of theirs to history. He considers in turn locational geographies and spatial histories, environmental geographies and histories, landscape geographies and histories, and regional geographies and histories. Seeking to bridge the 'Great Divide' between history and geography, Dr Baker identifies some basic principles relating historical geography not only to history but also to geography, a reworking which signifies a 'new beginning' for this scholarly hybrid.