Showing papers in "Canadian Journal of Sociology in 2008"

Ethnic Differences in Educational Attainment among the Children of Canadian Immigrants

Abstract: Using the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey, this article examines the ethnic differences in university education attainment among the children of immigrants in Canada. We found that most groups achieve clear upward mobility across generations, while Blacks and Filipinos show signs of stagnation. Asians (with the exception of Filipinos) attain higher academic achievements than most groups of European origins even when accounting for group variations in family background, and social and ethnic capital. Parental education was important in explaining the relatively low university completion rates among the second generation Portuguese and Italians. Rural residence of the father’s generation was an important factor for the second generation Dutch and German youth, reflecting the different settlement patterns of these various groups. Our findings suggest that race/ethnicity has become a salient factor in educational stratification. Keywords: ethnicity, mobility, education, second generation, immigrants

The Changing Role of Education in the Marriage Market: Assortative Marriage in Canada and the United States since the 1970s

Abstract: Whether or not relative rates of assortative marriage have been rising in the affluent democracies has been subject to considerable dispute. First, we show how the conflicting empirical findings that have fueled the debate are frequently an artifact of alternative methodological strategies for answering the question. Then, drawing on comparable census data for Canada and the United States, we examine trends in educational homogamy and intermarriage with log-linear models for all marriages among young adults under 35 over three decades. Our results show that educational homogamy, the tendency of like to marry like, has unambiguously risen in both countries since the 1970s. Rising levels of marital homogamy were the result of declining intermarriage at both ends of the educational distribution.

"To Pee or not to Pee"? Ordinary Talk about Extraordinary Exclusions in a University Environment

Abstract: . This paper demonstrates the sorts of questions that arise for sociologically informed disability studies scholarship in the midst of the interactional scenes of access struggles in an educational workplace environment. From my experiences in the third largest building of a large Canadian university, I have recollected ordinary talk that justifies the exclusion of disabled people and have pieced together narratives representing things-possible-to-say-today about accessibility struggles. By using an interpretive sociological approach, this paper explores how meanings of disability are generated through talk that justifies the exclusive shape and inaccessible structures of university life. I demonstrate that access is not a synonym for justice but is a beginning place for critical questioning where social relations between body and space can be thought anew. This paper adds to sociologically informed disability studies scholarship by analyzing how the ordinary everyday narration of disability acts as a social power reproducing the status-quo even as the material environment changes. Resume. Ce texte demontre le genre de questions qui se presentent aux etudes sur la condition des personnes handicapees informees par la sociologieen interrogent les interactions qui emergent autour des luttes pour «l’acces» dans un milieu de travail scolaire/ academique. Au cours de mes experiences dans un des plus grands edifices dans une des plus grandes universites au Canada, j’ai amasse des paroles quotidiennes qui justifient l’exclusion des personnes handicapees. J’ai rassemble des narratifs representants ce-qui-est possible-de-dire aujourd’hui sur la lutte pour l’accessibilite. En utilisant une approche sociologique interpretativiste, ce texte illustre la facon dont les significations de l’incapacite sont generes par un discours qui rends legitime la construction exclusive ainsi que les structures inaccessible de la vie universitaire. Dans ce texte, je demontre que l’acces n’est pas synonyme de justice mais, par contre, est un point de depart pour la reflexion critique ou les relations sociaux entre corps et espace peut etre considere a nouveau. Ce texte contribue aux etudes sur la condition des personnes handicapees informees par la sociologie en analysant la facon dont la narration ordinaire et quotidienne de l’incapacite peut continuer a, en meme temps que l’environnement physique change, agir comme pouvoir social qui reproduit le statuquo.

The Role of Foreign Credentials and Ethnic Ties in Immigrants’ Economic Performance

Abstract: The literature has identified foreign credential devaluations and the shifting origins of immigrants to non-European sources as two factors that explain why some immigrants earn more than others. This study uses data from the Ethnic Diversity Survey to see how foreign credentials affect immigrants’ earnings, and whether immigrants with disadvantaged foreign credentials may be able to use ethnic social capital to mitigate the negative effect. Substantial gross earnings disparities exist among immigrant men and women of different origins, but much difference is due to human capital variations and duration of work. The study produces three major findings. First, foreign credentials benefit majority member immigrants but penalize visible minority immigrants. Second, immigrant men and women who maintain weak ethnic ties earn more than their counterparts with strong ties, suggesting that the enabling capacity of social capital for immigrants has been overstated. Third, there is no evidence of ethnic social capital being able to mitigate the negative effect of a credential deficit.

The Perils of Institutionalization in Neoliberal Times: Results of a National Survey of Canadian Sexual Assault and Rape Crisis Centres

Abstract: This article reports on a national survey of Canadian rape crisis and sexual assault centres conducted in 2005. We situate our results in relation to feminist literature on the perils of institutionalization. We argue that institutionalization takes on new forms in the context of neoliberalism and we emphasize the resistance of centres to under-funding and to individualized victims’ services policy frameworks. Despite significant pressures to redefine as social service delivery agencies, Canadian centres continue to engage in social change activism and define themselves as specifically feminist/pro-woman/equality-seeking organizations. Our respondents vary significantly in size and resources, yet nearly all emphasize the significant obstacle of inadequate funding and all continue to rely heavily on the unpaid work of (usually women) volunteers to do more with less.

The Concept of Truth Regime

Abstract: . "Truth regime" is a much used but little theorized concept, with the Foucauldian literature presupposing that truth in modernity is uniformly scientific/ quasi-scientific and enhances power. I argue that the forms of truth characteristic of our present are wider than Foucault recognized, their relations to power more various, and their historicity more complex. The truth regime of advanced modernity is characterized by multiple, irreducible truth formulae that co-exist and sometimes vie for dominance. A truth formula stabilizes a network of elements: a relation between representation and presentation (words and things), truth and non-truth, and the place of the subject in discourse. Our contemporary truth regime comprises radically heterogeneous truthful knowledges--science, governance, religion/politics, and common culture--that have distinct histories and relations to power. Resume. L'expression > est un concept tres utilise mais a l'egard duquel peu de theories ont ete emises, les traits de Foucault supposant que la verite a l'epoque moderne est uniformement scientifique ou quasi scientifique et qu'elle donne plus de pouvoir. Je suis d'accord que les formes de verites qui sont caracteristiques de notre epoque sont plus larges que celles reconnues par Foucault, leurs relations au pouvoir plus nombreuses et leur historicite plus complexe. Le regime de la verite de la modernite avancee se caracterise par de multiples et irreductibles formules de verites qui coexistent et parfois rivalisent. Une formule de verite stabilise un reseau d'elements : une relation entre representation et presentation (mots et choses), la verite et la non verite et la place du sujet dans le discours. Notre regime de verite contemporain est compose de connaissances vraies radicalement heterogenes--science, gouvernance, religion/ politique et la culture commune--qui ont des histoires et des relations distinctes a l'egard du pouvoir. ********** Truth regime is a much-used but little theorized concept. A pithy phrase that Foucault (2000b) introduced in a single interview during 1976, "truth regime" appears to have been subsequently abandoned by him, only to be repeated by many others without further conceptualization. A more robust conceptualization of truth regime is needed to acknowledge that the truth practices of contemporary societies are more heterogeneous than Foucault's overemphasis on scientific and quasi-scientific truth in modernity. Contemporary forms of truth are wider than Foucault recognized, their relations to power more various, and their historicity more complex. Following the trajectory of Foucault's last work on the multiplicity of co-existing truth games in ancient Greece and Rome, I suggest that truth in modernity is not singular but multiple in its types, which I term "truth formulae." Truth formulae stabilize a relation across a set of elements: between representation and presentation--words and things as Foucault put it in The Order of Things (1989b [1966]), truth and non-truth, and the place of the subject--both the enunciatory (s/he who may speak truth) and the enunciated (the subject within the text). Power is not an intrinsic criterion of truth formulae; rather, truth formulae acquire effects of power through their attachment to specific dispositifs (power apparatuses such as discipline and sexuality) in a truth regime. Truth formulae in contemporary societies have variable relations with power rather than the single function of assisting power. I take "truth regime" as a "general politics of truth" in the sense Foucault (2000b:131; 1994a:158) first proposed: "Each society has its regime of truth, its 'general politics' of truth--that is, the types of discourse it accepts and makes function as true." Foucault sketched several criteria of truth regimes: techniques that separate true and false statements; how true and false are sanctioned; the status given those who speak that which is recognized as truth. …

