Showing papers in "British Journal of Canadian Studies in 2012"

Interest representation and organisation in civil society: Ontario and Quebec compared

Abstract: Since the ‘cold climate’ of New Public Management starting in the 1980s, civil society organisations (CSOs) in different provinces in Canada have fared differently. This article compares the shift and evolution of government-CSO dynamics in Ontario and Quebec. While Ontario has seen the marketisation and instrumentalisation of CSOs, many CSOs in Quebec have been protected by a government policy to promote and fund autonomous activities, including advocacy. Based on studies carried out between 1996 and 2008, the article examines how the majority of Quebec CSOs came to obtain some measure of control over their operating environment, and to keep at bay government efforts to co-opt or incorporate them into public programmes. The analytic framework calls upon concepts of state and civil society agency, political opportunity structure and politics, and identity-building strategies such as framing and naming, to explain the differences between the trajectories of Quebec's and Ontario's CSOs.

Young urban Aboriginal women entrepreneurs: social capital, complex transitions and community support

Abstract: The employment pattern of young people is particularly significant for the economic, social and cultural vitality of urban Aboriginal communities. This study of young women entrepreneurs focuses upon the role of social capital in transitions to self-employment. It considers how social capital operates through networks within and between groups, has effects which are positive and negative in youth transitions, assists personal development and contributes to the community. The complex transitions of young women into self-employment occur at the same time as educational careers and family responsibilities are developing. Support for young Aboriginal people seeking self-employment is provided through a number of government-supported programmes. Focus group discussions, with young women whose businesses are predominantly in creative and cultural industries, reveal the role of social networks within Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities in their development and demonstrate their commitment to giving somethi...

Rerouting Political Representation: Is Canada's Social Infrastructure in Crisis?

Abstract: The Canadian federal government has administered systematic funding cuts to voluntary organizations engaging in advocacy since the early 1990s. These funding cuts have had a profound and lasting effect on our democratic landscape. They have seriously damaged most associational networks across the voluntary sector, thereby restricting the available routes citizens can use for mobilizing claims. Despite the fact that opportunities for citizens to engage directly in policymaking have actually proliferated, overall their ability to act collectively has rapidly declined. This article examines how this rerouting of political representation has impacted democratic dynamics in Canada. It argues that the federal government in Canada needs to recognize the importance of supporting and sustaining social infrastructure and democratic participation.

Dual restructuring: civil society and the welfare state in Canada, 1985-2005

Abstract: Beginning in 1985 the Government of Canada significantly restructured and retrenched the welfare state, relatively undeterred by public or organised opposition. The ability of Canadian civil society organisations (CSOs) to influence the outcomes of reform was minimal at the best of times, and has diminished over time. In part, this stems from the underlying fragility of Canadian CSOs, even in their most activist period. Over the past three decades, political representation within the Canadian social policy community has itself been dramatically restructured, reshaped by both government and from within, exposing this underlying fragility. With less resistance from civil society and fewer sources of fresh ideas, the federal government was able to steer a course of retrenchment of the welfare state. This article analyses these changing patterns of representation and welfare state restructuring in Canada through major periods of realignments from 1985 to 2005, speculating on the future of the ‘new politics’ o...

Cross-cultural and transnational identity: a case study of Bulgarian immigrants in Canada

Abstract: After highlighting concepts such as diaspora, acculturation and integration of immigrants, transnational identity, and multiculturalism policy, the authors present results from a case study of 16 Bulgarian emigrants to Canada. The aim is to investigate what changes have taken place in their perception of national and self-identity, and to what extent these changes are dependent on factors such as age, education, reasons for emigration and length of stay. The participants were interviewed as to what bonds they have retained with their country of origin in terms of observation of traditions, range of social contacts and participation in the Bulgarian community in Canada, and what ideas, customs and behavioural modes they have absorbed from the host country. Their responses provide insight into what it feels to be a transnational citizen in today's increasingly globalising world.

Feelingful development: redefining policy through interpretation

Abstract: This article initiates the concept of feelingful development, an idea which has emerged from our work on economic and community-based development in Atlantic Canada and Northern Ireland. The concept has evolved in parallel with the work of social and human scientists including Bevir and Rhodes (2008 and 2010), who have adopted an alternative, interpretive and decentred approach to the study of modern governance. The article will begin by outlining some of the thinking on interpretive approaches to public policy. It will offer our contribution by way of exploring what insights the literature of regional novelists in Atlantic Canada and Northern Ireland might add to pushing out the boundaries of this research. It will close by contemplating possible future research agendas on adaptation of policy and exploring whether Sen's (1999) capability approach might in future be cast within the governance literature to generate novel ideas on the interpretive evaluation of public policy and local development initiatives.

Joy Kogawa's Obasan: Canadian multiculturalism and Japanese-Canadian internment

Abstract: This article examines Joy Kogawa's popular Canadian novel, Obasan (1981), in the context of the establishment of the Canadian Constitution (1982), the official Canadian Multiculturalism Act (1988) and the history of Japanese-Canadian internment during the Second World War. It argues against the notion that the narrator of the novel, Naomi Nakane, moves from silence to speech and overcomes the traumas of her past. Likewise, the article argues that Canada does not move from a racist past to an anti-racist present. The article suggests that the novel's continual re-membering and re-assembling of past events and the way in which metonymic associations work to disrupt the symbolic order in the novel exemplify a powerful impetus toward resistance.

Diversity, equity and the universities: the role of the Federal Contractor's Program in Canada

Abstract: Canada was an early adopter of employment equity programmes offering protection to minorities experiencing discrimination in employment and developed a model that was subsequently exported to other jurisdictions. Since 1986 the federal government has required employers with federal government contracts of more than $200,000 to adopt fair employment hiring practices in respect to women, people with disabilities, visible minorities and first nation or Aboriginal people. Based on evidence of the hiring practices of two universities in two differing maritime provinces, this article explores the federal government's role in ensuring compliance. It concludes that the intentions behind the legislation have been vitiated by the lax regulatory regime and contrasts the Canadian approach with the employment equity provisions introduced in Northern Ireland that were explicitly based on the Canadian model and have been very successful as a result of effective enforcement and compliance.