Family structure histories and high school completion: Evidence from a population based registry.

Abstract: The purpose of this paper was to use a life course approach to investigate the association between family structure histories and high school completion. Using data from a population-based data registry for the 1984 Manitoba birth cohort, we selected a sample of children born or adopted at birth into a married or cohabiting two-parent household (n = 9,493) and derived family structure histories for each child up until the age of 18. Marital disruption occurred for 1,876 children (19.8%), with 531 children (5.6%) of the total sample experiencing multiple changes in family structure. Logistic regression models showed that children who experienced marital disruption before the age of 18 were significantly less likely to complete high school than children in intact households, and that children who were younger at the time of a first change in marital status were more vulnerable than children who were older when their parents’ marriage ended. Further work is needed to elucidate the pathways that link family structure histories to child outcomes.

“I really didn’t have any problems with the male-female thing until …”: Successful Women’s Experiences in IT Organizations

Abstract: The gendered nature of organizations limits women’s opportunities for advancement. While women have made inroads into many male-dominated jobs, studies suggest they can be marginalized within masculine workplace cultures. In this paper, we examine the experiences of eleven women who have had successful careers in the male-dominated information technology field, to explore their perceptions of the barriers and opportunities women face. We find that our respondents have a tendency to downplay the significance of gender, even as they provide evidence that gender has shaped their careers. We argue that their reluctance to see how gender conditions women’s careers, combined with the technical nature of their field, may have facilitated their success, even though these factors serve as barriers for other women, and prevent meaningful change.

Radical Neoliberalism in British Columbia: Remaking Rural Geographies

Abstract: Radical Neoliberalism in British Columbia: Remaking Rural Geographies Abstract Abstract. This paper argues that rural regions of British Columbia, Canada, are currently the subject of a radical political-economic experiment dismantling traditional Fordist and Keynesian approaches to economic development and replacing them with neoliberal strategies. This experiment targets both corporate resource economies and local or community-based economies. The paper argues that current reforms aim to enhance flexibility in major resource sectors (particularly in forestry) by “liberating” corporate actors from traditional obligations to environment, labour, and communities. This strategy is buttressed by concurrent reforms to community development policies to promote “entrepreneurial” forms of development that (it is assumed) can be achieved independently of the dominant resource economy. Using field research from several case communities in coastal British Columbia, the paper argues that these developments are having a strong impact on traditional economic structures and practices, as neoliberal reforms seek to disaggregate corporate and community-level economies. Resume. Cet article propose que les regions rurales de la Colombie Britannique, sont presentement le sujet d’une experience politique radicale qui comprend le demantelement des institutions et strategies de developpement economique fordistes et keynesiennes traditionnelles et leur remplacement par des approches neoliberales. Cette experience cible les economies industrielles (basees sur les ressources naturels) comme les economies locales des communautes rurales. Cet article propose que la strategie neoliberale naissante vise d’abord a liberer les grandes entreprises impliquees dans l’extraction de ressources naturelles de leurs obligations traditionnelles envers l’environnement, la main-d’oeuvre, et les communautes rurales. Cette strategie est etayee par des reformes simultanees des politiques de developpement communautaires qui favorisent l’entrepreneurial, en independance supposee de l’economie existante domines par les ressources naturelles. Fonde sur une recherche de terrain dans plusieurs communautes cotieres en Colombie Britannique, cet article propose que l’experience neoliberale a un effet important sur les structures et les pratiques economiques traditionnelles, en ce qu’elle tente de desagreger les economies industrielles et communautaires dans les regions rurales de la province.

Why doesn't Canada have an American-style Christian Right? A Comparative Framework for Analyzing the Political Effects of Evangelical Subcultural Identity

Abstract: Political commentators have asked if Canada could see the rise of an American-style “Culture War,” where evangelical Protestants are rallied by moral issues to support the Conservative party. This paper argues that even though Canadian evangelicals are just as morally conservative as American evangelicals, they work from very different understandings about the relationship between religious morality and national identity. We predict that rank-and-file Canadian evangelicals will be less responsive to political mobilization around moral issues because they construct their subcultural identity differently than American evangelicals. This paper uses a multimethod strategy to analyze the political impact of evangelical subcultural identity, a cultural mechanism that mediates the political effects of moral attitudes. We illustrate this multidimensional concept of subcultural identity through survey data, in-depth interviews, and comparative-historical data. This comparative framework for studying subcultural identity helps explain why the content of evangelical Protestant morality becomes linked to political behaviour in some national contexts and historical periods but not others. Resume. Les commentateurs politiques se sont demande si le canada pouvait voir l’emergence d’une « Guerre culturelle » de type americain, qui verrait les Protestants evangeliques soutenir le parti conservateur sur la base de questions morales. Dans cet article, nous soutenons que bien que les evangeliques canadiens soient tout aussi conservateur sur le plan moral que les evangeliques americains, ils comprennent de facon tres differente la relation entre morale religieuse et identite nationale. Nous predisons que la base des evangeliques canadiens est peu susceptible de repondre a une mobilisation politique sur des questions morales, parce que son identite sous-culturelle est construite differemment de celle des evangeliques americains. Cet article mets en œuvre des methodes croisees pour analyser l’impact politique de la sous culture evangelique, comprise comme un mecanisme culturel qui influence l’effet politique de dispositions morales. Nous illustrons le concept multidimensionnel d’identite sous-culturelle en mobilisant des donnees quantitatives, des entretiens approfondis, et des donnees historiques comparatives. Une utilisation comparative du cadre de l’identite sous culturelle permet d’expliquer pourquoi le contenu de la morale evangelique protestante n’affecte les comportements politiques que dans certains contextes nationaux et periodes historiques.

Integration Economique Des Nouveaux Immigrants: Adequation Entre L'emploi Occupe Avant L'arrivee Au Quebec et Les Emplois Occupes Depuis L'immigration

Abstract: Resume. Le manque de reconnaissance des titres de competences acquis a l’etranger par les employeurs canadiens est l’une des causes souvent citees pour expliquer l’augmentation de la disparite salariale entre immigrants et non-immigrants au Canada. Le but de la presente etude est d’analyser le lien entre le domaine de l’emploi principal occupe par les immigrants avant leur arrivee et les emplois qu’ils ont occupes en debut d’etablissement, ainsi que l’effet net d’une adequation des emplois sur le revenu des immigrants recents. Les donnees proviennent de l’enquete longitudinale sur l’etablissement des nouveaux immigrants (ENI), laquelle retrace le parcours d’une cohorte d’immigrants arrives en 1989. Les resultats suggerent que la plupart des immigrants recents ne se trouvent pas un emploi dans leur domaine; par ailleurs, se trouver un emploi dans son domaine mene a un salaire plus eleve. Abstract. One of the reasons often provided for the salary gap between immigrants and native-born Canadians is the difficulty experienced by many immigrants in securing recognition for skills acquired overseas. In this paper, we examine the extent to which, after arrival, immigrants find jobs in the same occupations in which they were employed in their home countries. We also examine the effect on earnings of a match between the pre- and post-immigration occupations. The data come from the longitudinal survey “Etablissement des nouveaux immigrants” which followed a cohort of immigrants who arrived in 1989. Our results suggest that most recent immigrants move into a new occupation when they arrive in Canada and that those whose pre- and post-immigration occupations match tend to earn more.

Considering Complexity: Toward A Strategy for Non-linear Analysis

Abstract: This paper sets out an agenda for a post-normal sociology that revolves around acknowledging complexity, accommodating paradoxicality as a standpoint and engaging paradox. Four major interpretations of complexity are reviewed and it is argued that complexity invokes paradoxicality for sociologists that needs to be accommodated, but in a manner that facilitates engaging paradox. Paradoxicality is developed from Bateson’s model of communication and illustrated by showing how paradox occurs 1) in everyday life; 2) as a matter for investigation in sociology; and how it has affected the 3) construction and 4) justification of knowledge—the latter leading to a reflexive accommodation to paradoxicality. Drawing on the work of the critical realists and Maruyama, the paper then proposes ontological, epistemological and methodological elements for a strategy appropriate to complex systems based on a technique involving positive and negative feedback loops.

Taking a life Course Perspective on Social Assistance use in Canada: A different approach

Abstract: In this paper we argue that a life course perspective on social assistance use in Canada can offer a more nuanced theoretical understanding of both individuals’ experiences and the importance of social structure, than more traditional sociological or economic approaches to welfare use. We also propose that examining social assistance use in this way does not require longitudinal quantitative or qualitative data, as is sometimes suggested, but that cross-sectional quantitative and qualitative data can be interpreted through a life course lens. We demonstrate this by examining the covariates of social assistance receipt using cross-sectional quantitative data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, and by analysing qualitative interviews with recipients about the process of beginning and barriers to ending benefit receipt. These analyses show not only how the cross-sectional data can easily be considered from the perspective of the life course, but also how this perspective provides a more satisfactory understanding of how social assistance polices can be thought of as both providing resources that are important in individual decision-making and as shaping lives. Resume d’article Dans cet article, nous montrerons que le paradigme du parcours de vie sur le bien etre social au Canada peut offrir une comprehension theorique plus nuancee des experiences des individus avec ces programmes qu’une approche traditionnelle sociologique et economique face a l’usage du bien etre social, tout en reliant cet usage a de plus larges structures sociales. Nous proposons aussi qu’examiner l’assistance sociale de cette facon ne requiert pas de donnees longitudinales quantitatives ou qualitatives, tel qu’il l’est parfois suggere, mais que des donnees quantitatives et qualitatives qui se croisent peuvent etre interpretees a travers la loupe de la duree d’une vie. Nous demontrons ceci en examinant les covariantes de la reception a l’assistance sociale, covariantes agencees en se servant des donnees quantitatives sectionnelles tirees du Enquete sur la dynamique du travail et du revenu (EDTR) et en analysant les interviews qualitatives des beneficiaires a propos de leurs demarches initiales et leurs obstacles jusqu’a la reception finale de leurs benefices. Ces analyses montrent non seulement que des donnees sectionnelles qui se croisent peuvent etre facilement considerees du point de vue de la perspective du cours d’une vie, mais aussi comment cette perspective fournit une comprehension plus satisfaisante de la facon dont on peut voir la double importance des politiques qui offrent des ressources aux individus et qui changent leur vie.

Men, appearance, and cosmetic surgery: The role of confidence, self-esteem, and comfort with the body

Abstract: Recent research has suggested that perceptions of the body are important to men’s sense of confidence and that men see the body as a vehicle for personal improvement. To build on this research, an online survey investigated Canadian men’s perspectives on their appearance and their attitudes toward cosmetic surgery. Low self-esteem, lack of confidence, and comfort with one’s body uniquely predicted different aspects of men’s experiences, including attitudes about body shape, perceptions of others, pressures to lose weight, and perspectives regarding cosmetic surgery. For example, participants who were more comfortable with their bodies and higher in self-esteem were happier with their current body shape and features, whereas participants who were less comfortable with their bodies and lower in confidence put more pressure on themselves to lose weight. In addition, lower confidence significantly predicted willingness to undergo cosmetic surgery. Men’s perspectives on cosmetic surgery were thematically analyzed. These findings are situated within identity theory and sociology of the body.

Balancing Work and Family in Canada - An Empirical Examination of Conceptualizations and Measurements

Abstract: The issue of work and family balance has been on the agenda of many governmental and non-governmental organizations in recent years and has led to the adoption of various policies. However, combining work and family responsibilities remains a challenge for many parents. In this paper, we examine the work-family conflict experienced by Canadian working parents. For the purpose of this paper, work-family conflict is conceptualized as the time-related stress arising from the competing demands of the different roles imposed on working parents. Our objective is three-fold. First, we take a critical look at how time stress has been conceptualized and measured in previous studies. Using data from the 2005 Canadian General Social Survey on time use, we suggest an alternative multi-item scale. Second, we examine the impact of different predictors on parents' time stress, paying special attention to the impact of work-related factors. Finally, we discuss the impact of provincial variations in family policy on parents' time stress. Although Quebec has introduced a number of family-oriented policies, we do not find evidence that these policies have resulted in less time stress for working parents in Quebec. La balance entre le travail et la famille est un sujet qui a ete present sur l’agenda de plusieurs gouvernements et organisations non-gouvernementales au cours des dernieres annees et qui a donne lieu a l’adoption de diverses politiques. Cependant, la combinaison des responsabilites reliees au travail et a la famille demeure un defi pour de nombreux parents. Dans ce papier, nous examinons le stress temporel (time stress) vecu par les parents Canadiens qui ont un emploi remunere. Notre objectif est triple. Premierement, nous portons un regard critique sur la facon dont le stress temporel a ete conceptualise et mesure dans les etudes anterieures. Sur la base des donnees de l’enquete canadienne generale sur l’emploi du temps de 2005, nous suggerons une echelle multi-items. Deuxiemement, nous examinons l’impact de differentes variables sur le stress temporel des parents tout en portant une attention toute speciale sur les variables reliees au travail. Finalement, nous discutons de l’impact des variations provinciales en matiere de politique familiale sur le stress temporel des parents. Bien que le Quebec ait introduit un nombre de politiques reliees a la famille, nous n’obtenons pas de resultats qui suggerent que ces politiques ont reduit le stress temporel pour les parents quebecois qui ont un emploi.

Educational Homogamy of Married and Unmarried Couples in English and French Canada

Abstract: This study investigates the relative similarity of educational assortative mating patterns among young married and cohabiting couples using Canadian census data from 1991, 1996, and 2001. It contrasts the patterns observed in Quebec with those observed elsewhere in Canada, as these regions display very different demographic trends, especially with respect to cohabitation. First, we hypothesize that the gap between married and unmarried couples will be smaller in Quebec, as cohabitation is more common in this province. Second, we suggest that the double-selection hypothesis predicting higher educational homogamy among married couples should be more appropriate to explain the behaviours observed in Canada outside of Quebec, whereas the utilitarian theory predicting higher educational homogamy among cohabiting couples should apply better to the French province situation. The results fully support our first hypothesis. However, the analyses do not unambiguously confirm our second hypothesis concerning the direction of the differences. Even though we find that married couples living outside of Quebec generally display higher levels of educational homogamy than cohabiting partners, no clear trend is observed in Quebec. In addition, our data do not reveal any clear change over the period considered. Resume. Cet article examine le degre d’homogamie educative des jeunes couples maries et en union libre a partir des donnees du recensement canadien de 2001. Il compare les comportements des couples quebecois a ceux observes ailleurs au Canada, compte tenu de l’evolution differente qu’ont connue ces deux regions, particulierement en regard des unions libres. Dans un premier temps, nous faisons l’hypothese que l’ecart entre couples maries et cohabitants sera plus faible au Quebec, l’union libre etant plus repandue dans cette province. En deuxieme lieu, nous suggerons que l’hypothese de la «double-selection» predisant un plus haut niveau d’homogamie educative chez les couples maries est plus appropriee pour rendre compte des comportements observes au Canada en dehors du Quebec, alors que la theorie utilitariste predisant une homogamie educative plus grande parmi les couples en union libre colle davantage a la situation de la province francophone. Les resultats de l’analyse ne confirment pas nos hypotheses. L’ecart qui separe mariage et union libre est relativement semblable dans les deux regions du pays et les couples cohabitants affichent dans l’ensemble un niveau d’homogamie plus faible que leurs homologues maries.

A Canadian Exception to the Punitive Turn? Community Responses to Policing Practices in Winnipeg’s Inner City

Abstract: While criminologists have made the case that a “punitive turn,” spurred on by penal populism, is being witnessed in several Western countries, some have argued that Canada is the exception to this trend. But recent developments in Winnipeg, Manitoba suggest that a made-in-America crime control strategy—zero-tolerance policing—has been imported into the Winnipeg context to combat the pressing problems of drugs, gangs, and violence in inner-city communities. Can this development be interpreted as evidence of a punitive turn? Has penal populism found its way into a Canadian jurisdiction? Drawing on interviews with inner-city residents, businesspeople, and community workers, we show that people in Winnipeg’s inner city have a sophisticated understanding of the causes of social problems in their neighbourhoods and a very clear vision of what they believe the role of police in the inner city should be: one in which the police work with the community as part of a wider effort of community mobilization. These findings do not support the view that Winnipeg is a Canadian exception to the punitive turn. Rather, they suggest the presence of community resistance to aggressive “get tough” strategies of crime control, and of the potential to fashion radically different solutions to the complex problems confronting inner-city communities. Resume. Bien que les criminologues aient etabli le bien-fonde qu’un «virage punitif», incite par un populisme penal, se manifeste dans plusieurs pays occidentaux, certains pretendent que le Canada fait exception a cette tendance. Or, les recents developpements a Winnipeg, au Manitoba, portent a croire qu’une strategie americaine de lutte contre le crime, c’est-a-dire un maintien de l’ordre avec tolerance zero, a ete importee a Winnipeg pour regler les problemes pressants de drogues, de gangs de rue et de violence dans les communautes des quartiers centraux de la ville. Ce developpement peut-il etre interprete comme preuve d’un virage punitif? Le populisme penal est-il entre dans la juridiction canadienne? A partir d’entrevues avec des residents, des gens d’affaires et des travailleurs des communautes des quartiers centraux, nous demontrons que les habitants de ces quartiers de Winnipeg comprennent bien les causes des problemes sociaux qui y existent et qu’ils ont une vision tres claire de ce que le role de la police devrait etre dans ces quartiers, a savoir que la police devrait travailler avec la communaute dans le cadre d’une mobilisation communautaire plus large. Ces conclusions ne prouvent pas que Winnipeg soit l’exception canadienne au virage punitif. Au contraire, elles suggerent la presence d’une resistance communautaire aux strategies disciplinaires agressives de lutte contre le crime et la possibilite d’arriver a des solutions tout a fait differentes aux problemes complexes auxquels les communautes des quartiers centraux des villes font face.

Distorted universality — internationalization and its implications for the epistemological foundations of the discipline

Abstract: In recent years, the articulation between the common core of the discipline and its local manifestations has become increasingly problematic. It might seem paradoxical that calls for more local sociologies appear at the very time of globalization. However, I argue that this double move — the internationalization of the scholarly community on the one hand and the localization of specific claims on the other — is not as ironic as it first appears. On the contrary, it has its foundations in the very history of the discipline, in the realities of its worldwide spreading, and in the forms of its international constitution that are marked by hierarchies and inequalities, especially with regard to South-North-relations. Resume. Recemment, l’articulation entre le corpus commun de la discipline d’un cote et ses manifestations locales de l’autre cote se trouve remise en question. Il peut paraitre paradoxal que les revendications de sociologies plus « locales » emergent simultanement au processus de mondialisation. Toutefois, j’argumenterai que ce double mouvement vers l’internationalisation de la communaute scientifique d’un cote, et la localisation de ses realisations specifiques de l’autre cote, n’est pas aussi ironique que cela puisse paraitre a premiere vue. Au contraire, il semble que ces developpements recents trouvent leur origine dans l’histoire meme de la discipline, dans les realites de son expansion globale et dans les formes de sa constitution internationale qui sont marquees par des hierarchies et des inegalites profondes, surtout en ce qui concerne les relations Sud-Nord.

Sociology of Competition

Abstract: So much suffering and misery has accrued to humankind from discord and fighting that it was possible for the ideal of the pax hominibus to develop as the acme of human existence. For when we evaluate one element of life, we almost inevitably apply it to the whole; and we are hard put to acknowledge the completely opposing meanings that can be attributed to one and the same thing, depending on its extent, its utility, and its efficacy in conjunction with other elements. For the ideal of peace is repudiated not only by those who by their very nature enjoy fighting, and who see in conflict a definitive and self-justifying value; nor only by the psychologist who recognizes in fighting the manifestation of irrepressible drives, and thus an indispensable element of mental life in all its grandeur and beauty; but also by the sociologist for whom a group that simply harmoniously attracts its members to a centre would be nothing more than an "association," not only empirically unreal, but also lacking any genuine life process. The society of saints whom Dante beholds in the rose of paradise may conduct itself in such a way, but it is also devoid of any change and development; while, on the other hand, the holy assembly of the Church Fathers in Raphael's Disputa presents itself, if not as engaged in actual fighting, at least as comprising considerable differences of attitudes and orientations, from which springs all of the vibrancy and the real organic coherence of that gathering. Just as the cosmos needs "love and hate," forces of attraction and repulsion, in order to arrive at a form, so too society needs a particular quantitative relationship of harmony and disharmony, association and competition, favour and disfavour, in order to take shape in a specific way. These dichotomies are in no way simply sociological liabilities, negative forces, such that the definitive, real society comes about only as the result of other and positive social forces, and indeed only to the extent to which the negative ones do not inhibit it. This widespread view is quite superficial. Society, as given, is the result of both types of interactions, which in this respect both appear completely positive. In reality, what appears to be negative and injurious between individuals, if viewed in a certain perspective and in isolation, need not have the same effect within the totality of the relationship; for here, in conjunction with other interactions that are not immediately affected by it, a new image arises in which, after subtracting what has been destroyed in terms of unique relationships, the negative and dualistic elements play a decidedly positive role. Certainly, a richer and fuller communal life would not always result if the repulsive and (as they appear in isolation) even destructive energies in it were to disappear--as more valuable assets, unchanged in quality, would result if the negative entries on the ledger were to drop out--but rather, there would be just as altered, and often just as impracticable, an image as would be the case if the forces of cooperation and [page break in the German original: 1009-1010] attraction, of mutual aid and harmony of interests, were to cease to exist. To demonstrate how fighting is woven into the web of social life, how it is a particular manner of interaction influencing the unity of society, which is nothing but a sum of interactions--that is what these observations are intended to explain for a peculiar form of fighting: for competition [Simmel's paragraph]. First of all, a definitive aspect of the sociological essence of competition is that it is an indirect form of fighting. Whoever injures his competitor directly, or gets rid of him, no longer competes with him. Everyday language use generally restricts the use of this word to fights that consist in the parallel efforts of both parties focused on the one identical prize to be gained in the fight. The differences in comparison to other forms of fighting can be described in detail as follows. …

Understanding the Funding Game: The TextualCoordination of Civil Sector Work

Abstract: . This paper investigates how people’s work for non-profit organizations, charities, grassroots collectives, and social justice organizations is organized by official funding processes. In my analysis, I attend to the different kinds of text-based knowledge that coordinate people’s work across the civil sector. Engaging in discussions with participants about their work, I discover how an individual’s ordinary documentary activities are articulated to institutional relations of accountability. Attending to text-driven accountability practices — practices increasingly taken up to justify and carry out all kinds of work in the civil sector — I investigate the ideological organization of people’s work via the policy documents and textual application procedures of the Revenue Canada tax act with regard to Charitable Status and the Ontario Trillium Foundation funding application process. Resume. Cette communication s’interesse aux personnes qui travaillent dans le milieu qui regroupe les organismes a but non-lucratif, les oeuvres de bienfaisance, les collectifs communautaires et les organismes en justice sociale, du point de vue de l’impact exerce sur leur travail par le processus des demandes de financement officiel. Dans mon analyse, je m’attarde a la maniere par laquelle une diversite de savoirs textuels vient coordonner ce travail dans l’ensemble du secteur civil. Au moyen de discussions avec participants au sujet de leur travail, je decouvre comment les activites normales de documentation qu’effectuent ces individus sont liees a des relations institutionnelles d’obligation de rendre compte. En m’attardant a la primaute du texte vis-a-vis ces comportements d’obligation de rendre compte — comportements qui de plus en plus servent de justification a une gamme importante de fonctions dans le secteur civil — j’enquete sur l’organisation ideologique du travail en question via les documents de politique et de procedure d’application textuelle de la loi de Revenu Canada portant sur le statut caritatif et sur les demarches de demande de soutiel de la Fondation Trillium de l’ Ontario.

Political Affiliation of Canadian Professors

Abstract: The social role of universities has been subject to a lengthy debate as to whether those who teach in the academy are system legitimizing conservatives or radicals helping to generate critical thinking and challenge to the status quo Despite this controversy, neoconservatives in the US have used the evidence of professors’ strong support for the Democratic candidates as an indication of universities being dominated by left-leaning radicals The aim of this paper is to evaluate political affiliations of Canadian university professors, based on a national survey conducted in 2000 The study shows that Canadian professors’ political affiliation can be identified as left and/or right depending on how we conceptualize the political orientation of political parties Although, university professors tended to vote to the Liberal Party more than other parties, they themselves are more likely to view this party as a centrist party Moreover, the study highlights a complex and non-monolithic picture of the Canadian academy University professors are not politically homogenous but that their party vote depends on the prestige of their university, their discipline, gender, ethnicity, marital status, generation and extent of their own liberalism Resume Le role social des universites fait depuis longtemps l’objet d’un debat sur l’orientation politique des professeurs : sont-ils des conservateurs qui legitiment le statu quo, ou des radicaux qui aident a creer une pensee critique qui le conteste? Le but du present article est d’evaluer les affiliations politiques des professeurs canadiens telles qu’elles se degagent d’un sondage national effectue en 2000 L’etude montre que leur affiliation politique peut etre decrite comme de gauche ou de droite, selon la conception qu’on a de l’orientation des partis politiques Ils votent plus souvent pour les Liberaux que pour d’autres partis, les voyant comme un parti du centre D’ailleurs, l’etude donne des universites canadiennes un tableau complexe et nullement monolithique Les professeurs n’ont pas de vues homogenes, ils votent en partie selon le prestige de leur universite, leur discipline, leur sexe, leurs antecedents ethniques, leur situation de famille, leur âge et leur attitude envers le liberalisme

Understanding Then Funding Game the Textual Coordination of Civil Sector Work

Abstract: . This paper investigates how people's work for non-profit organizations, charities, grassroots collectives, and social justice organizations is organized by official funding processes. In my analysis, I attend to the different kinds of text-based knowledge that coordinate people's work across the civil sector. Engaging in discussions with participants about their work, I discover how an individual's ordinary documentary activities are articulated to institutional relations of accountability. Attending to text-driven accountability practices--practices increasingly taken up to justify and carry out all kinds of work in the civil sector--I investigate the ideological organization of people's work via the policy documents and textual application procedures of the Revenue Canada tax act with regard to Charitable Status and the Ontario Trillium Foundation funding application process. Resume. Cette communication s'interesse aux personnes qui travaillent dans le milieu qui regroupe les organismes a but non-lucratif, les oeuvres de bienfaisance, les collectifs communautaires et les organismes en justice sociale, du point de vue de l'impact exerce sur leur travail par le processus des demandes de financement officiel. Dans mon analyse, je m'attarde a la maniere par laquelle une diversite de savoirs textuels vient coordonner ce travail dans l'ensemble du secteur civil. Au moyen de discussions avec participants au sujet de leur travail, je decouvre comment les activites normales de documentation qu'effectuent ces individus sont liees a des relations institutionnelles d'obligation de rendre compte. En m'attardant a la primaute du texte vis-a-vis ces comportements d'obligation de rendre compte--comportements qui de plus en plus servent de justification a une gamme importante de fonctions dans le secteur civil--j'enquete sur l'organisation ideologique du travail en question via les documents de politique et de procedure d'application textuelle de la loi de Revenu Canada portant sur le statut caritatif et sur les demarches de demande de soutiel de la Fondation Trillium de l' Ontario. INTRODUCTION This paper investigates how people's work for non-profit organizations, charities, grassroots collectives, and social justice organizations is organized by official funding processes. It illustrates how a person's knowledge about her or his work can differ from the institutional accounts of this work that are produced to fund or officially define it. An individual working for a charity; a grantee working for a granting foundation; a member of the city council; and someone doing grassroots advocacy--each has a different orientation to particular kinds of work. They produce and interact with different (and differently authorized) knowledge about particular work activities. Thus, any one individual may conduct her or his work against a sometimes contradictory backdrop of knowledge. Throughout this study, I have also investigated activism as a relation through which people's work processes are organized and understood. Activist work engages active processes of transformation within the "institutional complex of relations" (Smith 2005)--the very bureaucratic and administrative relations of the state against which some activist work struggles. In this article, I explore how people's work is connected to texts--official policies and practices--that are increasingly used to justify and carry out different kinds of civil sector work. In analyzing these texts, I investigate activism as an organizing schema through which the texts are experienced. The ideological coordination of this work can be seen by examining the policy documents and textual application procedures of the Revenue Canada tax act, with regard to Charitable Status, and Ontario funding application processes as people use and refer to them in their everyday work. In their investigation of Canada's health care reforms, Rankin and Campbell (2006) concentrate on health care work shaped by the new public management--an approach to managing included in the restructuring of Canada's public sector (McCoy 1998 in Rankin and Campbell 2006). …

Capitalist Origins, the Advent of Modernity, and Coherent Explanation: A Response to Joseph M. Bryant

Abstract: For many decades, there has been a "standard story" of the rise of the West. At some point after 1000 AD--whether it was with the medieval commercial expansion; or the early Renaissance rediscovery of ancient Greek thought; or the continental trade expansion based on the Hanseatic league, Champagne fairs, Bruges cloth trade, and Italian banking and Mediterranean trade; or the seafaring ventures of the Portuguese and Spanish; or the Reformation--not much later than 1500, "the West" developed a new dynamic institutional and cultural framework that began to lift it out of its post-Roman Empire torpor, and launched it on the path to modernity. Industrialization came as a later outgrowth of this earlier shift to capitalism or modernity, but it was a natural outgrowth of the earlier dynamism of Europe. This contrasted with institutional and cultural stagnation in the major civilizations of Asia--the Ottomans, India, China, and Japan--such that an increasingly advanced Europe was able to dominate and colonize Asian societies in the 18th and 19th centuries. Against this view, a number of historians and historical sociologists of which I am one, and which I have identified as the "California School," have argued that whatever their institutional and cultural differences, there was in fact no significant divergence of material living standards in Europe from those in the advanced Asian societies until much later, c. 1800. (2) Despite the very different cultural and institutional frameworks of the major European states, the Ottoman Empire, and China, which admittedly took different approaches to governance, religion, and political organization, we argue that they nonetheless shared very similar overall political and economic dynamics until about 1850. The only exception is Great Britain, which, starting in the 18th century, embarked on a peculiar path of unique industrial innovations that gave birth to a modern world, which was quickly imitated and built upon by other European states and the United States in the 19th century, before spreading to the rest of the world in the later 19th and 20th centuries. Moreover, this peculiar British move to industrial innovation was not simply an outgrowth of broad European patterns of culture and institutions, but a contingent outcome of conditions that happened to come together in Britain in a way that did not happen elsewhere, and very conceivably would not have happened in Britain either if it had followed a "typical" European trajectory. Joseph Bryant objects to this revisionist story as both "empirically suspect" and "analytically incoherent." It is neither; rather Bryant misunderstands the argument. What Bryant does exceptionally well is identify why the debate is significant, what evidence is crucial, and which elements of the California School causal story are suspect. It is thus with great respect for his essay that I respond. Bryant states that the revisionists claim that "the major societies across Eurasia were all progressing along a comparable course of modernizing development" (p. 403). This is incorrect. Rather, the revisionist claim is that none of the major societies across Eurasia, including Europe, were progressing along a course of modernizing development. From 1500-1800 the major states of Europe, China, India, and the Ottoman Empire were all experiencing a similar course of advanced organic development, with absolutist bureaucratic states, highly productive agriculture, a sophisticated urban culture, and extensive long-distance trade in both luxuries and daily necessities. They all experienced periods of demographic expansion, price increases, and trade expansion from 1500-1850, interrupted by political and economic crises in the periods 1590-1660 and again from 1770-1850. Yet in all of them, the material standard of living c. 1800 was no greater than it had been c. 1500; no effect of cultural or institutional dynamics leading to a materially superior civilization in the West is evident. …

A New Sociology for a New History? Further Critical Thoughts on the Eurasian Similarity and Great Divergence Theses

Abstract: In "The West and the Rest Revisited" (2006), I offered a critical assessment--theoretical as well as substantive--of recent revisionist scholarship that rejects standard explanatory accounts of the rise of the European powers to global dominance in the early modern period. (2) While differing on select points of interpretation, revisionists are in broad agreement on two fundamental claims: (a) the "advanced organic societies" across Eurasia were following comparable developmental paths, and (b) the European breakthrough to hegemonic ascendancy was both late and fortuitous, decisively facilitated by energy and resource contingencies rather than endogenous developments. Neither postulate is compelling, either as sociology or as history. To subscribe to the revisionist narrative requires the unwarranted relegation of two securely established analytical principles: that social formations are pervasively integrated and interdependent structures of institutional and cultural configuration; and that the historical processes variably reproducing and transforming those structures are not random or irregular, but unfold in path-dependent sequences that give rise to catenated trajectories of varying temporal duration. A viable historical social science is one that attends, connectively, to the dynamically coinciding "dual logics" of the sociological and the historical--a slighting of either, or both, will invariably skew or subvert the proffered analysis. According to proponents of the "Eurasian Similarity thesis," the leading powers of the early modern period--Ming and Manchu China, Tokugawa Japan, Mughal India, the Ottomans and Safavids, and the western Europeans--were all functioning on the basis of fundamental comparabilities in productivity, living standards, commercial vitality, urban dynamism, and knowledge systems. But even on the intensely contested assumption that these novel empirical claims of equivalencies are plausible, the revisionist optic fatally marginalizes all the many institutional and cultural differences--in political structures, modes of war-making, legal juridical arrangements, educational systems, kinship patterns, rural-urban interdependencies, class and status hierarchies, regnant worldviews, technological skill-levels, scientific comprehension of natural processes, etc. - that bore directly and indirectly upon the growing capacity of the European powers to establish coercive relations of dominance over much of the globe, beginning with limited ventures in mercantile brigandage at the end of the 15th century and continuing on to full-blown imperialism and colonization in centuries thereafter. As a comparative strategy for world history, a removal or displacement of the most centrally constitutive variables of social life not only injudiciously narrows and tilts our explanatory focus, it issues in highly misleading assimilations of societies that were keyed to profoundly differing institutional and cultural specifications. Revisionists accomplish this conflation by shifting their focus to a level of abstraction that is higher-order, yet more restricted in content In preference to the established multi-dimensional classifications (feudal, patrimonial, tributary, bureaucratic prebendalism, bourgeois-capitalist, proto-industrial, etc.), revisionists subsume all the major Eurasian powers under the arching rubric of "advanced organic societies," a one-dimensional categorization that indexes a common reliance on biomass resources and animal muscle-power that prevailed prior to any significant exploitation of fossil fuels. The energy factor, indisputably important, is thereby incautiously inflated to yield a new, coal-based binary of the "before" and "after" kind, which yields a reductive comparative sociology lacking in institutional and cultural concreteness. (3) On the premise that purported East-West differences in social organization have been overdrawn, and that "surprising similarities" were holding across Eurasia up to c. …

Religion, Politics, and Suicide Bombing: An Interpretive Essay

Abstract: In memory of Baruch Kimmerling (1939-2007) Lord Clifford: The smallest worm will turn being trodden on, And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood King Henry VI Full well hath Clifford play'd the orator, Inferring arguments of mighty force But, Clifford, tell me, didst thou never hear That things ill-got had ever bad success? --William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3 RELIGION VS POLITICS One of the most difficult questions for students of fundamentalist Islam is whether willingness to support practices such as suicide bombing is motivated mainly by religious or political principles Given that Islamic law does not distinguish between matters of state and religion--jurists are also theologians--the easy answer is that it is motivated by both But that is not an answer which many analysts have favoured, partly because it glosses over important strategic issues that are closely bound up with whether one gives greater weight to religion or politics as the prime mover Consider the clash of civilizations thesis Samuel Huntington (1996) argues that religious differences define the major conflicts of our era Not all of these conflicts are so deeply rooted as to be intractable, but some of them are sufficiently obdurate that their resolution may require force Characteristically, five years after the American invasion of Afghanistan and three years after the second American invasion of Iraq, Bernard Lewis, who coined the term "clash of civilizations" before Huntington popularized it, lamented that "we seem to be in the mode of Chamberlain and Munich rather than of Churchill" (Lewis 2006)' In contrast, critics of the clash of civilizations thesis argue that, irrespective of their religious trappings, differences between Islamic and Western civilizations are largely political, and therefore subject to rational discourse, cost-benefit analysis, negotiation, and compromise (Hunter 1998) One's view of what predominates--religion or politics--is thus correlated with one's sense of what must be done to resolve the so-called clash of civilizations Why is force presumably more likely to be needed to control intensely religious opponents? Because religion is based more on faith than on reason, and extremist religious beliefs are therefore relatively impervious to the kind of rational discourse and considered compromise that politics often affords (Toft 2007:100-1, 106-7) An important debate that has recently been initiated about the nature of suicide bombing illustrates the point Robert Pape and others hold that suicide bombing is a rational political tactic because it is typically employed with considerable success to reach a realistic goal that other methods have failed to achieve: the liberation of occupied national territory (Pape 2005; 2007) It follows that if the problem of foreign occupation is adequately addressed, suicide bombings will become less frequent Assaf Moghaddam, among others, contests Pape's view Moghaddam holds that the suicide attacks typical of Muslim fundamentalist organizations, especially since 2001, are motivated mainly by religious impulses that have little in common with the desire to liberate occupied territory and much to do with the religious ambition to establish a caliphate In his words, by adopting a narrow view of al Qaeda as an entity engaged primarily in a struggle to end "foreign occupation," Pape fails to take account of the fundamentally religious long-term mission of the group--to wage a cosmic struggle against an unholy alliance of Christians and Jews, which prevents the entity from establishing an Islamic caliphate over as large a territory as possible (Moghaddam 2006:716) In Moghaddam's view, Islamic fundamentalists are religious fanatics--and, by implication, the West therefore enjoys relatively little room for political manoeuvre and must instead resort to coercive force to eliminate the threat …

The Environment and a Globalizing Sociology

Abstract: . The challenges for sociology posed by global environmental crises are two-fold. First, the growing prevalence of environmental dilemmas in global society demand that a globalizing sociology also be an environmental sociology. This requires the discipline to refine its ability to integrate environmental influences into its conceptual frameworks on social change. Second, the effectiveness of society’s strategic responses to environmental crises depends on the degree to which understanding the generation of environmental problems and responding to them are sociologically informed. Consequently, sociologists can make important contributions to environmental improvement, through sociological research on environmental discourses within civil society. However, this can only be done if the first challenge is addressed. In this paper, we highlight coupled socioecological systems functioning in an embedded hierarchy of local, regional, and global scales. Strategic environmental response depends particularly on governance structures and the production and accessibility of knowledge and we focus our discussion on these two domains. Global environmental changes have introduced multiple sources of challenge for nation-states and for the ways in which democratic participation in governance becomes operative. The dramatic shifts in governance fomented by environmental concern in and of themselves require sociological attention; sociologists also have a role in evaluating the efficacy of these organizational networks for addressing environmental crises. Second, we turn our attention to the means by which these environmental changes have challenged the production of knowledge about the environment. For example, the limits of traditional methods of scientific inquiry accompany an erosion in society’s confidence in science as a harbinger of progress, all the while simultaneously pushing science — however reluctantly for scientists themselves — into a position of political prominence. We close with suggestions for future sociological attention to governance and knowledge, and the ways this projects sociology more effectively into the global milieu in which environmental change will be increasingly salient. Resume. Les defis que constitue la crise environnementale pour la sociologie presentent un double aspect. Tout d’abord, la prevalence des dilemmes environne mentaux dans une societe mondiale exige d’une sociologie mondialisante qu’elle soit egalement une sociologie environnementale. Cela exige donc que cette discipline soit davantage en mesure d’integrer a ses cadres conceptuels les influences que peuvent avoir les changements environnementaux sur les changements sociaux. En second lieu, l’efficacite potentielle des interventions strategiques d’une societe en regard des crises environnementales depend de la mesure dans laquelle la sociologie eclaire notre comprehension de la source des problemes environnementaux et de la maniere d’y reagir. Par consequent, les sociologues sont en mesure d’apporter d’importantes contributions a l’amelioration de l’environnement, en amenant la recherche sociologique a s’appuyer sur les discours environnementaux qui ont cours dans la societe civile. Toutefois, on ne peut y arriver que si l’on aborde le premier defi. Dans cet article, nous mettons brievement en lumiere les moyens par lesquels les systemes, social et ecologique, sont mutuellement constitutifs, c’est-a-dire qu’ils sont des systemes socio-ecologiques associes qui fonctionnent dans une hierarchie enchâssee d’echelles locale, regionale et mondiale. Ensuite, parce que la strategie d’intervention environnementale dependra en particulier des structures de gouvernance ainsi que de la production et de l’accessibilite des connaissances, nous analysons en detail ces deux domaines. Les changements environnementaux a l’echelle planetaires ont introduit de nombreux defis de tous types pour les nations-Etats et quant aux manieres dont se met en oeuvre la participation democratique a la gouvernance. Deuxiemement, nous etudierons les moyens par lesquels les changements environnementaux mondiaux ont, dans le meme ordre d’idees, remis en question la production de connaissances sur l’environnement. Par exemple, les limites des methodes traditionnelles d’investigation scientifique sont mises a jour, en meme temps qu’elles propulsent la science sur la scene politique. D’autres formes de connaissances agissent egalement comme des « contre-connaissances » envers la dominance epistemique de la science sur l’environnement. Nous terminons l’article par quelques suggestions quant a l’attention de nature sociologique qu’il faudra porter dans le futur a la gouvernance et a la connaissance, et par un examen de la facon dont cela projette la sociologie tout de bon dans le milieu planetaire dans lequel les changements environnementaux seront de plus en plus marquants.

Scientific Discovery in Deep Social Space: Sociology without Borders

Abstract: Globalization affords an excellent opportunity to develop a genuinely universal, scientific sociology. In recent decades, the politicization of the discipline has undermined the central mission of sociology: scientific discovery and explanation. The paper identifies several intellectual shifts that will facilitate expansion and communication in an emerging global village of sociological analysts: 1) breaking with classical sociology to build upon innovative theoretical ideas; 2) eliminating the ideological and normative focus that plagues much contemporary sociology; 3) moving beyond teleological approaches to scientific explanation; 4) embracing a distinctively “social” conceptualization of sociology’s subject matter; and 5) eliminating nationalistic disciplinary boundaries and the attendant parochialism that obscures the search for universal principles of social behaviour. The final section of the paper emphasizes the internationalization of sociology, reorganized along epistemological lines. Those scholars whose research focuses on observable variations in social behaviour occupy an intellectual location quite distinct from those who place their politics at the centre of their social analyses, focus on the meanings that individuals attach to their experiences, or reject science altogether as a valid form of knowledge building. Rather than continue fruitless dialogues with those who have different objectives with their work, sociological analysts are invited to join a global village of scientists who examine the full range of cases that reflect purely social behaviour, drawing upon the dimensions of social space or networks of resource flows that are most relevant to their general explanations. Conceptualized this way, sociology becomes a global science no longer handicapped by individualistic theories or nationalistic political fervour. The net result is the development of a genuine “sociology without borders” aimed at realizing the discipline’s fullest scientific potential. Resume. La mondialisation fournit un excellent pretexte au developpement d’une sociologie veritablement universelle et scientifique. Durant les dernieres decennies, la politisation de la sociologie a conduit au declin de la mission centrale propre a cette discipline, celle de decouverte scientifique et de recherche d’explications. Cet article identifie plusieurs changements intellectuels qui visent a faciliter l’expansion et la communication d’une telle science dans un village planetaire d’analystes sociologiques en emergence: 1) Rompre avec la sociologie classique afin de construire des theories sociologiques innovantes; 2) Eliminer la concentration ideologique et normative qui caracterise en grande partie les recherches sociologiques actuelles; 3) Depasser les approches teleologiques et les remplacer par des explications scientifiques; 4) Conceptualiser la matiere de la sociologie en termes clairement «sociaux» 5) Enfin, eliminer les frontieres disciplinaires nationalistes et l’esprit de clocher qui leur est corollaire, car ils nuisent a la recherche de principes universels gouvernant le comportement social. La derniere section de l’article met l’emphase sur l’internationalisation d’une sociologie reorganisee selon des schemes epistemologiques. Les specialistes dont les recherches se concentrent sur des variations observables dans le comportement social ont une position intellectuelle bien distincte de ceux qui placent leurs opinions politiques au centre de leurs analyses sociales, se concentrent sur les significations que les individus attachent a leurs experiences ou encore nient a la science toute validite a fonder un savoir. Plutot que de continuer un dialogue sterile avec ceux qui ont des objectifs differents pour leur travail, les sociologues sont invites a se joindre au village planetaire des scientifiques qui examinent l’ensemble des cas renvoyant a un comportement purement social. Il s’agit d’etablir les dimensions de l’espace social ou les mecanismes des flux de ressources les plus pertinents pour fournir des explications generales. Ainsi conceptualisee, la sociologie n’est plus entravee par des theories individuelles ou des ferveurs politiques nationalistes et elle a le potentiel de devenir une science mondiale. Le resultat en sera le developpement d’une veritable «sociologie sans frontieres» apte a realiser le potentiel scientifique maximum de la discipline.

Cultural Centrality and Information and Communication Technology among Canadian Youth

Abstract: This paper examines the positions of First Nations, Inuit and Metis (FNIM) peoples and visible minorities as distances from the cultural “centre” of White European culture It then assesses the relation of information and communication technology (ICT) to these locations among Canadian youth using three data sets: the 2001 Aboriginal Peoples Survey, the 2000 Youth in Transition Survey (older cohort) and its 2002 follow–up, and a 2004/2005 survey collected by the authors Findings indicate that the idea of cultural centrality is useful in locating FNIM groups and visible minorities vis-a-vis the cultural centre and each other and highlighting the stratified heterogeneity of these groups Access to, use of, and development of ICT skills tend to mirror the relative positions of these groups in terms of cultural centrality Further, youth who retain close ties with traditional culture are less unlikely to develop facility with ICT